Need the Perfect Book Title? Maybe Not.

Author: Sandra Herner January 10, 2019

Is the perfect book title essential for selling a book? Many would say “yes” but I’m here to say “not exactly.” Writers seem to agonize over a book title longer than it seems to take to write the book itself!

Here’s a sobering fact: I’ve read that anywhere from 30-80% of book titles on commercially published books are NOT the ones the author submitted in the first place. They were chosen by the publisher’s marketing committee. These are people paid to “get it right,” so how are you, the author, supposed to know the perfect title? You aren’t.

But it IS a darned good idea to have one that works really, really well!

Your Book Title

You see, finding a perfect title (or perfect anything!) is not really the goal. Perfect is all in the eye of the critic. And you will always have critics warring over your title.

Instead of trying for perfection, try for “darned good.”

Titles are tough. There are lots of ideas on how to pick them: Simplistic ideas and complicated formulas.

Your Genre

For me, I believe a title needs to hint—or clearly state—the genre or premise. For instance, include “murder, mystery, death, intrigue, or adventure” to clearly and instantly show what the book is about if you are writing a book about any of these things.

The same can hold true for other genres, like romances, but when you get to some genres actually stating it in the title isn’t something you can easily do.

Take “science fiction.” This isn’t a term you can easily use within the title. So ask yourself what your book about that relates to science fiction? Aliens, viruses, monsters, dinosaurs, planets? These specifics and related words would pin down the genre to science fiction.

Do you need to be so direct? Of course not. You can use words that imply tone or emotion or purpose. These can give the flavor you want which, in itself, helps readers know they are intrigued enough to read more about it.

Book Title Resources

For more on picking your darned good book title, here are 3 websites that offer all the hints and ideas you’ll need. Go through each, taking notes about your own book as you go.

The first is pretty generic but good information to start you off.

The next two are by people who specialize in creating strong book sales on Amazon. They also offer programs for that purpose (the TCK program is pricey; Kindlepreneur is reasonable), but I mention their articles because these guys know their stuff. Their articles alone should give you more than enough to consider to help you choose your own title.

https://www.iuniverse.com/Resources/Writing-Editing/HowToChooseABookTitle.aspx

https://www.tckpublishing.com/how-to-choose-a-book-title/

https://kindlepreneur.com/how-to-title-a-book-with-good-book-titles/

I hope this helps. Comments are welcomed and I’d love to know how YOU came up with your title.