As many of you know, I’m nearing completion on one of my novels and getting ready to send it out to editors and agents. Coming up with a title that isn’t completely horrible is part of that process. The working title has been “A Blood Red Sun”…but working titles aren’t always the best ones.
So–you guessed it, I’m conducting a poll! Please vote for the title you like best in the poll below – which one would most entice you to pick up the novel? As a number of you have read the novel in draft form, there’s also a line for write-in suggestions…
Comedy or Tragedy? 
Catana
Blood Red Sun is evocative. Obsidian and Moonlight doesn’t bring anything to my mind at all, and Sun-Soaked Lands just sounds awkward.
Rick Zawadzki
I couldn’t agree more. “A Blood Red Sun” has a certain ring to it that I find very catching to the ear.
Steve Buchheit
Didn’t we come up with a title at VP? Or am I thinking of a different story?
mirandasuri
Lol! Yes….we *might* have come up with a title for it then, but I’m not at all sure that’s going to help properly market the book 😉
Steve Buchheit
It could generate a whole slew of first time sales, though. Of course, probably wouldn’t work in the long run as the readers would get to the end and go, “Huhn, that wasn’t about what I thought it was about.”
George Galuschak
I like “Blood Red Sun.”
Valerie
“A Blood Red Sun” sounds intriguing, and somewhat sinister. It makes it sound kind of like the end of the world.
“Obsidian and Moonlight” makes me think of darkness, and pretty moonlight…it also makes me think of ancient cultures and arrowheads (because of the obsidian).
“The Sun-Soaked Lands” I read that and think desert. Hot. That’s about all.
So yeah, I’d agree with the other people. Probably the most evocative is A Blood Red Sun. But it depends on what reaction you want to inspire in your reader, certainly.
mirandasuri
Thanks, Valerie! Always helpful to hear what the different titles conjure up for folks 🙂
Matt Hughes
Voted for Blood Red Sun though Obsidian and Moonlight was a very close second. I just didn’t see it blending in with the story well enough though.
The Sun Soaked Lands sounded too much like a D&D campaign to me and that wasn’t the vibe I got while reading it.
mirandasuri
Thanks, Matt. Yeah, with Obsidian and Moonlight I was trying to find a way to evoke the Mesoamerican/Central American setting…not sure if that’s what it does, though. This title thing is tough!
Vlad Petric
I’m just dying to read “A Blood Red Sun” 🙂
EF Kelley
Whatever happened to WHORELORD? I liked that one.
Otherwise, I’ll bandwagon with BLOOD RED SUN.
Margaret
I’m chiming in with most of your respondents, but wondered if “Obsidian Sun” would work for what you’re trying to get across? Not having read the book, obviously it’s a shot in the dark (the obsidian dark, lol), but if you wanted to evoke a Mesoamerican setting with “obsidian” and “blood-red sun” isn’t leaving you convinced (as apparently it isn’t), then this wacko compromise might work…
I’ll look for it when it’s published, whatever it’s called!
mirandasuri
Hmmm….interesting idea. Lots of good food for thought here. Thanks for voting!
radu
All I can say, not having read any of your novel, is that “obsidian and moonlight” makes me think that this is a novel about a sadistic serial killer who is actually an archaeologist and who kills his victims by the moonlight and steals their hearts…for a weird reconstitution of Aztec sacrifice, obviously. So if that’s the story, I hope you don’t choose this title.
mirandasuri
I think YOU are the one who should be writing novels 🙂
NicoleMD
I like Blood Red Sun, too. I’d drop the “A” at the beginning though. 🙂