What is a title anyway?

I’m at Book Club right now.

When am I not?

I know, right?

Right now, my writing partner and I are discussing the nuances of a title.

I have two for my first book that I am considering.

Barrier’s Rift

or

Barrier’s Breach.

Both seem to inhabit a part of my book. There is a barrier surrounding the Solvonus system. Think of a Dyson sphere, but for an entire solar system and made of exotic, impenetrable radiation and fluctuating gravitational waves.

In said barrier is a tear, a rift. Occasionally, enemy ships, the dreaded Da’ashori, have traversed the dangers of the rift, attempting to breach the barrier.

To date, there have been no known successful breaches of the Rift. The navy stationed there accounting for each vessel that has tried to enter, destroying them.

However, in the book there are two Da’ashori corsair ships which HAVE breached the barrier, through the treasonous partnership with a Traveler and the criminal organization he works for, the Red Fist.

This brings me back to titles.

Barrier’s Rift. - There is a barrier. That barrier has a rift. But the story isn’t focused on that locale, other than in a few passages and the interlude.

Barrier’s Breach however, is more dynamic. More descriptive of the story and what is happening.

Ok. So I just wrote myself around in my argument. Barrier’s Breach will be the title of book one of the Solvonus Cycle.

Titles for a book, even for a chapter, can be hard things to sort. You are trying to capture your book in two or three words. This can be incredibly daunting. That, along with whatever cover work you commission is going to be the thing that makes the erstwhile reader pickup your book.