Addicted to YA discussion

Hey All:

I am deep in the pre-release marketing phase of my first indie release, a very skewed YA novel with a thoroughly unreliable narrator, and the marketing persoon I'm working with is encouraging me to change the title. As such, I'd love to get YA readers to weigh in on this proposed book title/cover image:


Oedipus Wrecks (though it was kind of broken already)

Please let me know your thoughts on this title and cover graphic, and if you could also let me know whether you're in the traditional YA age group of 12-16 or not, that will really help me with assessing the viability of this title....

Thanks in advance for all your insight, and ARC copies are available to people with book review blogs or the like.

I think the title is cute, and works well in the YA space, however the design isn't really catching my interest.

Hey Elle,

Thanks for getting back to me on this, but since I've posted it, a number of people have been concerned that the literary nature of the title might turn off middle schoolers, so I've expanded the title search to the following:



If you have the time, I'd love to learn which of the five (if any) would most appeal to you. Also, could you tell me if you're still in school, and if so what grade, as I'm trying to correlate people's responses and give highest weighting to people in the traditional YA Age Range.

I actually think it’s really clever! I love the cat in the bottom left and especially the “something approaching a novel” 😂

Ken wrote: "Hey Elle,

Thanks for getting back to me on this, but since I've posted it, a number of people have been concerned that the literary nature of the title might turn off middle schoolers, so I've exp..."

Hey Ken, yeah...long past school. I'm actually a University Professor, so I do teach the young adult/new adult range. Given the options, the top left corner looks best for that 12-14 year old range. Has a "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" feel to it.

I am 16 years old. For me, fourth and last one are good (appearance-wise). If you can change the title on last one (like, swap it with the 1st or the 4th title) then it would be nice.

By the way, if any of you would like to read an ARC (Advance Review Copy) and write a review, let me know...

The fourth book cover appeals to me most
I'm 13 turning 14 btw
xx

Thanks!

I'm outside of the YA age range (26), but my guess is that there are very, very few 12-16 year olds who are going to get an "Oedipus Rex" pun. Also, these titles are long, which is not super common in this genre. For modern-day Japanese manga, all of these titles would be acceptable. For modern-day YA? Not so much.

Personally, I love puns and I think Oedipus Wrecks is a good one, but I would have some SEVERELY heavy side-eye seeing it on a YA book. It would be one I would comb through before letting my kid read due to the nature of the original story of Oedipus (which is probably what your marketing person is afraid of). I also think the cover graphic you have works quite well with the title.

But with the genre being what it is, I have to go for the first one, An Otherwise Perfect Plan. I even think you could keep the original graphic and just put those words in the wrecking ball instead (if they will fit). Good luck with your release!

Hello. I am 14, and if I was going to pick one of these up to read, then I would pick up the 1st or 5th one. I like the name of the first one a lot, and the cover is fairly simple, but catchy. From my experience, the title should be catchy, somewhat short, and easy to remember, and the first one fits that really well. The fifth cover option has an easy-to-remember cover, and the title is intreguing, but the name is hard to remember. Personally, if I were you, I would choose either the first of fifth cover with the title of the first.

Thank you, I have indeed gone with the first title and here is the final cover:

An Otherwise Perfect Plan: A novel of Mystery, Love, and Chocolate that Defies Description

Alita wrote: "I'm outside of the YA age range (26), but my guess is that there are very, very few 12-16 year olds who are going to get an "Oedipus Rex" pun. Also, these titles are long, which is not super common..."

Thank you for your insightful feedback. You'll see at the end of this discussion that I've settled in on "An Otherwise Perfect Plan" and I hope you (and others) will sign up for my email list at https://www.moonjumperpress.com/cp/ou... to be informed to get to read the first several chapters right now and then be notified of our release which will briefly be at a special low price of $1.99 for the kindle version.

Ohhh, nice cover! I love it, and will look for it at the library when it comes out.

Thank you!