Choosing your book’s title is one of the most important and most influential parts of the production process.
The book title is the tool to connect with the audience. It is the medium through which readers’ brains make synapses that cause them to register the thought, “Hmmmm . . . I wonder what this is about.” The title is how your book will be known, recommended, and become a become a pop-culture phenomenon! If I’ve gotten you nervous about picking the right title, calm down. Here are some questions to ask yourself to start narrowing it down to the perfect book title.
1) To subtitle or not to subtitle?
First of all, the purpose of the MAIN title is to grab readers’ attention, to spark that “Hmmmmmm” factor I was talking about. The subtitle, however, is used to explain the structure, genre, and general themes of the book. In other words, what the book is really about. Most often, you won’t see a subtitle in fiction, but it is not unheard of. Perhaps Charles Dickens considered naming his famous holiday tale of Scrooge McDuck (I know, I know, that’s Mickey’s Christmas Carol, not the original) A Christmas Carol: The Story of How an Old Jerk Learns that His Money Will Be Pointless Once He’s Dead. Clearly, in this case, the subtitle would have helped explain the book’s purpose, but wouldn’t do much for the simple elegance of the title. Most memoirs also have subtitle, though if the writer is famous enough (such as Tina Fey in her book Bossypants or Bill Clinton in his book My Life), the subtitle isn’t really necessary. Do you see a pattern here? The subtitle helps to clarify the purpose of the book for the reader, but ONLY if the purpose isn’t distinguishable from the main title and/or cover.
2) Is controversy OK?
Sometimes, a little controversy in a book’s main title can be just what’s needed to get attention, but it depends on the audience. A great example of a successful “controversial” main title is the ____ for Dummies series. Calling potential readers dummies was a risk, but it was just clever and spunky enough to be attention-grabbing and, TADA!, also a cultural phenomenon.
3) Should I think of a broad or narrow audience?
In choosing the best title for your book, you don’t want to alienate audiences, but you also don’t want to have a title that is so vague and broad that it sort of touches on the needs of many audiences without fitting one perfectly. The title HAS to fit one natural audience perfectly. If it doesn’t, it will be much more difficult to reach that primary audience and, as a result, almost impossible to reach the broader secondary audience. Make it specific yet intriguing. If you’re writing a book about French Canadians in the 19th century, all three of those elements should be present in the title in order to reach your perfect audience (1) French, 2) Canadians, 3) 19th century). Otherwise, your book will be much more difficult to target for your perfect audience!
4) Whose opinions should I get?
While it’s certainly a valuable process to get a tally of opinions from everyone you know about the book title, it is important to get advice from book publishing professionals who understand the purpose and necessary ingredients for your book title. This person might be an editor, a book marketing person, a designer, another author, or an agent. While it’s true that no one knows your book as well as you do, book publishing professionals much have some insights to help you reach your perfect audience that you might not have thought of. Make sure you have some ideas to go on, though, before you reach out to these professionals. It’s good to have an idea of where you’re going before asking for directions to get there. To hire Wise, Ink’s expertise on this, click here!
5) What if I’ve done all of these things and I still don’t have the perfect title?
So you’ve taken all of these steps, but still don’t have that title with all the perfect ingredients? That title with a snappy, slightly controversial main title and a perfectly descriptive subtitle that makes your readers go, “Hmmmmm . . . “?
Give yourself a break. Both figuratively and actually. Don’t stress about it, and take a little time away from thinking about the title to work on other production items. Work hard with your editor to refine the text. On your own or with a publicist, explore people from whom you should seek endorsements (Twitter is a great place to identify experts). Explore covers you like on Amazon to show your cover designer when the time comes. I guarantee, something will come to you when you didn’t expect it to. It might not be the final title–but at least you’ll have an idea of where you’re going so you can ask for directions!
Authors, do you have a story about how you came up with the perfect title? We’d love to hear it!
My working title was ‘All That’s Left Behind,’ but it was too long winded and a little negative, so I changed it to ‘Take Me to the Castle.’ as it is set in Prague and I wanted to tie it to Kafka’s ‘The Castle’ and Havel’s ‘To the Castle and Back.’ titles are a tough one. It’s also good to look at your genre to help you to think about what might work. Loved ‘Author Indie Revolution!’
The thing with titles is that you have to kind of allow time for it to sink in and truly take root and ‘own’ it. I remember when I named the behemoth ‘Gunshot Glitter’ it took a wee while for that to happen. But sometimes you get that instant flash thing which is lovely. I was seriously, seriously struggling to name my 2nd novel, I knew I wanted the word Diamond in it, but capturing it in a title was proving so hard. But then a line from a docu on You Tube captured my imagination. She said something like ‘animals cannot lie’ and that was it. I had my title : ) And I am intensely happy about that!
I think you mean:
4) Whose opinions should I get?
EEEEK!!! We hate when we see dumb errors like these. Thanks for pointing it out…editors are human, too!