The Power of Sales

All of my adult books have kept their titles (Circles of Confusion, Square in the Face - although the publisher briefly suggested Death Squared or Be There or Be Square, Heart-Shaped Box, Buried Diamonds, and Learning to Fly.] Not so with my YA books.

Like my next book – which was sold as Fire, Kiss, Electric Chair – is now called Torched. I guess there was some worry that “electric chair” might be a turn-off.

The YA before that was going to be called Point & Shoot, because it started with a digital camera and ended with a Taser. But Sales thought "shoot" could limit sales because buyers might read it as a gun reference, especially in the school and library market. They had a suggestion for a replacement title: Panic at Peaceful Cove.

Gak! It sounded like Nancy Drew. It sounded like Jessica Fletcher. It sounded like some old people at a nursing home freaking out at the sight of a spider.

My agent and I sent back our own suggestions, including:
Prisoner of Peaceful Cove
Nightmare at Peaceful Cove
You Can Run
On the Run
Run
Hide
Gone [good thing they didn’t take that one, both a Jonathan Kellerman and a Lisa Gardner with that title came out at the same time about a year ago]
Taken
Running Scared
Darkness and Daylight
Category 5

And Shock Point, which is what it became.