The Entity – A Novel

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I originally titled my novel “The Intellect.” It was not a bad idea from my perspective. However, I wondered if the name was intriguing or ominous enough to prompt a reader to pick it from the millions of titles out there.

R.L. Stine, the children and young adult novelist, says that he begins every novel with the title even before outlining his book. It acts as the theme of the story. I thought The Entity had a more foreboding feel. After choosing the title, I learned that there was a movie with the same name and, apparently, that was the name for the sentient AI in Mission Impossible movie series.

Titles are not subject to copyright protection so I am apparently safe. What can I say? Great minds think alike. The Entity as a title fits the tone and theme of my novel.

As I understand it, publishers often rename novels if they don’t like the title, anyway. In his MasterClass, James Patterson talked about how they chose nursery rhymes for his Detective Cross series to help brand it (e.g. Along Came a Spider).

Looking through Amazon’s best-selling eBooks, a title certainly seems to matter. So, The Entity it is.