Wednesday, July 20, 2011

It's All in the Title

The title of your novel is more important than you realize. Not only do readers judge a book by its cover (oh yes they do!) they judge a book by its title.

In a few short words you need to convey a sense of what the story's main ingredients are, the curiosity that will draw in the reader as well as the connection with an emotion, memory or sense that will make the reader feel something and that feeling will intrigue them enough to take your book off the shelf and purchase it.

We've all seen the books that have horrible titles and if we hadn't read the blurb we never would have realized how good it was, or maybe even what it was about. There are many books that never hit the bestseller list, not because they weren't well written, but because their readership couldn't find them, didn't even know they existed.

So keep it in mind the next time you give your book a title that you love, maybe you should look a little harder in the direction that will help you find your market, your target audience. If you write romance, make sure your title gives a romantic feel, horror, same thing. Give your book the best chance you can by titling it in such a way that the readers can find it easy, remembering that your title is your first step in marketing your book to the world.


2 comments:

Mimi Barbour said...

I took your advice and changed the title of my soon-to-be-released book from 'Endless Possibilities' to "My Cheeky Angel". Thanks for the great blog!

Anonymous said...

Good idea, young Lady. I can say that because I'm nearly 200 years old. I had a novel I called 'Trying To Be In Two Towns A The Same Time' My editor changed it to 'A Tale Of Two Cities'

All the best, Charles