photo credit: mmatins

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.

1. Make your title memorable, since 80% of books are sold by word-of-mouth.
2. Short titles are best, most successful titles are around 5 words. Add a subtitle to expand and/or illuminate the information about your book.
3. Numbers in titles can be very effective for non-fiction, just as they are when writing headline copy.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Try to think brandable - the Chicken Soup, Idiots and Dummies series represent genius-level book branding at its finest.
7. 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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• My favorite resource on landing pages - The ultimate guide to writing and designing effective landing pages - Marketing Sherpa’s Landing Page Handbook, 2008 (aff)