Deaver on Project X title

So at Jeffery Deaver's signing today in LA I asked how and when he titles a book and whether Project X had a title or a working title yet. I got a good answer so I thought I'd kick off the Project X title discussion/speculation with the intel.

First, all his book titles are his own. No one has ever "written a title" for him. Which does not mean he always gets his first choice. Sometimes a title has to be changed because it's already a title of some similar work, etc. But all his titles are all him own creations so I think we can be assured that Project X's title will be from the mind of Jeffery Deaver and not marketers. He says typically the title comes when he's into writing the book (he used Edge as an example -- a title he had to fight for, btw).

Having said that, he said they currently don't have a title for Project X, but he has a list of 44/45 potential titles. He said they want a title that'll work with the book but also captures the essence of Fleming. He said in many ways Fleming is his co-writer.

He then added something that was a little off the cuff and half-formed, so I don't think we should go too nuts, but he said at the moment their working title is Project X and in the book Bond will be "investigating Project X," hence the title will be what Project X is -- something like this (Bryce was there so maybe he can help explain).

I took this to mean whatever the title is it will not be a generic Bondian title like For Your Eyes Only or Devil May Care, but very specifically related to the hook of the book -- you know, Thunderball is called that because Bond is on "Operation Thunderball." Or it could also mean the book will be the name of the villain (which would be great). But with 45 titles, I'm sure there are a few generics in there, so who's to say. But that was intriguing.

#1 zencat

#2 jaguar007

#3 zencat

#4 jaguar007

#5 Jeff007

#6 terminus