Writing A Great Book Title

In 2019, a literature research firm set out to discover how much readers judge books by their covers, and found something unexpected. First, the Codex Group confirmed that cover design affects whether a browsing customer will click an Amazon page's "read more" button—no surprises there. What researchers found peculiar was the number one characteristic that persuaded readers to click:

The title.

Two out of three "read more" clicks were motivated by an intriguing title.

Without a compelling title, authors might miss the opportunity to stand out on Amazon or Barnes & Noble shelves.

Here's how to write a great one:

Pain Points.?You can grab a reader's attention by reiterating what ails them. If your book helps people finance their way out of debt, your title might include "debt" because it conjures a compelling negative emotion.

Going a step further, your title could insinuate the?relief?your readers will experience when they pick up your book. Escape from Debt or Freedom from Debt are titles that will attract readers feeling a certain pain and searching for a solution.

Mystery. Pull your readers in with a curious title such as After, The Secret of Lost Stones, or The Dressmaker's Gift. These were some of the top titles from the Codex Group's study because they beg the reader to wonder what’s inside.

"After" what? What "secret"? What’s the "gift"? Readers want to crack the cover and find out.

Compelling Questions. You can entice readers by posing a question in your title, like the famous science fiction novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? To make a book title more relevant to the reader, you could ask them a direct question, such as, Should You Quit Your Job?

Perhaps most effectively, you can put a questions in the reader's head. For example, the book How to Prevent the Next Pandemic has a compelling title because it asks the reader to consider what the author's solution might be.

Numbers. The fiction classics 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea have memorable titles because they cleverly use numbers. Each of these numbers provides a clue about the story inside, and the specificity of the numbers helps them stick out and build intrigue.

Numbers work for nonfiction titles as well, liket 127 Hours. The film 127 Hours is based on a book titled Between a Rock a Hard Place, and the catchier title is certainly the one with numbers. Since the films release, the book's new title includes "127 Hours" as a prefix to boost attention.

Wordplay. A proven tactic to increase title memorability is wordplay. If a reader can remember your title out of a dozen books, they will be more likely to buy it.

Here are some highly-recognizable titles that exemplify the power of wordplay and memorability…

Alliteration: Pride and Prejudice; The Great Gatsby; Of Mice and Men

Rhyming:?The Cat in The Hat; The Bling Ring; Don Juan

Puns:?The Origin of Feces; Tequila Mockingbird; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

These book titles are catchy, entertaining, and easy to remember because they use clever language.

If you're struggling to find inspiration for creative wordplay, you can always enlist the help of a digital title generator or professional ghostwriter to make your title stand out from the rest.

Simplicity.?Readers also gravitate toward simple titles. Nine out of ten top performing titles in the Codex Group's study were four words or less. Not a single word in any top ten book title was longer than three syllables.

While a title can be complex, simpler titles are easier to say, share, and remember.

Subtitles. If you want to write a long title, consider adding a subtitle instead.

Effective subtitles include specific keywords that relate to the book’s content. This helps readers easily find your book in bookstores and search engine results pages.

With these tips in mind, grab a pen and paper and list out ideas for a book title. You're sure to write something great!