A good book title is important and it can persuade an editor to read your manuscript. Good titles attract readers to look twice at your work. Give your work the best chance of being picked and read by coming up with a title that will blow your publisher away.
Steps
Brainstorming
- Finish writing the book. You can come up with a working title early, but don't stress over it. Once the book is finished, you can revise the title so that it makes sense with the entire work.
- Recruit a friend or editor. Ask someone to join your brainstorming session. Brainstorming with another person is faster, more effective, and more fun than thinking about it yourself. Ask the other person to read your book.
- Meet in a quiet, relaxed location so you can both focus on your work. Put on unobtrusive music if it helps you think.
- Decide the book's main purpose. Read your book and think about its identity. Think of titles related to the central message, or to the main emotion it inspires. Talk to your friend about what inspired you to write the book, and how you felt as you wrote it. These conversations will guide you to a title that fits the story and your personality.
- Different people may interpret your work in different ways; let each person involved in the brainstorming session list their ideas. Share the lists of ideas with each other.
- If you're stuck, brainstorm keywords that cover your book's main themes and story.
- List favorite lines in the book. Write down favorite phrases from your work. These may not work as book titles, but they can give you raw material to play with.
- Consider naming the book after the main character. Think of titles that mention the main character of the book, or a group of characters. For example:
- Jude the Obscure
- Julius Caesar
- Anne of Green Gables
- Little Women
- Reference the setting. This can be a good choice if the setting is a key part of your work, or if it's an unusual setting that attracts attention. For example:
- Little House on the Prairie
- Through the Looking Glass
- The Jungle Book
- 50,000 Leagues Under the Sea
- Consider poetic or mysterious names. Your title can address the book's themes or inspiration rather than the exact content. Mysterious titles intrigue readers who are looking for something poetic or unusual. For example:
- The Shadow of the Wind
- Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
- Balance mystery and clarity.[1] Just like book covers, book titles need to give enough information about the book's subject without giving away too much, in order to make the reader curious. The way the author works with these two elements - clarity and mystery - really depends on the type of book. For non-fiction, clarity is more important (especially for books that focus on a very specific topic). For fiction, mystery is more important.
- Draw people in with a short, punchy title. This is a popular approach for nonfiction books. The title should give the reader an idea of the book's topic, but it doesn't need to be an exact description. For example:
- Thinking, Fast and Slow
- How Not to be Wrong
- Good to Great
- Made to Stick
- Address the reader's problems. Think of titles that relate to common life experiences, especially ones that promise solutions to the reader's problems. Books with these titles range from self-help books to literary novels. For example:
- How to Get Happy
- The Awkward Age
- If necessary, use a subtitle to clarify any misconception. How to Be a Man is a very different book than How to Be a Man: A Memoir of the Rocky Mountains.
- Look at other book titles in similar genres. Browse book titles online or in bookstores and libraries. Don't even consider using an existing title, but good titles spark ideas for other good titles. Identify what appeals to you about the title, and brainstorm ideas for your book with similar characteristics.
- Titles aren't protected by copyright, at least in the United States, but unique phrases may be trademarked.[2] You're probably safe if you go with a well-known phrase, but you're still risking confusion at the bookstore.
- Dare to come up with titles written in other codes. Can you express your book's essence with a mathematical expression, a musical term, or a foreign language? Foreign phrases, especially Latin ones, are fairly well-understood among readers, and these may give your title an international feel. For example:
- 4-1=0
- De Profundis
- Aim for a large number of titles. Use all of the techniques above, until you have 25 possible titles or even 50! If the titles are not good, they can spark more ideas and discussions.
- You can combine more than one of the above techniques. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets mentions both a character and a setting, and foreshadows the climax of the novel.
Making Adjustments
- Narrow it down. Go through your list of ideas and pull out ten favorites. Follow the steps below to evaluate each title. Examine each title. If there's no clear winner, narrow it down to your favorite four or five and repeat the process.
- Critique your title. Review the title with your editor, publisher, or a friend whose judgment and scrutiny you can trust. Would it attract the attention of people who would enjoy your work? Is it memorable? Does it relate to the contents of your book?
- Say your title out loud. How does it sound? Does it have good flow and rhythm, making it easy and pleasant to say? If the title sounds strange, or is difficult to say, or breaks grammatical rules, you'd better be confident that the style matches your book.
- Stay concise. Keep your title as short as possible, no longer than a few words. Long titles are difficult to remember, and rarely reach out and grab a passing reader.
- If you think it's necessary to add more detail, attach a subtitle. For example, the cover of Wild Swans shows off the short, punchy title, and adds the informative subtitle Three Daughters of China in much smaller text.
- Sketch a cover for your book. Sketch a simple book cover just to get an idea of the title's impression. Play with different arrangements of the title and your name. Does it pop out at you from the shelf? Is there a drawing that would work particularly well with the title?
Tips
- Once you've decided on a title, search for it online to make sure it won't be confused with another book.
- As a final test, imagine reading your own obituary. Is this the book title you'd want mentioned?
- Biography and memoir titles are often a little oblique, mentioning the subject's name but giving an unusual glimpse of the subject's life.
- Hold your brainstorm just before you sleep. People tend to be more creative at this time, and if you're lucky, this effort will provoke dreams which can lead you to more ideas.
Related wikiHows
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Sources and Citations
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source How to of the Day http://ift.tt/1Nlz3j8
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