Wally Runnels asked Karl Wiggins:

Which comes first? The book or the title? Wally Runnels

Karl Wiggins Wally, apologies I've only just seen this. For me, the book. I struggle for months, sometimes a year or more trying to find an appropriate title. I write loads of them down, and some are actually quite good, but they don't really fir the book.

A book’s title is possibly the most important but also the hardest line to write. It has to grab the reader by the scruff of the neck and make him buy the book, and as such we really need to give it the respect it deserves.

There’s no guarantee, of course, that a good title will cause you to love the book, any more than a good pick-up line means the girl will love the guy (for a title is really nothing more than a pick-up line), but a bad title guarantees you’ll never find out, because in all probability you won’t open the book to take a peek inside and you certainly won’t buy it.

Here’s an Amazing title I found on Amazon; ‘Depressed and anxious – the Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Workbook for Overcoming Depression and Anxiety.’ It doesn’t really grab you at all, does it? The author needs to liven the title up a bit; ‘Sorry-Arsed and Scared Crapless Vampire’ has a much better ring to it. It’s always good if you can get the word ‘vampire’ somewhere in the title.

‘Anxiety and Depression for Dummies’ is another one that’s nuts, isn’t it. ‘Rattle-Brained Mallet-Head hits the Jelly Beans’ would attract more buys to this book, wouldn’t it?

I found a book called ‘Politics – A treatise on Government.’ He must have sold all ten copies to his mum! He could have called it ‘Vote for David Cameron.’ Granted the title’s not too exciting but it’s a book about rushing enthusiastically into the cubicle expecting big things, only to get a pathetic little fart.

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