I’ve always had a difficult time coming up with titles for my books. When I first started writing Fall of Deities, I just called it The Mettalium Series. For reference, The Mettalium is the presiding religious empire of my fantasy world. Unfortunately, The Mettalium Series was a problematic title for a myriad of reasons. It wasn’t very interesting, it didn’t clarify what the books were about, and it always felt like a placeholder. In addition to that, the individual books would need names regardless of what I called the series. This is where my journey of woe begins.
It took me a long time to come up with the perfect name for the first book of my series. Eventually, I landed on The Heretics. I loved that title! It was deliciously direct. If one stumbled across a book called The Heretics, they would know exactly what the story is about—heretics. I was attached to this title. I queried under The Heretics. I even copyrighted my manuscript under The Heretics.
Given how much I loved that title, you could imagine my disappointment when I learned that Joe Abercrombie himself would be publishing a book next year called—you guess it—The Heretics. My heart sank when I found out. I’d been set on that title for a year and a half. A part of me was tempted to throw caution to the wind and publish under The Heretics anyway. I was here first, after all. But like any good indie author, I went to the internet for advice. My Instagram following almost unanimously told me to change the name. It was pretty crushing, but I’m not mad at Joe Abercrombie. He didn’t mean to crush my dreams, plus he takes one hell of an author photo—so all is forgiven.
It was back to the drawing board for me! I use Latin words throughout my book, so it seemed reasonable to use Latin for the new title. Of course, very few people speak Latin, so I needed a little extra sauce for clarity. I pitched Fall of the Mettalium, to a friend, but he pointed out that no one would know what the Mettalium was, so they might not care if it fell. He had a point, but I was getting warmer. That’s when I landed on Fall of Deities. It really is a good series name. It’s clear. It’s titillating. It’s dramatic, and I do love drama! Given the clarity of the series name, I felt comfortable getting creative with the book name, which is, of course, Cicatrix.
Cicatrix means scars, and believe me when I tell you that scars are everywhere in the book. There are physical scars, emotional scars, scars with hidden meanings, scars with no meaning whatsoever. For a moment, I was just going to call the book Scars, but that wasn’t nearly dramatic enough, and like I said—I love drama. I also just like the way the word feels in my mouth and the way it looks on paper. So Cicatrix was it. I was sad when The Heretics was taken from me, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. At this point I can’t imagine calling my book anything else. So, thanks, Joe! I’d wish you luck on your launch, but titan that you are, I don’t think you’ll need it. Keep taking great author photos!