Jaws (franchise) about a great white shark terrorizing a beach resort. After various revisions and rewrites, Benchley delivered his final draft in January 1973. The title was not decided until shortly before the book went to print. Benchley says that he had spent months thinking of titles, many of which he calls "pretentious" such as "The Stillness in the Water" and "Leviathan Rising". Benchley regarded other ideas, such as "The Jaws of Death" and "The Jaws of Leviathan", as "melodramatic, weird, or pretentious." According to Benchley, the novel still did not have a title until twenty minutes before production of the book.
Jaws (novel) alone a title that we like. In fact, the only word that even means anything, that even says anything, is "jaws". Call the book "Jaws". He said "What does it mean?" I said, "I don't know, but it's short; it fits on a jacket, and it may work." He said, "Okay, we'll call the thing "Jaws". For the cover, Benchley wanted an illustration of Amity as seen through the jaws of a shark. Doubleday's design director, Alex Gotfryd, assigned book illustrator Wendell Minor with the task. The image was eventually vetoed for sexual overtones, compared by sales managers to the