Title Me!

What do you do when you finish a book (finished except for the last chapter which still needs more work) and the sales department doesn’t like the title and wants you to come up with a new one?  Fast?  Again?

You do what I’m doing.  You beg for help and dangle some fun incentives to reward your readers and friends for brainstorming ideas with me.

My July ’09 book about Tiana Tomlinson, the entertainment host of America Tonight, needs a great pithy title.  Everyone at my publishing house still gushes over the title, Flirting with Forty.  In their minds, its the perfect title and they’d name all my books Flirting with Forty except we’ve used it already and can’t use it again.  So what we need is a great, punchy, catchy, commercial, fun, title for Tiana’s book and we need it soon.

To thank you for your help brainstorming, everyone who makes a suggestion gets entered to win the Title Me! prize of a plush tropical Pottery Barn beach towel, a signed copy of The Frog Prince, a $15 Starbucks drink card and my JP summer water bottle.

If my publishers actually pick your suggestion as the new title for my book, that contributor would win a signed copy of Mrs. Perfect, a handblown blue glass ornament from Murano, Venice, and a $50 B&N gift card, and a sneak peek at the book before it’s released.

So there’s two ways to win something fun, and most importantly, you’d have my eternal gratitude.

A little more on Tiana’s story which is set in Los Angeles:  She’s a 38 year old beauty who has hosted America Tonight for seven years and has been single since being widowed as a newlywed.  She’s dating a hot young actor in the beginning of the book but behind the tabloid pictures things aren’t going so well.  Her show ratings are down and she’s losing her younger viewers.  Management wants to overhaul her show and bring in a younger female anchor to co-host.  Her agent is pressuring her into getting her face done.  Her hot sexy boyfriend is behaving strangely.  And things unravel from there.

So, ideas?  Suggestions?  I’m hoping to put together a brainstorm list for my editor and send to her on Monday.   Email me with you ideas or put them here in the comment section.  I appreciate all your help as always.  You guys rock.