Bacon Under the Covers

I'd like to talk to you today about book titles, or, rather, having fun with book titles. As any author knows, titling a book can be one of the most difficult things to do. There's always a working title, but then that might change after getting feedback from readers. Then a writer has to consider whether the title will work when submitting the work to publishers--will it catch that editor's eye?

If the manuscript is acquired by a publisher, the publisher might want to change the title so the book will have more marketing appeal. In some cases, the book ends up with the original working title the author used but abandoned during the query process. The first book in my Dragon Song trilogy was originally titled The Shepherdess of Dozah, but it was changed to Dream of the Dragon's Song before my book went to press, then it was changed to The Dragon's Shepherdess in the re-release. My most recent book had its title changed from the working title, A Sense of Duty, to You're All I Want for Christmas by my first publisher, but my second publisher changed it back to the original. What a ride!

The reason I bring this up is because I saw something on Facebook about book titles and it reminded me of a game we played when I was a kid. The FB post instructed readers to change one word in the title of book to "bacon" and post it as a comment. Bacon is sort of a Web meme that pops up here and there. Apparently, one of the side effects of the entire world being connected via the Internet is that millions of bacon lovers everywhere can now express their ardent passion for pork and share it with other bacon aficionados. So people were really getting kick out of this activity, and I have to admit I enjoyed it, too. I used it on some of my own titles as well as some books I've read to see what I could come up with.

Bacon of the Dragon's Song
Lilly's Bacon
A Stranger's Bacon
Seducing Bacon

Moby Bacon
To Bacon a Mockingbird
The Old Bacon and the Sea
The Hunger Bacon
All the Bacon We Cannot See
Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Little Golden Bacon
A Bacon of Thrones
Ender's Bacon
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Bacon
The Girl with the Bacon Tattoo

And I'm sure you can think of some more. :) When I was younger, we did something similar, except we'd say the book title and add "...under the covers" to it. Somehow that was infinitely more fun because almost every combination using this phrase sounds slightly erotic.

Dream of the Dragon's Song Under the Covers
Lilly's Reward Under the Covers
A Stranger's Desire Under the Covers
Seducing Gracie Under the Covers (Seducing Bacon Under the Covers would be even more fun. lol)

Moby Dick Under the Covers
To Kill a Mockingbird Under the Covers
The Old Man and the Sea Under the Covers
The Hunger Games Under the Covers
All the Light We Cannot See Under the Covers
Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Little Golden Book Under the Covers
A Game of Thrones Under the Covers
Ender's Game Under the Covers
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Under the Covers
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Under the Covers

I haven't even scratched the surface on these. What about you? Did you play with titles like this when you were a kid? What about now? Please do share!

Happy Reading!