Over the past few weeks I’ve been thinking out loud, in public, about eight different candidate subtitles for my book; SACRED, BUT FULLY KNOWN, each one a real option a reviewer put in front of me, each one pulling in a slightly different direction. It’s time to actually put them next to each other and see what falls out.
Two very different camps
Line them up and they split cleanly into two instincts. One camp works by recognition: The Sex Talk Your Church, Your Parents, and Your Phone Never Gave You. Everything You Were Never Told About Sex, Faith, and Your Body Until Now. These name the exact gap a reader is already standing in, and trust that being seen accurately is enough to earn the next few seconds of attention.
The other camp works by confrontation: Uncensored: What the Bible Actually Says About Sex, Desire, and WhyGod Designed Every Bit of It for Your Marriage. Sex, God, and the Lies You’ve Been Living With. These don’t wait to be recognized. They make a claim immediately and dare you to disagree with it.
What each gets right, and where each is exposed
The recognition camp is honest and specific, but it’s polite in a way that risks underselling exactly how direct this book actually is inside its pages. A reader could nod along with the gap being named and still assume the book itself will soften things once they open it.
The confrontation camp has the opposite problem. Words like “uncensored” and “lies” earn attention fast, but they cash a check the rest of the book then has to honor immediately, or the reader feels baited rather than met.
What none of the eight said, that I think matters most
Only one of the original eight pointed at something the other seven missed entirely: this isn’t a book meant to be read once and shelved. Every chapter ends in a Reflect & Pray section and a Couple’s Devotion, built to be worked through with your spouse, not consumed alone. None of the recognition-camp or confrontation-camp options say anything about that, and I think it’s the actual differentiator, not just another feature to mention.
The synthesis
So here’s what I think beats all eight individually:
“The Sex Talk Your Church, Your Parents, and Your Phone Never Gave You: Uncensored, Faith-Rooted, and Built to Be Worked Through, Not Just Read.”
It opens on the recognition camp’s strongest move naming the three exact places the silence came from. It borrows the confrontation camp’s most honest word to signal this won’t be softened. And it closes on the one promise none of the eight made on their own: this book asks something of you, together, not just from you, alone.
Where I’m not sure I’m right
Combining the strongest phrase from each camp is exactly the kind of decision that can read as the best of everything or as a run-on sentence that loses the punch each piece had by itself. I genuinely don’t know which one you’ll hear it as.
So tell me plainly: does the combined version pull you in more than any of the eight did on their own, or did I just prove that more isn’t always better?
Sacred, but Fully Known launches October 3rd.
