Do publishers tend to change the title of a manuscript? Do you have a magical formula to decide what title will work best?
We don’t always change the title, but most of the time we do. See more info here.
As to magic formulas, yes. I use this one:
http://www.fictionalley.org/primer/title.html
Holy cow — that title thing is so cool!
I haven’t had trouble with titles yet — I’ve gotten to pick my own. And that’s fun because I’ve got a pattern:
Nothing to Regret
Strength to Endure
Test of Time
Faith Beyond Fear
Season of Sacrifice
Forgive, Not Forget
They’re all three words, with a connecting word in the middle. Pretty cool, huh?
And lest anyone get all excited — only the first two are published right now.
See, I always knew that was how the marketing department chose titles.
Mine have been about half and half. Half were changed. The ones that stuck were often times the ones I just picked off the top of my head because I knew they would be changed anyway, so why bother putting a lot of thought into it.