Title tells the story

It’s taken longer to come up with a title than it did to write the book.

I was trying to be too fancy. I thought of a few clever titles, only to find that someone else had thought of them first.

I wanted it to be catchy and memorable and encapsulate the entirety of the book in just a handful of words. The fact is, I was trying too hard.

This is not a new struggle for me. When I worked for newspapers, writing headlines was my personal nightmare. I could knock out a 300-word article in 15 minutes, then spend a half hour trying to come up with a headline that worked.

For a few years I was an editor, so writing headlines was my job. I never did get good at it. Even coming up with headlines for these blog entries makes my stomach hurt a little.

When I worked as a reporter at the Cullman Times, there was another reporter named Rich who was an expert at making up headlines. He was witty and funny and could sum up his stories in just enough words to fit in the space above the story. It wasn’t even his job, but he was just great at it.

Once, he wrote a Father’s Day story about a man whose wife had just had quadruplets. He wanted to title it, ‘The Quadfather.” I thought it was brilliant, but our editor shot it down.

I started working on the sex-trafficking book a couple of years ago, knowing the whole time I was going to have to call it something.

After picking a few titles that I learned were already used for trafficking books, and after friends politely told me that some other ideas were terrible, the book finally has a name.

It’s called, The Truth About Sex Trafficking: A Survivor’s Story and What It Means for All of Us.

The book tells the story of Angela, who survived the horrors of being trafficked and agreed to share her story so it could help others. I also interviewed other people to get their unique perspectives—anti-trafficking advocates, a forensic interviewer, law enforcement officers, attorneys and counselors.

I’ve already paid money for the ISBN, the International Standard Book Number, which you’ll see on the copyright pages of your favorite books. Plus, I’ve paid money for designers to be working on the book cover as we speak.

So, if you come up with a better idea for a title, please don’t tell me now.

-Melanie Patterson

© Forged in Words 2022