Why You MUST be Coy With Your Blog Titles

Guest Commentary by Amanda Sue Dunham

Even though I’m new to this writer thing, a fresh member of RMFW, and still trying to just figure out life, I saw an utterly absurd opinion on one of the networks a few weeks ago and I had to opine in rebuttal even at the risk of upsetting whoever wrote it.

The point of ridicule is a loop email that had a subject to the effect of: don’t be coy with your blog titles.

I had several rebellious impulses when I first read that since it came across as bossy, but I’m quite histrionic being a drama major, and having been told this multiple times, I abated my urge to fire off an email that would have essentially laughed at this person. I was also trying to fit in, not make waves, but that’s been taken care of thanks to some ultra hip members of RMFW. I also saw that hardly anyone responded to that email, which I interpreted as no one agreeing with the author.

So I kept quiet and continued to watch the RMFW loop. On April first, this Gusto Dave guy sends an email that read: The Very Final Posting from Chiseled in Rock. Riveted, I clicked on the link and saw the April Fools reference. At first, I cussed at this a**hole.

Then I grinned. Because that home boy has got game. Without that hook to make me check out the blog, I wouldn’t have been turned on to the uber jazzy J. A. Kazimer.

Most blogs are nothing but vanity with hosts who blather on and on about themselves. If you’re Oprah Winfrey, you can get away with that. If you’re Fred Johnson from the farm thinking that you’re witty with your self publication, sorry, no one is going to click on you.

Unless you’re coy.

I mean…RMFW is full of commercial fiction writers (and I love that word commercial because this is about selling books) and if you want to sell books, you got to pique the interest of the consumers.

In other words, hello, fiction is the entertainment industry. Don’t be coy? Seriously? Journalists choose the most shocking headlines for their stories. Movie producers drill the most memorable and snappy titles into your brain. I’ve never picked up a novel that had a name that wasn’t well thought out to attract book buyers.

In closing, the sender of that email can’t be reading this posting because by clicking on my coy title he or she would be conceding that I’m right. But most importantly, I hope to God that no one else was misled by that person’s amateur assertion. Shakespeare would turn over in his grave.