Do reviewers and judges have the right to grade your book title?

There has been a bit of controversy that I wasn’t able to clarify until now.

Do people actually have the right to advise you about your book title or not?

I think it actually depends.

There are a lot of books whose titles begin to make sense or only make sense at the ending or when the book is completed. Sometimes, when the title is really fitting and attractive, you may leave them as is.

I used to think that a writer has their own reasons for giving a book its title, but that isn’t always the case.

We can also deceive ourselves.

There is one funny thing about judges and it is something I have fallen prey to.

You should let it sink into your head that the first few chapters DOES NOT necessarily determine if a book title should fit or not.

If you are the host of an awards, and you include in the judging criteria that they should see if a title fits or not after the first few chapters . . . please stop it, you are very wrong!

Writers, to prevent something like this, try writing in the author’s note of your book what relevance your title has with it. That way, your judges would understand and not judge based on what they saw/didn’t see.

But what if a title doesn’t truly fit?

The answer is, most times . . . you would know immediately.

Yeah, we all suck with titles, even me. I took the easy way out by using the name of my main character. It’s still something I’m thinking on fixing, but moving on . . .

I am going to use the example of a book I reviewed a while back. To the owner of that book, it’s a nice book and I will only be talking about your title and how it . . . came out to be.

Don’t worry, there are many books with the same title so even if you searched, no one would now who it is.

Back to the main topic, you would honestly know, even if it is a gut feeling.

Plus, the blurb of the titled book and the first few chapters may affirm your suspicions.

I know I mentioned first few chapters and awards but just listen to me.

The title of this particular book included keywords; Deal and Psychopath.

Now, tell me if this isn’t a title that would attract you at first sight.

For me, it did, and I was sooooooooo excited to read it (regardless of the cover), because you know . . . a gripping title.

I was a bit thrown off by the cover but;

I’m sure it’s a good book . . . the title says so, and I’m a sucker for books with insane characters.

My enthusiasm died when I saw a conversation in the blurb emphasizing nothing about psychotic craziness.

Okay, Lamee, just relax. Remember there is still the real blurb.

When I finished reading the blurb, I was conflicted.

Should I give the blurb a low score because it had nothing to do with the title or should I give the title a low score because it had nothing to do with the story and was deceptive?

This writer threw me into a loop!

I oh so badly wanted to stick with the title that I was thinking maybe the writer was mistaken and the blurb was not the actual storyline?

But I was also worried that the blurb might actually be the real storyline and the title was just there for decoration.

I didn’t even know the genre of the book at that time.

Was it Teen Fiction or was it a Mystery/Thriller?

Yes, this was a pain and I was dancing between the title, the blurb and my disappointment.

There was no mention of any deal or any psychopath but just a girl wanted by a “psychopath.” But she was in love with someone else and didn’t want the “psychopath” to know.

Is it me or does that blurb come across as an ordinary teen fiction?

Because this teenage psychopath wasn’t a psychopath at all.

So, I settled on giving the blurb a low score and the title, an even lower score . . . both not too far from zero.

Cause what the hell?!

I open the book, hoping that her description blows me away and proves me wrong. I also hoped her book matched more of the Mystery/Thriller it was supposed to be and that she was just bad with blurbs like most other writers.

Sometimes, what you write in the book can affect the score for your book title and blurb. Moving on . . .

What actually made my heart ache was that this writer had very good grammar but it felt wasted on the story.

There were a few glitches with her punctuation both inside and outside dialogues.

But.

But . . .

But!!!!

The description wasn’t there.

The kind that is meant to be written in serious scenes and the normal ones.
The way you describe the environment in some genres is different from how you do it in a Mystery book or Thriller!!
You cannot write about a disturbing situation and not make use of all five senses to transport your reader into the story whenever you can!

You need to leave a good impression. First chapters are very important.

P. S. Do not worry. I have written far worse than this and everyone makes mistakes. But I am still using this as an example to get my idea across.

With the bland first chapter, we moved on to the second chapter where the student was going on talking about whatever people talk about in teen fiction . . . maybe the book was actually a teen fiction and had nothing to do with a psychosis or creepiness.

With the above example, you just might get an idea on how you can identify wrong titles.

Okay, the end.

Titles are not that easy to judge, but you will find a lot that are actually easy to.

Some fit.

Some take time to fit.

Some really take time to fit.

Some fit at the end when everything comes together; if you have a book on wattpad with this, a little message to judges giving a hint of why you chose this story should be good enough to give you a fair score.

You may choose not to do this. It's not necessary. Some people are not all that bothered when their title is judged because they know what they're doing.

Some don’t fit at all.

There you have it.