Readers make all sorts of assumptions about authors and publishing. 

'Did you publisher throw you a lovely party for your publication day?' is a common question.

'And of course, you chose/designed your own cover, didn't you?' is another.

So I've decided to run a series of blogs addressing these assumptions. If you (either as a reader or as an author, published or unpublished) have a matter you'd like me, as an experienced traditionally publsihed author, to write about, just let me know - either by leaving a comment here or through my Susanna Twitter page or else via my Maisie Thomas FB page.

Today's subject is titles. Readers automatcally assume the author chooses their own titles - and in some cases, they do - but by no means always. I can't give you any statistics to back this up, but I'm happy to share my own experience and you can draw your own conclusions.

Here goes!

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Who Chooses the Title for Your Book?

It's reasonable to assume the author chooses the title. After all, they wrote the book, didn't they? But there are other factors at work - mainly, marketing - and the choice about the title of your book is often made by other people.

Here's an extreme example. I once planned a book in great detail - several pages of synopsis. My editor was happy with it. She was the one who had chosen a title - let's call it ABC - for me to plan my story round. Then the plan was sent to Acquisitions, and they sent back a message saying, 'We'd rather have XYZ as the title, so please can you rewrite the plan accordingly.'

Okay, that's an extreme example - and, no, I'm not going to tell you which book it was - but it shows you how these things can work out.

Here is a list of the books I've had published so far, and I'm going to tell you who chose the titles. Buckle up, everyone!

Susanna Bavin titles

My first four books, all standalone sagas, were published by Allison & Busby, and the titles were mine all mine. At the time, I didn't know any better, but now I realise how very lucky I was, and I'll always be grateful to A&B for being happy to run with my choices - The Deserter's Daughter, A Respectable Woman, The Sewing Room Girl and The Poor Relation. 

My other Susanna books are the Home Front Girls series. With a 'Girls' series, the standard format is for book 1 to be The 'Whatever' Girls and after that choices are made that broadly reflect the content of the story.

The Home Front Girls was the standard series opener. The rest, Courage for the Home Front Girls, Christmas for the Home Front Girls, A Wedding for the Home Front Girls and A Baby for the Home Front Girls were all chosen on my behalf.

Polly Heron titles

Again, The Surplus Girls was the standard series opener. I had chosen titles for books 2 and 3 at the planning stage. (The full plan ran to about 30 pages - I'll blog about that particular planning process another time.) It doesn't matter now what my titles were, because they weren't chosen.

Book 2 became The Surplus Girls' Orphans and book 3 became Christmas With the Surplus Girls. When you write in a book, you generally give it a holding title, which is your chosen title, knowing that it might well be changed after you hand in the book. I was having trouble coming up with a holding title for book 4 and it was my agent who thought of New Beginnings for the Surplus Girls - which I loved, and I'm happy to say, so did the publisher.

Maisie Thomas titles

The Railway Girls series

With the Railway Girls books, book 1 was, of course, The Railway Girls. With books 2 and 3, I made some suggestions, based on looking at the titles in other 'Girls' series. I picked out Secrets of the Railway Girls and The Railway Girls in Love. It so happened that each title would do equally well for both books, and I had to choose which to assign to each one. (Incidentally, there was some discussion between my editor and the marketing department about a possible apostrophe - Secrets of the The Railway Girls or The Railway Girls' Secrets, but the use of apostrophes in titles is another subject all together!)

In the rest of the series - Christmas with the Railway Girls, Hope for the Railway Girls, A Christmas Miracle for the Railway Girls, Courage of the Railway Girls, Christmas Wishes for the Railway Girls and Springtime with the Railway Girls  - all the titles were chosen by the editor of the time.

The Wartime Hotel series

Dead simple! All three titles were chosen by my editor - A New Home at the Wartime Hotel, Hopeful Hearts at the Wartime Hotel and (decided upon just this week, with publication in March 2026) Dreams Come True at the Wartime Hotel.

So there you have it. Something else that's probably worth saying is that, when an author write a series, it isn't just each individual book title that s/he doesn't necessarily get to choose, they possibly won't even get to choose the series name either....

Every now and again, I look back through my work diaries to see what I was doing on this particular date in such-a-year. This week back in 2020, I was finishing work on Railway Girls book 3, The Railway Girls in Love.

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Link to The Railway Girls in Love on Amazon

I am delighted to use this week's blurb to introduce you to a new name in the world of saga writing - Rose Warner. Rose is the new name for Jen Gilroy, who writes contemporary romantic/family stories set in North America, as well as dual-timeline tales.

