The Inside Story of a Failed Book Title.

Been thinking about book titles a lot lately, and realising I should take more care. Much more care. My latest book is, I think, one of my best, and yet sales are a disaster, reviews are non-existent. It is a train wreck and it will never earn back a tenth of what I spent on editing and cover design.

Why?

The answer, I'm certain, is all in the title, which seemed so good when I first came up with it. I was excited. This is a cool title I said to my wife. She'd read the book. She agreed.

The Oneiromancer of Mars.

It mentions Mars. It uses the cool word Oneiromancer. What could go wrong?

I realise now that anyone seeing the title would think: Oneiromancer. Mars. This is a fantasy book. Nice. The book cover too, exactly what I asked for, shouts fantasy! So, readers of fantasy novels might just be tempted to click on the link and read its description. And that's where the disappointment would kick in. It is not fantasy. The Oneiromancer of Mars is science fiction. There is zero fantasy element. Even the oneiromancer bit is explained in cold hard terms of super-deterministic physics.

So, they move on.

And my sales figures stay at zero.

And my hopes of ever using the profits to fund the pre-publication costs of my next novel fade with each passing day.

Science fiction fans might enjoy it, if they ever get further than the title. And the cover. Even those who enjoy both genres—I'm one—would not likely be tempted, at that moment, when in the mood for some sci-fi.

So what do I do? Do I change the title. The cover?

Well, that would be dangerous. The handful of readers who went against instinct and bought one, might then feel cheated if they found another book by the same author, bought it, and discovered it was the same as the last one. And it would be expensive: a whole new cover, change the links in all the other books.

No. I'll take it on the chin. It is one of life's lessons.

In case you are in the mood for some sci-fi, here's what it looks like:

The Oneiromancer of Mars.   is NOT Fantasy. It's Sci-Fi. Really. Book 2 in the Martian Dreams series (Ha! even the series name sounds like fantasy. What was I thinking?)

Book 1 is Old Man in a Spacesuit. (Yeah, that's more like it. Sounds like sci-fi and sold a heap more copies.)