Titles

There’s an art and science to book titling. And bluntly put, few people are any good at it. Just because you write or publish books doesn’t mean you’ll be any good at titling them – any more than someone who designs and builds cars would have any skill at naming them.

I’ve lost track of how many people have come up to me at book conferences, so proud of their new book “baby” and wanting me to be as proud. And the title just doesn’t cut it. “Great!” I exclaim. “If only…” I think to myself.

Take The Well-Fed Writer, for example. Why does it work? For starters, as mentioned earlier, it sets up the positive contrast to the “starving writer” – making it benefits-driven: it tells readers what the book will deliver.

That’s one way to do a book title – focus on benefits. Other titles you see in the gallery below showcase different approaches – but the end goal is always the same: to create something powerful, evocative and memorable.

Subtitles

It’s amazing how many people don’t even realize they should have a subtitle. But, if you want people to buy your book, you’ve got to quickly give them a sense of what it’s about and what’s in it for them.

While titles can – and should – be punchy and attention-getting, a subtitle is generally the workhorse of the two. It elaborates on the premise established by the title, provides more nuts-‘n-bolts detail, and, ideally, is hard-hitting in its own right.