How do you come up with the name of a book? Often, book titles are decided at the last minute—even during the publishing stage. Sometimes, the title an author gives a story is even vetoed by the company distributing it. For a self-published author, though, that freedom rests entirely in his own hands.
For me, titles usually emerge at the beginning of a writing project, though they do not always survive the entire process. My first published novel, for example, is officially titled In the Land of the Living. But that was a last-minute decision. For quite a while, I considered Father and Son, and then I stuck with Life Story for most of the project.
With The Anima Project, which is an adaptation—or really, a complete reworking—of my kids’ bedtime story Mr. Merchant’s Mystery, I knew the original title would not work for an adult dystopian sci-fi thriller.
“Anima” came to me fairly quickly. I wanted the title to hint at the existential stakes of the story. If you do not know the word, anima literally means “soul” in Latin. It is also the root behind words like “animation” and “animal.”
Once I paired that word with “project,” I started asking people what the title made them think of. The response was unanimous: whatever The Anima Project was, it sounded like science fiction. That was when I knew I had found the right title.
While my previous published works have had longer titles—In the Land of the Living and Where the Water Rises, for instance—I generally prefer shorter ones, especially for genre fiction. For this book in particular, the title needed to signal the genre, hint at the existential stakes, sound memorable, and be short enough for readers to easily recall and recommend.
Will The Anima Project remain the final title? I have not seriously entertained any alternatives, and everyone I have spoken with so far seems to like it. For the past several months, I have used the name in promotional materials, website domains, and Amazon pre-orders. At this point, it is unlikely to change.
One thing that is not changing is my release schedule. Beginning May 1st (which is less than two months away now!) I will be releasing The Anima Project on this platform chapter by chapter, week after week, until all 35 chapters have been published. At the same time, I will also be releasing it as five separate ebook “episodes”. Then, at the beginning of next year, it will be available in print on Amazon. You can read the first three completed chapters here:
If this sounds like a story you’d be into, I’d love to encourage you to subscribe. That way, you can follow the narrative week by week, and we can keep in touch!
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Thanks for reading!
A.T. LISCHAK
