My stabby mermaids book has a new name!
You’ve been watching my TikTok and Instagram polls and my stressed-out stories as I’ve tried to come up with a new name for my debut dark fantasy romance novel, which I’ve been affectionately calling “stabby mermaids”. You probably have a favorite title contender, and you opened this email to see if you were right.
If that’s the case, then, to quote my favorite fictional queen these days: “Sorrows, sorrows. Prayers.”
Here are the poll options I gave you:
The Siren’s Blade (the original title)
The Siren’s Voice
A Song for the Siren Prince
TikTok overwhelmingly favored option number 2. Bookstagram overwhelmingly favored option number 3. I did the math, and all three evened out overall. Which means they’re all good choices right?
About that.
I thought long and hard. Picking a title is difficult, and the advice out there is varied. They say to pick a title that sounds like your comparative titles, so when a reader searches for another book, yours comes up in the search. Then you have people who say to go completely off the rails and pick something that stands out, something fresh! (good luck) And then there are those who say to pick something that at least sounds on-genre so readers can recognize it. And then! (oh boy, I’m in this category) there are readers who don’t give a flying flip about the title and just care that the cover looks pretty (it will!).
Shrug. What’s an indie author to do?
After careful consideration, I have decided to… trust my gut and go with a completely different option. Surprise!
Here’s your exclusive first look:
The Backstory
I originally titled this book The Siren’s Blade until I received some amazing feedback from my developmental editor last month, which has led to a complete overhaul of my villain. Alas, my original title no longer fits. It sort of fits, because the main character is definitely still stabby don’t you worry, but the story is now about much more than that. I’m leaning into the dark vocal magic system in this rewrite, and the story is coming alive.
Of Song and Scepter holds an Easter egg for the reader, as will the rest of the titles in this series (yes, I know those too, and oh WOW are they good). One word represents each character within the book’s lead couple. I absolutely love when authors do that, so I’m taking this chance to do it, too!
You’ll see the old title floating around on social media for a while yet–it’s so hard to scrub out the digital trail without completely messing up my algorithms, so it might just stay there to be lost in the internet.
I cannot wait to share my stabby mermaids book with you. I get butterflies every time I think about it finally landing in your hands. Thanks for joining me in my excitement!
Warmly,
Liesl West