Does that happen with every published title?
No, not always. But sometimes the author is "too close" to the work to see the marketing potential for the book. All major publishers have marketing committees that also include representatives from editorial, sales, and cover design. Before a title is decided upon, most if not all these people must read the book. The title is determined by the collective input and industry experience of the publisher's marketing division, particularly the people that work in the specific genre--mystery, YA, SF, etc.
Also, when a publishing contract is signed, most of the time it will display the author's working title. But the minute the contract is signed, all those issues are now the responsibility of the publisher. Why? Because publishing is a business, not an art form, and it's their money being risked. That's not to say that the author's input will be ignored. With all my thrillers, the publisher asked my input on cover design. But there's no guarantee they will follow it.
Regarding titles, here is some info based upon my own experience. When Lynn Sholes and I decided to collaborate on our first book, we used CORPUS CHRISTI for the working title during the three years it took to write. Since it was a thriller about cloning Christ, we thought using Latin for Body of Christ was so cleaver. But when we sent it off to our agent, she pointed out the error of our ways. Could be a travel guide to a city in Texas. Could be a novelization of a Broadway play running at the same time. So we changed it to THE ENOCHIAN PROPHECY, a brilliant title that no one could pronounce or spell. Our publisher wisely changed it to
THE GRAIL CONSPIRACY which has stuck in
21 translations except German. The publisher also decided it should be a series and placed "A Cotten Stone Mystery" on the cover. We had written it as a standalone, but only when we saw the cover for the first time did we realize that they wanted more.
Book 2 had the working title of THE THIRD SECRET. Steve Berry released his thriller by the same name so our agent changed the title to
THE LAST SECRET before she submitted the proposal to our publisher. So far, it’s worked for the 14 foreign publishers that have translated it, although we haven’t seen the German version yet.
Book 3 had a working title of INDIGO RUBY for the year it took to write. The title had a great deal of meaning for at least two people: Lynn and myself. Again, the publisher stepped in and wisely renamed it
THE HADES PROJECT which is exactly what the books about. Clever.
Our working title for book 4 in the series is
BLACK NEEDLES. But we are well aware that it could change once the publisher and their marketing experts read the final draft. Good luck.
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I thought..."Holy crapola! Did someone already write the story I've been working on for so long?" Then I read the next line (I should really read through the entire paragraph before reacting) and realized that it's COMPLETELY different. Whew!