Okay, I promise I won't ask again...which title for my book?

[Ginevra]

I did a poll before on a title for my decluttering book that I swear I am going to release Any Day Now! I know I am ridiculously slow and should be flogged. So, I was basically settled on calling it "Delete: How to Release the Unnecessary and Cherish the Worthwhile", but my writer mentor hated it. (I'm a little annoyed with her right now because I hated the title of her recent book and I didn't like the cover, either, but I digress.) Some members here in my last poll felt that "Delete" called to mind a computer book and this is what my mentor also said. So, anyway, the title is not really bonking me on the head. I'm not getting a "YES!" Feeling about anything I come up with, except when I think I have the perfect one only to find it is very similar or identical to an existing book.

 

Please vote in my poll and give me a clue, because I need to get my cover done and I can't do that without a title. :) Thanks.

[JudoMom]

What about Freedom: (and then your subtitle)? Delete sounds negative or computery to me an I'd be unlikely to pick it up.

[maize]

Release: living joyfully without clutter

[Guest]

Release: living joyfully without clutter

I really love this. Especially "joyfully."

[Carol in Cal.]

How about the same subtitle, but 'Focus' as the primary title?  Then it would be:

 

Focus:  How to Release the Unnecessary and Cherish the Worthwhile

[Guest]

What about Freedom: (and then your subtitle)? Delete sounds negative or computery to me an I'd be unlikely to pick it up.

I really like this, too. I'm big on Freedom as a value in the first place. :)

[cjzimmer1]

I like your subtitle How to Release the Unecessary and Cherish the Worthwhile but I really really dislike (ok I hate) the Delete part.  Doesn't fit at all with a decluttering concept.  I think you would lose a lot of people at that one word because it is associated with computers.  I can't think of a single instance where I'd use the word delete that doesn't involve electronics. So to me that word sets the tone for computer things not household things. So it wouldn't surprise me if someone thought it would be about managing computer files or something like that. Clearly not the direction you want to lead people.

Edited January 27, 2016 by cjzimmer1

[Katy]

Release: living joyfully without clutter

 

Yes, this one.  Changing my earlier vote.

[Guest]

Yes, this one.  Changing my earlier vote.

 

 

Yeah, it is REALLY great! 

[HeWillSoar]

Release: living joyfully without clutter

 

I vote for this

[Tap]

Release: living joyfully without clutter

I like this better than any other title offered.  

I don't like "Delete" and would never pick up the book off the shelf

and sorry, but my things are not junk. That title really irks, me and feels condescending.

[luuknam]

I do like 'delete', but it matters who the target audience is. If it's under 40s, then delete might work better than for the middle-aged crowd. I would however suggest that the second 'n' in unnecessary is not 'unecessary'. Make sure to have people spell check, proof read, spell check, and proof read some more.

[73349]

I wonder if you used "joyfully" if you'd have people thinking of Marie Kondo.

Edited January 27, 2016 by whitehawk

[Alicia64]

The word "junk" doesn't offend me at all b/c I know what you're getting at. Delete sounds too ITish.

 

I think anytime you go with humor, you're in the ballpark. I think "joy" has been overdone. Even the Kon Marie stuff leaves me shaking my head. When I read her book I thought, "You don't have kids and you don't homeschool."

 

We've moved enough and each time we moved, I cleaned out. So I'm not drowning in junk, but I was initially. It was horrible.

 

Thinking about it, I would go with humor like, Why Cave Women Had Such Tidy Caves" or something like that.

 

You want to set yourself apart from everyone.

 

Alley

[SeaConquest]

Release: Freeing yourself of the unnecessary so you can cherish the worthwhile

[mmasc]

My vote is for your original title, but without 'delete'. My other vote would be for maize's suggestion.