The first book by Rose Warner is The Teacher Evacuees, which is the first in a wartime trilogy set in Norfolk.

Here's the blurb:

Canadian-born teacher Victoria McKaye takes up a new position at a London school, but soon finds herself coordinating its evacuation to a Norfolk village along with standoffish spinster Beatrice and quiet young Nell. Victoria has to adapt to life in the countryside, petty politics and local busybodies.

When she meets attractive naval officer Louis Grainger, romance blossoms. Victoria is drawn into a clandestine world and told that she is helping the British government, but after she catches Louis covertly meeting a suspicious stranger in nearby woods, she fears the worst – a traitor in their midst.

It’s a race against time for Victoria to discover the truth and keep the village – and the country – safe from invasion.

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Link to Amazon Kindle

Link to Amazon paperback

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My review:

An emotionally satisfying story of new love, unexpected friendships and wartime courage, set against the backdrop of a beautifully described Norfolk setting. Victoria makes a sympathetic and interesting heroine - it's fascinating to have a Canadian perspective. Rose Warner handles her story deftly and realistically, warming your heart and making you smile in one chapter and then leaving you breathless at the drama in the next. A talented new voice in the world of sagas.

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Link to Rose Warner's author page on Amazon

Link to Jen Gilroy's author page on Amazon

I'm writing this on Monday 15th - publication day for Dunbar's book 2, Hopeful Hearts at the Wartime Hotel.

One of the reasons I love writing books for you is that it gives me the chance to explore friendships and see my characters supporting one another through good times and bad. I think that women understand the importance of female bonds, and that, alongside our families, our friends are the most valuable people in our lives, the people we can turn to, no matter what.

Setting my stories in wartime gives me the chance to bring women together whose paths would never have crossed in peacetime. Kitty, Lily and Beatrice have been thrown together by circumstances beyond their control and have become true friends as a result of mutual respect and understanding. Life has changed considerably for all three of them and in Hopeful Hearts at the Wartime Hotel, they need one another’s trust and support more than ever. Theirs is a friendship that will last a lifetime.

If this is the first time you’ve met Kitty, Lily and Beatrice, I hope you’ll enjoy getting to know them and will soon feel involved in their lives. If you’ve met them before in A New Home at the Wartime Hotel, I hope you’ll love being back in their company.

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Link to book 1,   A New Home at the Wartime Hotel

Link to book 2,   Hopeful Hearts at The Wartime Hotel

Link to book 3,   Wartime Hotel book 3   Publication date: March 2026

Publication day for   Home Front Girls book 5   A Baby for the Home Front Girls   is Wednesday September 3rd.   Kindle link   Paperback link

I sometimes get asked about Star House, and I can tell you that the name comes from a real house – though the Star House of the Home Front Girls books, with its bedrooms named after the greats of the music hall, and signed photographs of Florrie Forde, Vesta Tilley and others lining the walls in the hallway and up the staircase, is my own invention. After the war, my gran was for some years a theatrical landlady in Windsor Road in Levenshulme in the south of Manchester. Her boarding house wasn’t called Star House, but she had a friend nearby who was also a theatrical landlady – and her boarding house was Star House.

A Baby for the Home Front Girls is dedicated to all the wartime Brownies. Children played a significant role in life on the home front. Older children acted as messengers during air raids, cycling from ARP station to First Aid post, like Noakes in The Home Front Girls. Bigger boys were stretcher-bearers in hospitals.

Salvage soon became a job for children. Hundreds of thousands of them joined the ‘cog’ scheme, each of them becoming a small cog in the mighty war machine. Schools, Guides and Brownies, Scouts and Cubs all competed with one another to collect the most salvage in their local neighbourhoods. Newspapers ran a ‘cog’ page each week for children, and a special song was written called ‘There’ll Always Be a Dustbin’, which was sung to the tune of ‘There’ll Always Be an England’. Working towards earning their ‘cog’ badges was an important part of wartime life for many youngsters.

As for why I specially cbhose to dedicate this book to the Brownies - well, they salvaged enough jam jars to pay for both a lifeboat and an aircraft. Impressive, eh?

So, the next time you’re sorting through your own recycling, preparing to put it out for collection in the various boxes, spare a thought for our salvage-minded wartime generation, who by the time D-Day came round had provided 1.1 million tons of waste paper, 1.3 tons of metal and more than 80,000 tons of rags to help fight – and win – the Second World War.

Home Front Girls series page on Amazon 

What is it that makes a book character universally liked? In The Railway Girls books, it's Dot whom everyone loves. This shows up clearly and repeatedly in reviews and also in comments and messages on my FB page (www.facebook.com/MaisieThomasAuthor).

