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Thursday 1 May 2014

Do’s and Don’ts for Choosing a Title—Tips, and a Free Tool, Too

by Carla Douglas
@CarlaJDouglas
The Internet is no place to be clever.

And nowhere is this truer than when it comes to choosing a title—for a book, a chapter or a blog post. Particularly for nonfiction.

Corina covered titles in detail on this blog in the fall of 2012. Below are some of the main points she gleaned from her survey, with a few new observations and tips thrown in.

Do’s and Don’ts 

Nonfiction

Do…

  • choose a title that is keyword-rich. It must say concisely—in a sentence or less—what the book will deliver. 
  • try to mimic the exact terms and phrases your reader will enter in a search window.
  • make it brief enough to show up clearly in a thumbnail.
  • allow yourself some creative leeway—either in the title or the subtitle, but not both.

Don’t…

  • make your reader think. He’s looking for specific information, and wants to know quickly if you have it or not.
  • become so enamoured of keywords that your title sounds awkward. 
  • try to trick your reader. Don’t, for example, put the word Scrivener in the title to make it click-worthy.
  • exaggerate your message and risk treading into click bait territory. Readers will stop trusting you. See above.

Of course there are always exceptions—good nonfiction titles that don’t convey a book’s thesis in a way that’s easily understood. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is one example—and what a great title it is—but unless you’re Oliver Sacks or you have his stature in the publishing world, then you should probably stick to the prosaic. Keep in mind, too, that his book was first published in 1985, long before metadata became the god we bow to.

Fiction

Do…

  • be clever if your genre expects and celebrates it. Think of some of mystery writer Elizabeth Spann Craig’s quilting series titles: Quilt Trip, Knot What It Seams. Go ahead and be clever if you can do clever well.
  • be familiar with the conventions of your genre. 
  • choose a title that fits your genre. If you’re unsure, have a closer look at the top 100 paid titles in your book’s category.
  • know your readers, and know what they’re expecting or looking for when they search for a new book to read.
  • read your title aloud for a sound check. 
  • be poetic and evocative—take readers somewhere, conjure an image, be visceral.

Don’t…

  • try to trick your reader. Don’t, for instance, intentionally use a title that readers will find familiar. For example, in the Kindle Romance section, I found these titles: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Heart’s Lonely Hunter and Lonely the Heart of the Hunter. Really? Be respectful. This is cleverness tipping over into poor taste. 

Fiction and Nonfiction

Do…

  • check your punctuation. A missing comma or question mark can change your meaning; an exclamation mark can turn a reader away. Be judicious.
  • check your titles at Google and Amazon and see what comes up. As Corina has pointed out, “you may not be thrilled to discover that your book surfaces alongside erotica sites and titles.”  
  • find out if others have used the title you have in mind. How the Light Gets In is the title of a novel by well-known mystery writer Louise Penny. It’s also the title of a book on writer’s craft by Pat Schneider. Both were published in 2013. Other examples abound: Jack London and Cormac McCarthy both published books titled The Road, nearly 100 years apart. That’s fine—there’s no copyrighting a title, and these duplications are coincidental. But wouldn’t you rather know than not know if your title’s out there working for someone else?   
  • read Corina’s posts from 2012 (Related Posts, below), which include a survey and reader comments about book titles.
  • read Sam Jordison’s wonderfully titled 2007 piece from The Guardian, “The name of the prose: what makes a great title?” in which he asks, “What curious alchemy is it that makes a title work?”

Free Tool for Titles

Which Words Do I Capitalize?

Finally, when you’re putting your title together, you might wonder which letters are capitalized and which aren’t. Does it irritate you (as it does many editors) when the first letter of every word in a title is capped? OR THE ENTIRE TITLE IS CAPPED? Fear not. There are many places you can look for help with this, or you can use this handy title capitalization tool. Gets it right every time, according to The Chicago Manual of Style, rules included, if you want to read them.

Enjoy!

Image by zhouxuan12345678

Related Posts

What Makes a Good Title?
What Makes a Good Title? Survey Results
What Makes a Good Title? Survey Participants Speak Up

7 comments:

  1. Another great article, Corina and Carla. I always learn something from you two!

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  2. Thanks, Arlene -- always nice to hear from you! Glad you liked it!

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  3. Thanks for this useful blog...

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  4. I liked the comment about googling a prospective title and seeing what comes up. I didn't do that with my first book and there was another book with the same title about erotic faeries of some kind, lol! Thanks for the tips!

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  5. Great stuff, Carla. I enjoy testing possible titles in searches at Amazon and Google before settling on anything. It's nice to know how many similar titles exist and if some of the words in my title are prompting keyword responses from Amazon before they're entirely typed out.

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  6. Nice stuff for the sharing I can see that you have lots of time on this article.
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