[momto10blessings]

Release: living joyfully without clutter

This title has my vote. I'd be likely to skip over something titled "delete" if browsing through delivering books

[magnificent_baby]

Release the Unecessary and Cherish the Worthwhile

 

 I would keep it simple, just like the theme of the book. 'How to' in titles me feel like I need to be getting up and doing something right now, it's overwhelming to me and feels like a huge project (coming from a person with a clutter problem and it's hard for me know where to start). I also don't like 'joyfully' in the title because I am emotionally tied to most of my belongings and there's nothing joyful to me about parting with them. (Yikes, I sound like a hoarder when I type it out!)  :lol: 

I really like the word 'release', it feels freeing. 

[Davysmom]

I think the word release is better than delete.  I actually had to reread it a couple times before I got it.

 

Delete doesn't capture the feeling of living with then letting go of clutter the way release does. I probably would over look Delete a title, but I would read Release. I like your subtitle, and it would make a great title all it's own. But Delete takes away from it for me.

[Onceuponatime]

I would play around with a variety of synonyms for the each of the different words in your title, create a few alternatives and mull them over for a few days till you get one that feels right.

Edited January 28, 2016 by Onceuponatime

[luuknam]

I do like 'delete', but it matters who the target audience is. If it's under 40s, then delete might work better than for the middle-aged crowd.

 

Actually, thinking about it more, 'delete' might also appeal more to a male audience than to a female audience.

[Guest]

I do like 'delete', but it matters who the target audience is. If it's under 40s, then delete might work better than for the middle-aged crowd. I would however suggest that the second 'n' in unnecessary is not 'unecessary'. Make sure to have people spell check, proof read, spell check, and proof read some more.

Yeah, that is one of Those Words. Just a word I always spell wrong. Don't worry; I wouldn't have it wrong in the title. :)

[Suzanne in ABQ]

Release the Unnecessary; Cherish the Worthwhile

 

Keep it simple and positive.

 

I'd drop the "How to".  Using it puts it in a mental stack of hundreds of "How to" books that I don't read.  

 

I'd also not use "joyfully".  It's too reminiscent of "spark joy" in Marie Kondo's book.

[TianXiaXueXiao]

Release: living joyfully without clutter

This one!

[Mom2Five]

I like the freedom thing and joyful thing. I don't like any of the titles mentioned in the poll. The best I could come up with a this time of night was "out with the old, no need for the new" or "the clutter free life"

Edited January 28, 2016 by Mom2Five

[KarenC]

I like Freedom from Clutter.

[Pippen]

Breakthrough Decluttering

[Guest]

I like the freedom thing and joyful thing. I don't like any of the titles mentioned in the poll. The best I could come up with a this time of night was "out with the old, no need for the new" or "the clutter free life"

I think there is already a Clutter-Free Life book.

[Guest]

This one!

Maize wins. I am using almost this.

 

Release: Living Peacefully Without Clutter

 

Also, I have no problem with "joyfully," even though Marie Kondo has used "spark joy" as her key phrase and even named her new book this. I actually wrote the phrase "bring you joy" many times in my book before I ever heard of Kondo's. I don't think this is a problem. There are actually books with both "magic" and "tidying" in the title, which really comes too similar for comfort in my opinion. But "joyfully" would be true, without really restating Kondo much. However, to put a bit more distance, I am chooseing "peacefully" instead.

[Ailaena]

Maize wins. I am using almost this.

 

Release: Living Peacefully Without Clutter

 

Also, I have no problem with "joyfully," even though Marie Kondo has used "spark joy" as her key phrase and even named her new book this. I actually wrote the phrase "bring you joy" many times in my book before I ever heard of Kondo's. I don't think this is a problem. There are actually books with both "magic" and "tidying" in the title, which really comes too similar for comfort in my opinion. But "joyfully" would be true, without really restating Kondo much. However, to put a bit more distance, I am chooseing "peacefully" instead.

 

 

Congrats!! I like peacefully better than joyfully, anyways.

 

Now somebody please write a book that tells me how to live peacefully *with* clutter :p

[ikslo]

I would run, not walk, away from any book with joyfully in the title. Not because of M. London, though. (I run from her books, too.). For me it's a religious buzzword of sorts and I would assume content.