Title Doctor
In 2020 I created Title Doctor in response to writers’ laments about their inability to title the works into which they’d poured heart and soul. It brings me great joy to help authors reach their works’ full expression. My work as a copywriter, literary magazine editor, Boston Globe correspondent, New York Times essayist—and now seventh grade English teacher—has given me a nimble mind, a sense of humor and a deep knowledge of creative resources.
If You Must Go,
I Wish You Triplets
2025, Apprentice House Press
Starting Point: The Perry Project
“I love my title,” says DeLuca. “Readers know immediately they’ll be reading about a couple and that they can expect some laughs.”
“When my 60-year-old husband suddenly left, I lost a sense of who I was, but not entirely,” says Virginia DeLuca about the story that prompted her title. DeLuca repurposed “A Brand-New Ending,” an alternate Title Doctor pick, in her 2021 Writer magazine award-winning essay. Be sure to read Ginny’s Modern Love essay, “He Took My Story, So I Made a New One.”
I’ve titled more than a dozen memoirs, novels, craft books, poetry chapbooks and essays and have presented at Gotham Writers Conference; HippoCamp and the Boston Book Festival.
My fee is $900. It includes a complimentary initial meeting; several rounds of titles; and research that includes reading your book. Any titles I provide are yours. Reach out at kristen@persistencepersonified.com if you’d like to work together.
Letting Grief Speak:
Writing Portals for Life After Loss
Columbia University Press
Starting Point: Grief: A Year of Writing Portals for Life After Loss
“This process included three hours of collaborating about potential concepts and my goals. I gained not only a great title, but also a clearer vision of my book and its audience.” —author Diane Zinna
I Now Mispronounce You
Originally: She Married a Jewish Gringa
The title of this memoir in essays, the author’s second collection, needed a humorous tone to reflect its writing. I changed one word of a marriage vow so the reader knew the book was a marriage memoir right away. In addition to being funny and alluding to the bilingual blunders of the book’s American and Venezuelan couple, the title also suggests the marital missteps at the center of the collection.
The Possibilities of Return: A Memoir of Life After Captivity
Originally: Released: A Hostage's Story of Finding Meaning after Captivity
Mimi Nichter, Ph.D., Professor Emerita at the University of Arizona School of AnthropologyThanks so much for all your ideas and brainstorming. I'm thinking I'll use some of the titles for chapters or somewhere. You never know where the journey leads...Palestinian terrorists hijacked a 20-year-old woman’s flight. They held her captive in Jordan for three weeks. TIME and Newsweek reported the story. The challenge was to create a title that focused on the character’s journey: to not allow her terrifying experience to determine the course of her life.
Waving Hello, Bowing Goodbye: A Dual Love Story with Japan and a Man
Starting Point: The Fan Unfolds: On Finding Myself and Home in Japan
The original title contained a fan, an object readers would instantly associate with Japan. However, a more active solution was called for, one that captured the movements, both external and internal, of the book’s protagonist. “Bowing” captures both movement and Japanese culture. “Waving” represents movement and the character’s eventual return to America. The subhead, more specific and compelling than the original, reflects the memoir’s through line: the pursuit of both love of a country and romantic love.
Pink Lady, Fictional Girlfriends, and the Deity That Answered
My Plea
Title: Crying in a Foreign Language
This memoir had a strong title but needed a fun subtitle. This one makes readers wonder which language the title refers to, while enticing them with a mysterious deity and a girl group.
Sailing at the Edge of Disaster:
A Memoir of a Girl’s Daring Year
2022, Toad Hall Editions
Starting Point: A Lost Girl at Sea: A Memoir
“The Title Doctor creative brief mapped out the essential ideas, words, and tone that my memoir title needed to touch. Thanks to Kristen, I feel confident and happy with my title.”—Elizabeth Garber, author, Sailing at the Edge of Disaster: A Memoir of a Young Woman’s Daring Year, a 2023 Maine Literary Awards Finalist in Memoir
Two Strings: Me and Fay
in America
Originally: Two Strings: A Memoir
The two strings of the erhu that are referred to in this hybrid memoir needed a subtitle that provided the reader with more information about what to expect. The new subtitle hints at an immigrant’s journey and introduces Fay, the book’s imaginary character.
Only the Stars Divide Us:
A Memoir of a Muslim
Mother’s Love
Starting Point: A Mother’s Truth
The original, vague title only told us the narrator was a mother with some kind of truth. The new title makes us feel and imagine how a mother finds her way after unimaginable loss.
Cassandra and the Falling Girl
Originally: Girl on the Roof
This YA novel blended the myth of Cassandra with a modern-day mystery set in New York. Adding action drawn from the plot of the mystery thread and naming the woman in the myth thread added movement and specificity.
Unconverted: Memoir of a Marriage
2025, Rootstock Publishing
Starting Point: Heaven and Earth
"Anyone who has felt the pressure to conform to other people's beliefs will recognize themselves in Ingraham's story of marriage, church, compromise, and resistance."-Kate Cohen, Washington Post columnist and author of We of Little Faith
Shadows Ceding to Light
date, publisher
Starting Point: Blackroot Breaking Through Snow
“Kristen came to my rescue when I was struggling with a title for my first chapbook. My working title didn't grab me, and I doubted it would entice others. I'm delighted with the title I chose.”—Julie Pratt, Author, Shadows Ceding to Light
Craving Spring: A Mother's Quest, a Daughter's Depression, and the Greek Myth that Brought Them Together
2023, Legacy Book Press, LLC
“A masterful storyteller, Ann Batchelder takes us deep into the heart of a mother’s love while demonstrating the power of myth to illuminate a path toward healing. Craving Spring is a gift to anyone trying to navigate the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship.”—Anita Johnston, Ph.D., psychologist and author of Eating in the Light of the Moon