What's in a title?

What's in a title? I personally think the title of the book will help sell the story. The title, most of the time, will relate to the story the book contains, add to the flavour of the read or will capture a certain audience. For example, a book named "When the Bombs Fell" would usually relate to a book about war and most likely capture an audience aged over 18. It could also appeal to war veterans but it could remind them of "certain" memories. Sometimes a book's title won't "seem" to relate to the story. "Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief " (Rick Riordan) is a good example. The book is about a boy who is half-human, half-god (Greek) who has supposedly stolen Zeus's Lightning  Bolt and now Percy is being chased by mythological monsters. Although the front cover shows a lot of references to Greek mythology, if you were to only read the title, you would think "Lightning Thief" meant a really fast person.

The title of my book is "The House of the Scorpion". If I were to consider 2 alternate titles, I would either name it "The Scorpion's Lair" or "The Vampiric Scorpion".


If  "The House of the Scorpion" was a 1st book in a series, I would name the 2nd book "The Journey of the Scorpion" which would be about the main character Matteo, embarking on a journey to control the country he now controls after the events of the first book  and the chapters would be split chronologically from the ages 14-21 and include some flashbacks not included in the first book. It will also include his life involving Maria, his love interest and how life will go on with her. The book would be 430 pages long. The 3rd book will be named "The Bleeding Scorpion" and this would be the final book in the series and in the story Matt is married to Maria and is happily still controlling his country at the age of 30 but in the book El Patron, the man who he loved during his childhood but tried to take all his organs in order for El Patron to live forever but supposedly died, comes back and tries to take away Matt from his former throne. How will Matt cope with this major problem?