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 The age old convention ‘never judge a book by its cover’, wasn’t written for the reader with a short attention span. In this day and age, titles do matter in terms of both publication and “sellability”. It all comes down to being able to substantially attract a potential reader’s attention; it has to jump out and give the reader room for pause. If it doesn’t, the book will simply be passed over for something else.
If you’ve ever paused to observe people in a bookstore, the first thing that catches your attention is how they approach the bookshelves. A different, interesting title will make the reader reach out for the book out of pure curiosity. So when settling on a title, don’t just slap one on and think nothing more of it: put in something that summarizes your book and at the same time, leaves room for mystery.
But settling on a title is hard work especially for a writer who is invariably too close to the project to think objectively of what effectively attracts attention, not realizing that quite often the title is within the content itself. One way around this would be to give your work over to an unbiased reader or editor and see what they have to say; their feedback might be the inspiration you’re lacking.
Or, as one publishing professional puts it, uncork a bottle of wine and let the writing take its course, making a list of all words and phrases that directly correlate to your book’s plot. In your intoxication (sic), however, try to keep to an overall central theme or message. And once the list is complete or the bottle’s empty (whatever comes first), categorize your words. Elect the snappiest words from the bunch that while saying something about your novel, doesn’t bore your readers into tears, either.
Should you be planning a series of novels on the other hand (Think Harry Potter, Nancy Drew/The Hardy Boys, The Chronicles of Narnia, etc.), your title will effectively be your brand. This is how you’re going to need to sell it and for brands, you need to ensure they’re easy enough to become household names because as each book in the series is published, there is a built in audience for subsequent books.
Another great way to increase marketability and sales is through your subtitle, or the little tag line that goes with your book. This is your “in” to convince your potential readers that this is the book for them, that their lives will be richer with it, or poorer without it. Basically, you need to sell it so they think they can’t live without it.
You can always use humor or emotional triggers in the title, subtitle or both to sell your book but avoid clichés and idioms like the plague. You don’t want anything hackneyed, after all; it needs to be unique and different and wholly original.
The last thing you might want to do before finalizing your title is to see whether a similarly titled book is already out there and although you can’t copyright or patent a title, you might want to realize duplicate titles tends to confuse prospective readers. Keeping it original will help ensuring it will increase your book or novel’s sales.
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