HERE’S a question for you: how many of the following classic novels have you read? First Impressions? The Last Man in Europe? Trimalchio in West Egg? All’s Well That Ends Well? The Dead Undead?

If you scored zero, then you’re probably not alone. But before you feel bad about your reading habits, what if I asked you whether you’d read any of the following: Pride and Prejudice? 1984? The Great Gatsby? War and Peace? Dracula?

The first set of titles are the original names for these five famous novels. They didn’t make it on to the final jacket, and not without reason – some smart editor deducing the books would stand a better chance with a punchier title. It might seem odd now that, say, The Great Gatsby could be called anything other than The Great Gatsby, but F Scott Fitzgerald had a whole notebook of alternative titles and Trimalchio in West Egg wasn’t even the worst: that accolade is probably saved for The High-Bouncing Lover.

These days, the changing of book titles has entered a whole new territory with the rise of digital publishing. Because some books are published as e-books first, it allows publishers to play around with titles, altering them up to the last minute and even continuing to change them after publication.

One publisher particularly skilled at this is Bookouture, whose authors includes Wilton-based crime and thriller writer Richard Parker. Richard’s new novel, the gripping and page-turning, Never Say Goodbye, is published this week. I say Never Say Goodbye, but in fact while it has been promoted for pre-sale over the last few months, the book has gone under a different title and cover – Murder Map – and only changed at the last minute. This isn’t the first of Richard’s titles that the publisher has altered at a late stage: a previous thriller, Keep Her Safe was originally called Truth or Dare while another, Be My Killer, was changed to Follow You after the book had been already been published.

Richard explained how Bookouture are continually checking audience reactions and responding to feedback. Murder Map, which is the first in a new police procedural series, was seen as too ‘boysy’ a title, so that and the cover were altered to make more universally appealing. This might seem unusual in publishing, but it’s borrowing a technique used by newspapers: the Mail Online, for example, continually monitor and change headlines on their website to increase the number of hits.

Don’t judge a book by its cover might go the saying. But when it comes to the titles of books today, you should be able to make an informed guess.

Never Say Goodbye by Richard Parker is out now.