Critical Covers and the Lost Title
I agonized over the title of my novel. I had turned my manuscript over to my first round of beta readers under the working title, Truver. It was a title of convenience, being the last name of my main character. While I awaited feedback, I turned my focus towards a title. I brainstormed, did word associations, pulled lines from the text. I jumped through all the hoops. Then one afternoon, the perfect title materialized. But it wasn’t meant to be mine.
For me, there’s a kind of alchemy that happens when a book’s title, cover and blurb are well aligned. Those components are an invitation that leads me into the story. Together, they create a cover that first captures my eye, then my attention, and finally, my imagination.
We’re taught not to judge a book by its cover, but the data shows us that we’ve largely ignored that lesson. Broadly, 72% of consumers agree that packaging design can influence their purchasing decision (IPSOS, 2018). When it comes to books, 47% of avid readers in one study bought a book in the last year because of a “gorgeous cover design.” In another study, 79% of respondents stated that “covers play a decisive role in [their] decision to buy a book,” while 40% reported that the cover was “the SOLE driving factor in [their] decision to purchase a book.”
These stats confirmed my suspicions. Though I’ve been on hiatus, I still have a deep love and fascination for the marketing world. I spent a decade in consumer analytics, digging into the data to determine what strategies worked, what didn’t, and why. One of my favorite areas of focus was neuro-marketing and the reptilian brain. This approach to marketing speculates that our decision making is steered by three spheres of thinking: First impressions, emotional reactions, and conscious rationalization.
There is considerable research that suggests that our first impressions, largely driven by the unconscious thoughts and biases of the reptilian brain, factor into choice in a substantial way. Before we realize it, the dominoes of consumer action begin falling. Gut reactions drive an emotional response well before rational thought catches up. In marketing, you learn quickly that you must never make consumers work in order to see value. They should be able to recognize it at a glance. A positive first impression creates a compelling emotional response, which offers value in itself. Your next step is to deliver content that holds up against conscious rationalization.
This leads me back to the topic of this particular post. The alchemy of a good cover is a worthy obsession. That said, the title is a key contribution that I can make as the author. And I felt like I had nailed it with my novel’s title. I imagined the title “The Outer Range” stretching across a darkly stylized rendition of an overgrown city. Within the lush ruins, a man and woman run hand in hand, chased by unseen adversaries. The tagline would be subtle, “Mankind’s salvation is buried in the ruins.” Taken together, the cover would suggest a dystopian adventure, a noir mystery, and risky romance in a strangely beautiful setting.
It felt cohesive — a book that I’d pick up at an airport bookstore and carry with me to my destination.
In December of 2021, I began querying. Only weeks in and with a handful of submissions sent, I learned that there was a new TV series was slated to release called The Outer Range. There went that title. Since I always look for a silver lining, this proved that I was capable of coming up with a damn good title. And that Josh Brolin and his fellow producers have good taste.
Fortunately, most of the hard work of the process was determining what I wanted to evoke with the title. I knew where I wanted to take the audience during that critical first impression. With that in mind, I decided that the best way forward was to knock off my own efforts. For the new title, I still wanted to venture to uncharted lands. Same, same, but different. So without further ado, my new title:
Into Lost Territory
It’s a little more mouthy than the first take, but I’m settling into it nicely. What do you think?