Titling Stories

[Ian_Snow]

I have hated every title I've ever come up with.

I am not good with titles, either making them or judging them from other people, lol.

This is me, 100%. Titles and blurbs are the hardest parts of publishing for me, hands down. I'd rather write a whole novel than have to come up with a title or a three paragraph description.

 

[LAHomedog]

I think my most original title is "April in the Summer." About a relationship with a woman named April in, you guessed it, the summer.

I also like my Summer Love, RV on the beach title "Clambake" because of the double entendre.

Most of mine are descriptive. I write "box office" titles or "log line" titles. A few descriptive words that hopefully catches the reader's eye. Right now I'm enamored with my Spillane Event title of "The Tilson's Got Killed." I think it BOOM says it right there.

It is now going to become a series and maybe even my first Ebook -- something I never thought I would do. I am about 15,000 words into the next one that is going to be in two parts and end up around 40,000 words together. My idea for the series is every title will be, "The (the last name of victim) Got Killed.

 

[HeyAll]

On a side note, I saw this today.

How did we end up with so many books with "girl" in the title? (Slowly, then all at once.)


https://crimereads.com/the-girl-in-the-title-of-the-crime-novel/

 

[Bramblethorn]

That's your right. You don't have to.

As to your question, my view is "no." As I said above, my approach is that the story is one's art, and the rest is marketing. That's how I see it. I have no artistic investment in the title of a Literotica story. Once my story is done, I want it to get in front of as many eyeballs as possible. I handle my title, tags, and tagline with that end in mind.

No one is obligated to see things this way. But many Literotica authors DO seem interested in how to get more exposure for their stories, and there are useful things authors can do to increase their exposure if that's what they want.

I think there's a volume vs. focus thing going on here. Some authors are aiming to get as many eyeballs as they can; others are aiming to draw the readers most likely to enjoy the story. Which one of those is the right strategy is largely a matter of personal priorities.

 

[MajorRewrite]

I don't know about lyrical, but it sure as heck is effective.

34,000+ and counting views in under 24 hours.

Take the most applicable tags and mash 'em together. It's a great strategy. I feel like you've proved my point! Thanks and congrats on how it's working so far.

Sadly I cannot claim that “Mom Son Lap Halloween” was strategic title. I tried to come up with something creative and failed. So I thought it’d be funny to go with the crude and basic choice.

I nearly went with “Halloween Party Wife” because 3 of my other stories are “Spring Break Wife”, “Office Wife” and “Intervention Wife”. I’m clearly not an imaginative title writer.

 

[SimonDoom]

I think there's a volume vs. focus thing going on here. Some authors are aiming to get as many eyeballs as they can; others are aiming to draw the readers most likely to enjoy the story. Which one of those is the right strategy is largely a matter of personal priorities.

I think you are right about this. I'm speculating about a lot of this, but my sense is that there is less difference between the two approaches than many believe. I think views are more important than people realize. If you maximize views, you probably -- not certainly, but probably -- also will maximize the number of people who actually will enjoy the story. Strategy 1 subsumes strategy 2.

The reason I say this is that I've noticed a strong correlation between getting views and favorites. The view:favorite ratio among my stories varies a lot, but not THAT much. Not as much as I would have thought. What that suggests to me is that the way to attract the "right" audience is, most of the time, the same as attracting the biggest audience.

I think people tend to focus too much on scores, and they wrongly think that the pursuit of high scores is the right way to attract favorable readers. What this leads to is strategies that narrow the audience in the hope that it will be the "right" audience that will give the author a high score. If getting a high score is the end-all and be-all, then this is a good strategy. But if the author wants high scores in the hopes of finding the right audience, then I think the author is off-track to do this. This approach is not backed up by my own experience.

The more readers you get, the more favorites you will get, and getting favorites and followers, not high scores, is the way to reach new readers over time. That's my experience.

 

[AlinaX]

Siblings in the Back Seat
With tentacles.
today in Incest/Taboo

14 favourites, 13.6k views, 99 votes, all in 14+ hours.
Plus one commenter complaining about the category.

 

[yowser]

Siblings in the Back Seat
With tentacles.
today in Incest/Taboo

Is this the Ford Taurus with the Tentacle option?

 

[AlinaX]

Is this the Ford Taurus with the Tentacle option?

lol - no.
Keep seeing these stories about mom/sister on son/brother's lap in the backseat of the car, and I thought: Let's have the brother sitting on his sister, and the sister doing the fucking...

 

[Djmac1031]

My titles have been pretty basic so far I think.

My most creative (or patently cringe worthy, depending on your point of view) has been my Halloween story, "Night Of The Giving Head."

Two of my other titles have a bit of word play: A Karen Gets Her Comeuppance and The Doctor Is In...Me.

