Are title “flourishes” ever really necessary?

[akitsukino]

Wrinkled Pages
The Wrinkled Pages
The Wrinked Pages: An Anthology

This is probably the kind of thing only authors worry about, but could the extra words you add in a title ever effect things? Is adding an extra “the” really necessary when a lot of people leave those words out when they say or search for a title? How are readers gonna feel about a subtitle? Is shorter always better? Does this even matter to anyone whisk not a perfectionist author!? Thoughts in the matter?

[joannekwan]

Some are slightly more necessary than others I think.
Like when I see a book and it has "X Title a Novel" on the cover. I think "a novel" is pretty redundant as I see novels as the default thing a book can be.
As for anything that isn't a novel, like anthologies, poetry collections, what have you, then I would include that. Having "An Anthology" after the title would better prepare a potential reader for what to expect.

For "The", I don't really care either way for them. But for my own works, I generally don't use a preceding 'The' since listing things alphabetically can be annoying, so I rather just have an active word as the first word of the title.

For subtitles, unless the whole series is just going by the main title, I find them unnecessary.

Most of the time, I will only use flourishes for promotional purposes, to further specify what my story is about for potential readers. Like "check out my novel Secunda, an erotic historical fantasy monster romance."

[cherrystark]

I think it really boils down to grammar and what "sounds" normal to the reader. For me, titling something "The (Whatever)" indicates a proper name/ownership like "The Sorceror's Stone" or "The Time Traveler's Wife". Omitting the article reads more of an abstract concept like "Bones" or "Psych".

With your suggested titles, Wrinkled Pages might reference a character's scattered thoughts on a bunch of random papers. While The Wrinkled Pages, I think of a Sherlock Holmes style mystery where the pages are the key to everything. Adding a subtitle, like The Wrinkled Pages: An Anthology, gives readers a more specific glance at the work. We would know from the last sample that multiple stories would be in play. I don't think the length of subtitle really matters, like in the Harry Potter series.

[borzoiteeth]

There is a bit of context you are losing with "the". When it's THE Wrinkled Pages it's telling someone this is a very specific item, it's not just any wrinkled page. There's something special about this one. Sure, it doesn't mean anything when trying to look up the work online, but that logic also applies to a lot of other filler words as well.

When you remove the "The" suddenly its more vague and gives a more thematic feel. "I feel like a wrinkled page".

I have an anthology myself. I don't put "an anthology" directly into the title, instead it is stated on the cover and summary that it is an anthology. However Joannekwan has a good point to have it stated right up front for the readers what to expect. Personally mine is about a very niche subject so my audience is already going to be in a specific headspace for this comic so it doesn't matter that I don't have it in the title anyways.

[WillowTree]

When I titled ‘Love Youself: A Genderfluid Romance’ I did so because I wanted to be very clear from the get-go that it was about a genderfluid character. That makes it easy for people who want to read about genderfluidity to find it and those who don’t to avoid it

I could have kept it as just Love Yourself and then the description would get the rest across, but again, I wanted it as easily identifiable as about a genderfluid character as I could get it

[joannekwan]

I agree that "The" imparts a certain specificity/feeling and makes a difference on paper, same as how "A" can. But unless you need to differentiate between your work and a someone else's story who has the same title just without the 'The', then I think most consumers wouldn't think too much on it.

How often one hears people drop "the" when referencing something is what comes to mind.
Like "Oh, yeah, I like Witcher." Or "Did you watch the latest episode of Mandalorian yet?"

[vothnthorvaldson]

I suppose it depends a lot on how people remember the titles.
I remember mostly by rhythm, so a 'the' or no 'the' can make a huge difference.
People who remember only or mostly by keywords would probably not remember whether there was a 'the' or not (or would not care).

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

I know it's nice sometimes to know I'm picking up an anthology because I often have time for short stories when full novels have to wait a while. And if I don't like one story, I don't put the whole thing away... the next may be gold.

[tiredpigeon]

As long as it's not The Wrinkled Pages Anthology Trilogy Mononovel Webcomic: A Webcomic Webnovel Series found only on Tapas.io then I don't have a problem with it.

[aqua03]

Is adding an extra “the” really necessary when a lot of people leave those words out when they say or search for a title?

Of course it is.

[DiegoPalacios]

It depends on what fits the story.....

Sometimes short and sweet do the job, and other times a more sophisticated title may work.

[Iridium]

I believe it depends a lot on your work's premise, because the title is the first thing everyone will see about your creation before anything. A good title is quite hard to come by alone, imagine flourishing it x.x

[gabriellabalagna]

Not necessary, but can add memorability or grandeur.

Who's gonna forget the title, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe?

I chose a short comic title though, Derailed, because it's fast and easy for people to search for.

[domisotto]

Whenever I don’t know if I need the or nor, I substitute it with a pronoun.

[ogjuic]

depends if you use the same world/universe but different characters and location. JOJO is a good example of this