Choosing the title of a book is huge challenge and about as troublesome as writing the thing in the first place. It should never be left to the author, as that is just cruel. Instead a dispassionate personality preferably with a commercial bent but minimal investment in the project is required. Otherwise you just generate material for standup comics who get laugh at angst.

I wallow in said angst.

So far my book titles have been as changeable as Australian prime ministers. Usually a working title sticks only to be rejected in the final hour to be replaced by option after option created, edited and also rejected.

It is a classic symptom of self-publishing pain.

Whilst playing the title game with Missing Something that, as regular readers will know, is now available from Amazon as hardcopy and Kindle ebook at terrific prices, I came up with Empathy for a warm, crowded world.

It went the way of numerous other attempts but I regret that it did. Given the book is a non-fiction account of what it means for a planet to have so many people growing ever more affluent it actually makes good sense.

Rather than rail at the environmental degradation we cause or ignore all of that because resource use is our right, maybe we just need some empathy for ourselves

We could give ourselves a hug and say:

“Well, there a lot of us now. We didn’t ask for it and we can’t change that fact or that we will need to use a whole bunch of resources. And so we mustn’t beat ourselves up about it. It is what it is. Let’s take a deep breath, accept that we have a big challenge ahead, and work together.”

Pity this is too long for a title.