The book is a rambling mess and the title is, too. This seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people can’t summarize their book in one or two sentences because they really have no idea what they were trying to say. Just write down everything that comes to you and keep massaging it until you hit gold. Write long, ridiculous titles and then try to shorten them. Look at other titles in your genre and see what works and what doesn’t. Try arranging those words in various orders. If you’re having trouble choosing a title, brainstorm. If you’re stuck for a title, reread your manuscript and look for anything that might work. Maybe it’s a snippet of dialog or a sentence fragment. Some of the best titles come from lines in the book itself. They can tell you if it makes sense, matches the work, and is something they would pick up in the store. Get feedbackĪsk others who have read your work to evaluate your title. “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” Readers referred to those books as “Harry Potter” or, “The newest Harry Potter,” but the subtitle was there for extra clarification. Subtitles also work for fiction to differentiate novels in a series. Something like, “Loser: How to Lose Weight By Eating Only Mushrooms,” is an example. The short, catchy part of the title can be used to lure readers in while the longer subtitle can clarify what the book is actually about. Subtitles are used most often in non-fiction. But you might have a problem if there are two novels titled, “Floored!” and they are both literary fiction. A how-to book called, “Floored!” which is about flooring will not likely be confused with a novel called, “Floored!” that’s about a character that receives a big surprise. It’s not a deal breaker if other books share your title (titles can’t be copyrighted, after all), but it becomes more problematic if the book also is in your genre. Research your choicesīefore you fall in love with a title, check to see how many other books carry the same title. If you choose to go long, make sure you have a good reason for doing so and that you’re not just being lazy or uncreative. Short may be best, but some books just require a long title. “Hey, did you read, ‘Fat Loss’,” is a lot easier to say than, “You should check out ‘Get in Shape, Lose Weight, and Lose Fat Through Exercise and Calorie Counting’.” But don’t fear a long title Long titles are also hard to recommend to friends. Long titles may be truncated when viewed online or in databases and they’re hard to turn into good urls. A title with a short word count, though, can be printed much larger and is easier to see. For a long title to fit on a book jacket, the font often has to be smaller and hard to read. When readers peruse a crowded shelf, long titles often get overlooked. Long titles create a host of issues for readers and catalogers. Let the critics and reviewers label your book as “Epic” or “Revolutionary” if it’s deserving of that honor. Readers don’t like to be lied to, so err on the side of under-promising with your title and then delivering a great piece that exceeds their expectations. It’s doubtful that your non-fiction book is truly revolutionary, no matter how much you may think so. You may have a great story, but it’s doubtful that it’s truly epic in scale. Words like “Epic,” “Fantastic,” “Revolutionary,” “Breakthrough,” and “Incredible” are overused and they promise something that your work likely can’t deliver. While I can’t make it any easier for you to choose your ideal title, I can give you some things to consider during the process. Many writers find choosing a title to be more difficult and frustrating than revisions. You don’t want it to be so long that people give up reading it, nor so short that people have no idea what they’re getting. You want it to convey what the work is about without giving away the ending. You don’t want the same title that a thousand others have already used. Titling a book or an article is a tricky thing.
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