What can I say? There's a reason I hold contests to title my books. I'm really NOT very good at it. Okay, sometimes I get lucky. I thought Dead in Red was a good name. And Cheated By Death. And Bookplate Special. Otherwise, other people have named my book. (Doesn't mean I always like those titles. A Crafty Killing? Come on. (Thank you Penguin Marketing. NOT.))So when I uploaded one of my more romancy e stort stories I found myself looking at my original title (Valentine's Day) and grimacing. So, after much soul searching, I renamed it Are You Lonely Tonight. (And it's not the same as the Elvis song...just reminiscent of it.)
The first cover was okay. When we did it, that's the kind of cover people were doing (with the bands of color--or in this case black and gray). I thought the woman looked wistful. Maybe she looked like a bimbo, because the story didn't sell well. (Of course, short stories aren't known to be hot sellers, anyway.)Just last month we changed it to a color photo of a wistful brunette. Guess what? Sales still stunk. Only one thing left to do. Change the title.
So there we were, driving down the Pennsylvania turnpike last week, and I asked my pal and passenger Leann Sweeney what she thought. (This, after giving her a brief description of the story.) She thought about it for a moment and blurted: "Love Heals."
Wow. Short, powerful, and it describes the story in a nutshell. (She's good.)So for better or for worse, Love Heals is now out there. Now to see if this marketing ploy actually works.
In case you're interested, here's the blurb: It's the most romantic night of the year and Diana Mason is alone. She broke up with her boyfriend because he wanted a playmate not a soul mate, but it's someone else who haunts her thoughts on the most romantic of holidays. Is there a chance he's thinking of her, too?
Kindle ~ Nook ~ Smashwords
So does this title (and cover) grab you?
