From Muholland Books, Talking Titles by Eric Beetner. In my book—soon to be published?—I argued with myself for months over the title, in the end settling on my working title as more descriptive than any other. But then my book isn’t noir fiction, which one could argue requires more “bite.” The introduction:
It’s either one step above or one step below judging a book by its cover, but say what you will – titles matter. They matter a whole lot in the noir fiction world since back when the stands used to be filled with the salacious come-ons of pulp fiction femme fatales in lace brassieres and a bold-type title announced the goings on inside, and they matter just as much today.
The old titles didn’t hold much back – Say It With Bullets, Dig Me A Grave, Kiss My Fist – and they succeeded in convincing people to lay out a dime for the tale that went with it. Quite often the book inside the lurid cover couldn’t deliver on the promise and therefore the pulps are littered with titles that are better than the 30 – 40,000 words that followed….
Check out the rest for some great titles—maybe to even read.
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