How to name a book

Book titles are even more difficult than book cover designs. The name must capture the essence of the book and also evoke feelings the book seeks to generate. It must also read well on its own (when it appears in reading lists, for instance). 

The title of my book had more than 25 versions, but I will only put down the ones  that passed the first two rounds of scrutiny. Each name has a story to tell, but I would really like you to tell me if you like any of these names better than 'Decoding Communications'. 

Now that you know what this book is about, if you have any other suggestions for name, it would be welcome. 

The 25 title options

1. Black, white and Grey 
2. Crack the code
3. The word
4. Life’s script
5. Why dogs don’t sing
6. Communications Zao
7. Kill the Gene
8. Speak up
9. Getting it right!
10. The spirit of communications
11. No illusions
12. Communication Works!
13. Leading through communications
14. The music of communications
15. The universal theory of communications
16. Getting through
17. Freedom through communications
18. Liberating thought
19. Unlocking communications
20. Communicate to liberate
21. Jack of nothing
22. Living after dying

Single word titles

1. Communiscience
2. Communificence
3. Communition

That's not all. Then there's the byline too - the words which explain the book a little better. Here are some attempts at the byline of Decoding Communications. 

Some byline for Decoding Communications

• Unraveling the mystery of communications
• Making communications work
• Understanding communications
• What, how and why of communications
• Understanding the power of communications
• What, how and why of communications
• Unraveling communications

However, with my current cover design, the byline is seeming a little difficult to accommodate. Don't really know if I can do without it. What do you think?  

Cover design of Decoding Communications - penultimate version

DECODING COMMUNICATIONS
Book cover - Penultimate version.4

DECODING COMMUNICATIONS
Book cover - previous version.3

The Left hand image is the last but one version of the cover design. The previous version to this is shown in the Right Hand image.

The final version which is being recreated (meaning redrawn starting from scratch) with the penultimate version as its base will have better space alignment,   with focus on aesthetics. If this grasps the imagination of this blog's readers, I am confident it will have a good impact on the book shelves as well.

Phase by phase steps of the cover design

The book cover design started with a concept sent by Hemant (Bacteria Designs). It was finally decided that the cover of Decoding Communications would be a symbol made of words and symbols. We needed symbol units that could become a part of a larger symbol - the book cover itself.

My scribbling habit was finally put to some use and I doodled out some symbols that represented concepts in the book. I enjoyed it so thoroughly that I sent the phone-camera snap of the doodle to Hemant soon after it was done. Then on his request, I further sent some sentences and 'equations'  that would help create the cover.

The initial thought that Hemant had was to draw the design on a blackboard with chalk. He even said, "I think slate-chalk will be better as it will give a better feel". First on paper, then drawn to scale on blackboard. And then finally photographed. That was the plan.b

He took these symbols and then roughly drew them (with an electronic pencil) on a diagram of a face replacing all the facial lines with words and sentences. The very first draft that we saw looked like the picture below on the right. I never could visualize without having something do visualize with and so it was very helpful. It gave an idea of what could be expected.

After this there was one more draft made. And this one looks like the picture on the left.  The face became more artistic, the symbols more real. The title Decoding Communications was typefaced in yellow. Hemant's version is that this makes a 'no-nonsense' combination. His next pencil drawing was scanned, reversed on the computer and given the effect that you see (the idea of blackboard and chalk was dropped after trying it out).  This was getting closer to what we wanted. Much closer.

If this works, from my point-of-view, the masterpiece has already been created. While the full image viewed in entirety looks like a face (Greek actually), every written word and drawn symbol is a critical concept from the book itself.

One part I particularly like in the version given above are the eyes - they represent what metaphors are. Its actually the metaphor that shows the Neils-Bohr atomic model  explained by the solar system. The right eyeball is the solar system and the one on the left is the atom with electrons moving around it. Nice.

After this version was touched up, more symbols added, lines corrected, contexts created, the draft was finally approved.

Hemant is now working to redo the entire design in pencil (see right hand side image). This is likely to develop into the final version. This image will be created such that the face has a high aesthetic appeal. After this, it will be reversed on the computer, with blackboard-chalk and more effects added. Then we'll have the final cover design.

Who said you should not judge a book by its cover?