7 Tips to Help You Write Can’t-Miss Book Titles for Boffo Book Sales
By Roberta Rosenberg on Jun 14, 2008 in Book Publishing
In the April issue of Steve Harrison’s Book Marketing Update, there’s an article based on author John Kremer’s (1001 Ways to Market Your Book) thoughts on book titling. With so many of us involved in self-publishing POD and ebooks, I thought I’d synopsize the recommendations.
- Make your title memorable, since 80% of books are sold by word-of-mouth.
- Short titles are best, most successful titles are around 5 words. Add a subtitle to expand and/or illuminate the information about your book.
- Numbers in titles can be very effective for non-fiction, just as they are when writing headline copy.
- Include keywords for non-fiction titles. You want to put the main search terms for your subject in your title or subtitle, but don’t use terms that are too generic.
- Try inventing or coining a word for your title, but strive for conceptual clarity rather than showing off how clever you are. (I coined ‘macromize” for a promotion I did for a book about um, Wordstar macros years ago. I still like it.
- Try to think brandable – the Chicken Soup, Idiots and Dummies series represent genius-level book branding at its finest.
- Don’t try to do too much with your title. Think brand, then add the specific audience you’re going after.
Lastly, try the Title Scorer at Lulu.com … it’s free! Created by stat techs based on 50 years of research on the commonalities of best-seller book titles, it’s a nifty way to get some useful feedback on titles-in-progress. (Originally developed for novelists, us less arty, more non-fiction types can still have fun.)
Of course, there are popular exceptions to just about every one of these tips, but knowing the rules before you creatively break ‘em could be a smart move, no matter how you title the result.
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The Trout Underground | Jun 16, 2008 | Reply
In order to tap the crossover market, I’m trying to incorporate the concepts of sex, Paris Hilton and “Get Rich Immediately” into my fly fishing book title (fly fishing has nothing to do with any of those).
What could go wrong?
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Roberta Rosenberg | Jun 16, 2008 | Reply
@Trout – hmm, let’s see … 10 No-Fail Ways to Get Rich Quick & Get Paris Hilton to Fish Your Fly.
Too long?
Meryl K. Evans | Jun 17, 2008 | Reply
Hilarious, Roberta! Make it shorter by… “10 Guaranteed Ways to Fast Riches and Paris Hilton Fishing Your Fly.”
OK, maybe not…
Meryl K. Evans’s last blog post..Telling the Hard Truths of the Writing Life
Graham Strong | Jun 19, 2008 | Reply
How ’bout this:
“Hookers: The Socialite’s Anti-Guide to ‘Striking’ It Big!”
Actually, in my home town there was a fishing store on the seedy street in town called “Hookers” — true story. (And you don’t want to know what the hot dog vendor was called… seriously…)
~Graham
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Hendry Lee | Jun 25, 2008 | Reply
I’ve been wondering how about the title for my next ebook. Thanks for the resource at Lulu.
Alex Mandossian says that the book title is the noun (name) while the subtitle is the verb or promise.
Hendry Lee’s last blog post..Blog Title — Do You Write It First?
Cathy Stucker | Sep 19, 2009 | Reply
Non-fiction titles should be brief and descriptive, and suggest a benefit. A sub-title can expand on the title.
Dump unneeded words. “Lose Weight, Get Rich and Have Great Sex” is better than “How to Lose Weight, Get Rich and Have Great Sex.” The “How to” is implied. (BTW–that title could probably sell a lot of books! ;o) )
Great tips–thanks!
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