Romance Titles

I'm planning on self-publishing a few romantic comedies this year with diverse MCs and need some advice on the titles for the first two.

1. "Grumpy Fake Boyfriend"
I figure this is either an awesome title or a terrible title, but I can't decide which. It has fake relationship (obviously), best friend's little sister, and forced proximity tropes. Hero is a reclusive science fiction writer. Original title was "Love on the Beach," but I think that's way too blah.

2. "Two Weeks with the CEO"
So I never wanted to write a CEO or billionaire book...unless the hero was a POC. His interfering family is forcing him to take two weeks off work because he's a workaholic. I think this title might be too generic? But maybe it gets the point across, and I can't think of anything else...

Thanks!

Thanks, everyone! I suspect I'm going to stick with the title for #1, but I'll try to think of other ideas for #2...kind of stuck, though.

Marissa D said:

Grumpy Fake Boyfriend is risky--you'll totally have to nail the right vibe with the cover, or it might not work.

Click to expand...

Yeah...I still gotta look into that hiring-a-cover-artist business.

And I agree that Two Weeks with the CEO could use some work. What's the setting? Anything about the heroine that could be used too?

Click to expand...

It's set mostly in Toronto, with a trip to Montreal. Heroine is a scientist who works in a lab at the university (not terribly important to the plot) and struggles with depression. At the start of the book, it feels a bit like the manic pixie dream girl trope (but she definitely does have independent goals and character development). I kind of want "CEO" in the title, but it's not strictly necessary.

Jan74 said:

Does she travel with the CEO? Could you incorporate that somehow? Like, "Trip with the CEO" or "On the Road with the CEO" or "Travel with the CEO".

Click to expand...

Yeah, they go on a trip, but it's not until more than halfway through the book, and it's just 1-2 chapters...

Okay, a couple of alternatives for the second title. Thoughts?

a) Two Weeks with Mr. Hotshot CEO
b) Mr. Hotshot CEO

IDK if the first one is a little long? The second one seems to "fit" more with the title for the first book.

Marissa D said:

The "Two Weeks with..." title format makes me think of a series of books that some well-meaning person might write for teens considering different careers --I'm just not getting a romance novel vibe from it (but I'm also kinda weird.) "Mr. Hotshot CEO" would work well if the heroine or some other POV character in the story has a major snarky streak.

Click to expand...

Heh, any title with "CEO" makes me think romance.

The heroine is a little snarky at times, but I've certainly read snarkier heroines. I'm probably going to stick with b)--she actually does call him that at some point--though I'm not sure if it should be Mister or Mr.

Have been spending too much time looking at stock art for covers...

Well, here we go...
It's up for pre-order.

Thanks!

So...I kind of went viral on Twitter yesterday, following a brief rant about my experiences with being a WOC writing romance. See thread here. Courtney Milan retweeted my pinned promo tweet, as did a bunch of other big romance authors, and a whole bunch of people pre-ordered it. Many said they loved the title and tropes. Currently in the top 100 for Multicultural & Interracial Romance on Amazon. I have 139 pre-orders on Amazon, more than 100 of those in the past 24 hours. Doing well on Kobo, too.

I think the title was a good choice. Now I just hope the book lives up to expectations

Marissa D said:

Wow--that's terrific news re the preorders! The RWA PAN loop has been hopping on the topic, especially re WOC and the RITAs.

Click to expand...

I'm not on the PAN loop, but there has certainly been a lot of talk on Twitter.