Choose the best book title :)

[Kyriakos]

Afaik my next book will be published at sometime between the coming October and December, and editing will begin in a couple of months.

But the title is still not set. The book is another collection of short and medium-sized stories (eg there are two there which together number 20.000 words, and are just shy of being 2/3 of the book currently)

Current title choices follow:

1) The spiral (it is the current set title, named after one of the stories)
2) The demon (not a title of any existent story, but the term carries some use - albeit not always in the same manner - in some of the works there)
3) The end of the line (title of another of the stories)

I am not too happy with them, although The Spiral is by far the better of those, imo. Besides, it will allow for a characteristic cover, using most likely (a more stylized version of) the Spiral of Theodoros of Cyrene, which is what the spiral in the eponymous story looks like anyway

 

[Valka D'Ur]

You could call it This Is What My Brain Comes Up With After a Day Spent Posting on Civilization Fanatics.

But that probably wouldn't fit on the cover, so you should go with something else.


Of the three choices presented, I like "The Spiral."

"The End of the Line" sounds like this is your last book, and I assume you don't want to give that impression.

"The Demon" sounds... flat. And honestly, I'm not likely to even look at a book with that title, no matter what language it's in (atheists don't believe in demons ).

Spirals have numerous connotations, and engage the imagination. So that's my take on it.

 

[Kyriakos]

Well, yes, the other titles have more negatives than positives. I suppose in the end it will be The Spiral anyway, but it doesn't harm to ask for opinions ^^

That said, i could change the title of the story (and the book) to a more Jungi-Ito-ish one, and name it as "Spirals on the walls", given that is what is going on in that story anyway.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Can't really say without knowing more about the stories.
The Demon at the End of the Spiral ?

 

[rah]

I'd go with an honest title.

"This book is a collection of short stories so don't get fooled into thinking it's a novel"

 

[Perfection]

Dr. K's Cannibal Hooker Anthology

 

[Kyriakos]

Can't really say without knowing more about the stories.
The Demon at the End of the Spiral ?

Well... both the Spiral and End of the Line are (largely) about death. The latter more directly, but the former in far larger extent. Eg The Spiral is about an account of how a spiral pattern started forming on the walls of a huge local public project, drawing in attention by newspapers, and the narrator works for one of those papers.

That said, neither story is among the largest in the collection, though Spiral is around 7K words. Largest story there currently is 11K, and second largest is around 10K. 11K may end up not being part of this book, and the 10K one is titled "Savagery", so it isn't really elegant-sounding enough to be the title (though the story itself is imo possibly my best yet)

Another story is titled "You have found a friend here!". Guess if it is misleading or not

 

[Valka D'Ur]

both the Spiral and End of the Line are (largely) about death

Okay, how about "Everybody's dead, Jim." (mind you, there may be copyright issues with CBS/Paramount)

 

[Perfection]

I actually like End of the Line better than the Spiral. A bit more evocative.

 

[Kyriakos]

Well, the title is supposed to trick the reader into thinking it means some end of either an actual traveling route, or of life, but in reality it has mostly to do with a notebook
That said, i don't think it would work as the book's title. Too much of a "this is the end" signal. The actual story is only 2,5K words.

 

[warpus]

I dislike the other 2 titles and I don't know if it's a good idea to name the whole book after one of the stories within. Maybe that's common (maybe not?), but it doesn't make sense to me.

So how about using a synonym of spiral or something like that? "Coiled". Or combine stuff.. "The Demon's Spiral"

 

[Kyriakos]

^Generally, in case of story collections, i don't like using a title which isn't itself one of the stories. Eg my previous book was titled after one of the 12 stories there.
Besides, if you use a different title (non-story) it sort of binds them all to it, while they can appear more distinct if the reader just notes the title is identical to just one story's naming

The set of all sets (stories) is itself not named, so the name of one the sets it includes moves to its position, or something

 

[Kyriakos]

Can't really say without knowing more about the stories.
The Demon at the End of the Spiral ?

Well, the "demon" in the spiral story actually exists at the end of the spiral (or its center, at any rate, it will supposedly/really break through it-- unless the narrator is just insane). But that would be too much to give away in the title
If i change the story's title it would be to something like "The spiral on the wall", or similar, eg "spirals on the wall" (there are many at first, but always the one massive building wall).

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I dislike the other 2 titles and I don't know if it's a good idea to name the whole book after one of the stories within. Maybe that's common (maybe not?), but it doesn't make sense to me.

So how about using a synonym of spiral or something like that? "Coiled". Or combine stuff.. "The Demon's Spiral"

It was fairly common with science fiction anthologies, to have the title the same as one of the stories inside. At the very least, it's more creative than "The World's Best SF (fill in the volume and year)." For example, one of Heinlein's anthologies is titled "The Menace From Earth," which is one of the short stories inside (one of his more entertaining stories, btw).

 

[Gori the Grey]

Spiraling to the end of the line.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Spiraling to the end of the line.

That sounds dire.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

The demon at the end of the spiral line.

 

[Kyriakos]

How about The crawling demon behind the expanding spiral on the wall of the construction site, at the end of the line?

Again, guys, i can't have a way too horror-y title

 

[candys]

As for me, the end of the line sounds interesting

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Not too horrory ?
OK, how about:
Spirals and Demons and Lines ! Oh my !