How do you decide on a title?!

[yawning801]

I've been working on my book for a while now, I've done the first draft, but despite this I'm completely stuck for a title! It covers so many topics and several parts of one family (despite revolving around two main characters) that I'm really stuck! Any ideas? I've considered something like Story of Life etc but that's very vague and... well, a bit shit

Nobody?

Would something very simple, like a name or a place, work? It did 'Mansfield Park' and 'Romeo and Juliet' no harm!

What genre is your book? Your title sounds a bit sci-fi/fantasy, which lets you be more creative.

Ahh not really sci-fi or fantasy, I've tried to make it very well-grounded in reality (read: required hours of extensive Googling )

I've tried to make the location a constant throughout the book so that might work... but it might be a bit vague and lead people into thinking it's a quaint little story when it really isn't! However, you have given me a bit of an idea - thank you!

Although saying that, using the place name is a bit samey - I kind of want something that people will remember, IYSWIM? But thank you

What genre is it? You want something that tells the reader what it is, to an extent. I mean, if your pitch letter tells an agent it's a gentle family saga, calling it Bloody Footprints will confuse everyone! Is there a repeated image that recurs, or a central event?

What is it that you want the title to convey?

And, horrible question, who do you picture being irresistibly drawn to your work by the title? What do you want to say to that person?

There's an argument that if you don't know what its name is you don't know what it's about ...

Cuban I really don't know what genre to call it, it follows a couple and the backgrounds of their parents, it spans around 40 years so it's hard to pin it down to one event.

Quater I want it to appeal to adults, say in the 18-30 range, although it is history based. It's got quite a few messages so I want the title to reflect that, if that's possible! The underlying message is to not give up hope because happiness will come eventually, I suppose. Sorry it's a bit vague!

I tend to use titles that convey the theme. So what is the over-arching theme of your novel? What ties these people, plots, stories together? What do they want at the start of the novel? What do they get at the end? Does that give you any ideas.

Anyway, you might find a wonderful title and then be told by agent/publishers that it's not right.

I think I've got one now Poll, but thank you! And I've been preparing the whole time to be told that my work is shit

Sometimes they like the book but say the title's bad. That's what just happened to me. (They offered representation though so title is clearly not a catastrophic issue.)

Thank you Poll