And with the Home Front Girls series, the character everyone cares about the most is.... Betty.

So why has Betty touched readers' hearts? Here are some of the things that have been said about her in reviews:

"...sweet-natured and kind, but not weak..."

"...lovely Betty, who trusts people and pays a high price for it..."

"...envies Sally (but in a nice way) because she'd love to have a boyfriend of her own..."

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"...she misses her mum so much and you feel she's a real family person. Shame about the stepmother!..."

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Betty Hughes is a good-natured young woman with a loving heart. The reviewer who called her "a real family person" got it just right. She had a wonderful, warm relationship with her late mother, whom she has never stopped missing, and it came as a shock to her when her beloved dad remarried so soon afterwards. Grace, Betty's scheming stepmother, has her own plans for Betty, and it's partly because of Betty's sweet nature and basic belief in the goodness of other people that Grace is able to get away with doing what she does.

Betty is a hard worker, and this is something else that readers like and admire her for. When she first goes to the salvage yard, she makes some mistakes, but she also shows herself able to think things through and come up with solutions, though she will never be wholeheartedly dedicated to her job the way Sally is.

At heart, what matters most to Betty is to have a family of her own one day. When Sally is engaged to Andrew after a whirlwind romance, Sally's happiness and excitement speak directly to what Betty has always longed for. Of course, in book 2, Courage for the Home Front Girls, when Betty thinks she has found the chance of lasting love, things don't go anything like as smoothly for her as she has always dreamed of.

I can't really say a lot more about Betty without giving away spoilers. But one thing is certain - her warm heart, trusting nature and the staunch friendship she shows to others make sure that all the readers are rooting for her from the start and all the way through!

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All the books are available through Kindle Unlimited as well as on Kindle and in paperback and audio format, narrated by Julia Franklin.

Book 1 - The Home Front Girls

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Book 2 - Courage for the Home Front Girls

Book 3 - Christmas for the Home Front Girls

Book 4 - A Wedding for the Home Front Girls

Book 5 - A Baby for the Home Front Girls (published on September 3rd)

Here, I'm sharing some of the NetGalley comments on A Baby for the Home Front Girls.

"This story is about friendship, family, love and courage. I liked that it was true to life in that the work described in the book actually took place during the war, such as the salvage depot. It gives a bit of insight into how life would have been. Really enjoyed this book, can’t wait to see if a new series is coming out! Highly recommended."

"I have enjoyed watching the three characters' stories develop throughout the series, and the plots are enriched by the engaging cast of supporting characters.... Bavin depicts wartime Manchester vividly."

"You know, when you just read a book that makes your heart absolutely burst?! But in the best way possible?! Yeah. That happened."

"It certainly pulled at all my heartstrings, this series just keeps getting better and better with all the welknown characters that you just love reading."

"A book that totally immerses the reader and each page brings a new insight into the lives of the residents of Star House. A truly remarkable book."

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I'd like to say a huge thank-you to everyone who had read and reviewed the book. Your feedback means everything to me. xxx

Two pieces of news for Wartime Hotel fans:

Dunbar's book 1, A New Home at the Wartime Hotel, is 99p on Kindle. This is the build-up to a Bookbub promotion taking place on July 13th. The price will presumably return to normal after that, so if you haven't bought you copy yet, now is a good time; or if you have already read and enjoyed it, it's possibly a good time to receommend it to a friend.   Here's the link.

And the second piece of news is that the cover of Dunbar's 2, Hopeful Hearts at the Wartime Hotel, is now out there. I've put it on my News pgae, but I'm including a larger picture here so you can get a really good look.

And here is the purchase link. Publication day is September 15th.

I have a friend who celebrates her writing career by choosing appropriate charms for her silver charm bracelet. Me, I like to buy myself a bracelet as a keepsake for each series I write.

Which do you like best?

This week, A New Home at the Wartime Hotel has aceived a big milestone - it has over 1,000 reviews and ratings on Amazon - 1,125 to be exact, at the time of writing this. Wow! That's less than three months after publication. Wow again.

I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has left feedback. It really does make a difference to a book's visibility.

Incidentally, I've been asked about that 'Book 1 of 2' under the star rating. No, it doesn't mean there are going to be only two books in the series. In fact, I'm busy writing book 3 at the moment. The '1 of 2' just means that only two so far have been put on Amazon.

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That's it for this week. Just a very short blog. As well as writing Dunbar's book 3, I've also got to write not one but two synopses, as well as a new series proposal, so I've lots to keep me busy.

See you next time xxx