I just did a virtual event with a bunch of readers, and the conversation turned to the prevalence of punny titles right now — everything from Live and Let Chai, to Gone with the Gouda. Punny titles can be clever — or they can clunk.   Part of making these kind of titles work is to keep them simple and obvious.  The original saying or book title should be familiar enough that the majority of readers will recognize it — and therefore the cleverness of the altered title.  And the word that is replaced in the title needs to make sense linguistically.  If we have to think hard about how it fits, you lose the element of fun.  Personally, I think the best ones give at least a passing nod to the source material in  the content of the book.  (For Example Dorothy Cannel’s series that includes The Thin Woman and Bridesmaids Revisited).

Punny or not, a book’s title is a chance to set the tone for the opening chapter, set expectations for the overall content/theme of the book, and hook the reader into wanting to know what that title means in the context of the story.  Keeping reader interest is all about offering a series of questions or incomplete pieces of information in a way that creates a need in the reader to know what happens next.  The title is your first chance to do that.  Don’t throw it away on something generic (which means that it will be hard to find in searches, and may lead to your book being mistaken for a different one) or too on-the-nose