My other two are pretty simple and just work in the name of the female character: Discovering Amy and The Jenna Arrangement.

As for titles that attract my attention, it depends.

Sometimes I like a direct title that let's me know exactly what I'm getting. Other times a more vague title can intrigue me. Just depends on what I'm in the mood to read.

 

[bestkeptsecret678]

My titles have been pretty basic so far I think.

My most creative (or patently cringe worthy, depending on your point of view) has been my Halloween story, "Night Of The Giving Head."

Two of my other titles have a bit of word play: A Karen Gets Her Comeuppance and The Doctor Is In...Me.

My other two are pretty simple and just work in the name of the female character: Discovering Amy and The Jenna Arrangement.

As for titles that attract my attention, it depends.

Sometimes I like a direct title that let's me know exactly what I'm getting. Other times a more vague title can intrigue me. Just depends on what I'm in the mood to read.

I’ve found I’m not cool with putting down just any ol’ title, but struggle with what to use in the end. I’d like to always come up with something “appropriately witty”, but am falling way short, and mostly have ended up with “blandly descriptive.”

Only two I’m proud of:

- Wet Times at the Neighborhood Pool (just published)
- Namaste with Us (yoga story in process).

 

[Candy_Kane54]

I tend to go with more 'flowery' titles. Some of them are based on lyrics from songs that have the MC's name in them. For example, my first story published had an MC named Bonnie so I found the lyrics for 'Bonnie' by Supertramp and found the title from the first line of lyrics of the last verse - "Your Silver Nights and Golden Days"

My next story was about a character mentioned in "Your Silver Nights and Golden Days" named Alexis so I again went to find a title from song lyrics and found one in the second line of lyrics from 'Alexis' by James Gang - "Throwin' Pennies in the Bay"

A followup story about Alexis was titled "Like Butter on a Summer Day," again based on lyrics from a song named for the other MC in the story. This title came from "Megan" by Bayside.

My second to last story published was also about a character mentioned in "Your Silver Nights and Golden Days" named Samantha. This time I found the title from the song "Samantha's Song" by Super American - "No More Perfect Kisses"

At the end of "Your Silver Nights and Golden Days" the two main characters exchanged promises. The finale was then appropriately named "Promises Made and Promises Kept" since one of the two promises made was kept. I then wrote another story to explore how the second promise could be kept and I named it "What Dreams May Come" since no one really knows what happens when we take the "Big Sleep."

My last story just published is titled "My Chevy Van" since the idea for the setting of the story was triggered by hearing the song "Chevy Van" by Sammy Johns.

I also wrote about the relationship in "Your Silver Nights and Golden Days" from the other MC's point of view in a three story arc with the titles "If I Never Knew Your Name," "And the Grass Won't Pay No Mind," and "Done Too Soon," all titles of songs written by Neil Diamond.

So, most of my titles are based on songs in one way or another.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

Sometimes a good title occurs to me while the story is still in progress. Some that I'm not embarrassed to list include "Trophy Wife", about women being hunted in the woods by men with paintball guns; "Queen of Sorrows", a fantasy story about a Queen who is conquered and taken prisoner; "Lady Balls," a femdom story; and "Modern Science" a voyeurism/exhibitionism story about a woman with a health food obsession.

I also use alliteration. "Lola Lands the Job," and "Fallon's Final Fling," are examples.

The best title was one I came up with before the story was even written: "The Cunt of Monte Cristo."

The worst ones are those that are created when I have the story done and ready to submit, but no title formulated. Those tend to be terrible. I won't list any here. Just take my word for it, they are bad.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Sometimes a good title occurs to me while the story is still in progress. Some that I'm not embarrassed to list include "Trophy Wife", about women being hunted in the woods by men with paintball guns; "Queen of Sorrows", a fantasy story about a Queen who is conquered and taken prisoner; "Lady Balls," a femdom story; and "Modern Science" a voyeurism/exhibitionism story about a woman with a health food obsession.

I also use alliteration. "Lola Lands the Job," and "Fallon's Final Fling," are examples.

The best title was one I came up with before the story was even written: "The Cunt of Monte Cristo."

The worst ones are those that are created when I have the story done and ready to submit, but no title formulated. Those tend to be terrible. I won't list any here. Just take my word for it, they are bad.

Don't like the Monte Cristo title, uses the worst word in the English language.

 

[Djmac1031]

I also use alliteration. "Lola Lands the Job," and "Fallon's Final Fling," are examples.

The best title was one I came up with before the story was even written: "The Cunt of Monte Cristo."

Lol. I love alliteration and wordplay as well.

A few examples of mine:
Caring For Carrie
Night of The Giving Head...and yup, came up with the title first and wrote the story around it lol