As a writer, you should know how to come up with a great book title.
Coming up with a great book title is nothing less than great art, and as much as there is not always loads of pressure on you to find the perfect title if you are traditionally publishing, as a self-publishing author, you will have to put some serious effort on coming up with a fantastic book title.
It can help if you have a more substantial title that immediately tells a reader about the following things:
• What kind of book is it?
• The category/ the genre of the book.
Ideally, the title should induce a sense of intrigue – so – as a novice writer, you should consider a few essential things when coming up with the perfect book title.
Read on to learn more!
Understanding the Marketing Perspective
Firstly, you will need to understand why titles matter from a marketing perspective. Getting straight to the point – titles are essentially marketing, and you might think the book cover, as well as the book cover, is what will make your book stand out on the shelves.
A book cover and its title usually work in sync to say to a potential reader what the book is about, which is why it is always a great idea to hire a professional book designer, such as one of the best book cover designers in the UK to create the perfect book cover that blends with the title and make your book stand out from other books.
At this point, you might be able to perfectly understand why bad covers and bad titles are inappropriate and can do a disservice to a book. A bad cover and a bad title can lead to a book never finding its target reader audience.
This aspect perfectly explains why you must know your chosen genre’s contemporary popular and generally accepted title conventions. You will have to be well-read and familiar with the books that are selling the most in your selected category and genre.
You will have to do tons of research to ensure that your book fits in – but – also stands out at the same time.
Study Title Trends
Probably one of the most important tips is to study the recent and popular title trends in your chosen category and genre. This activity can be practically as simple as browsing Goodreads lists for upcoming debuts or books from specific categories.
You can also browse Amazon and look at books that are currently released. However, you shouldn’t only be looking at the lists of upcoming books but also at the past couple of years. It is essential to mention here that you cannot only browse best-sellers because you will also want to be pretty aware of current trends.
Aside from literal research, you need to be an avid reader in your chosen category and genre as well. If you want to be a good writer in your chosen genre, you will also want to be an avid reader.
If you are a regular reader – you should be thinking about those titles that are catching your eye when you go to a bookstore or browse for books online. You will want to sit down and think about what it is about them that you like, or you get attracted to.
Think about what those titles are doing to stand out and whether that same approach is going to work out for you and your book.
As you will start to read and do your research, trends will start to emerge and become clear to you. Gradually, you will begin to get a sense of what is in vogue in your genre.
Make a List of Titles
While you are doing your research, you will want to make a list of titles that stand out to you. Include titles in the list that you like, and also look at the literary aspects of the title.
As you make a list, you will start noticing common trends in descriptive words – mainly – descriptive nouns, action verbs, and adjectives or nouns that are specifically popular within your chosen genre.
You will start to notice that it all comes down to wordplay, so you have to get a little bit analytical about how all the parts of speech function within the title, the feelings they evoke, the kind of imagery they induce, and what they say about a book.
For instance, a common practice that writers use in their titles is using an oxymoron, which is a title that has two conflicting words that play against each other. The underlying reason why this kind of practice works as a title is that it is essentially a form of marketing.
When you see something like this in your mind, you cannot help but get excited about the two conflicting ideas with a creepy, edgy tone. Naturally, you will be drawn to the book’s title and cover to know a bit more.
Brainstorming Keywords
You will want to brainstorm ideas on a list to come up with the perfect book title. You will want to start the brainstorming process by thinking about popular buzzwords in your genre. By doing so, you can avoid bland words that won’t make your book stand out.
You will want to think about the concepts in your book. Starting from buzzwords, you will think about words related to the themes of your book, the idea, feelings that you want to evoke, feelings your characters have, character traits, personality traits, etc. You will also want to think about theme-related words.
You could also jot down words related to your character’s names, places, and things that you have used in your book. You can also think about concept phrases, such as short phrases that come to mind related to the essence of your book.
Now, you can also seriously dedicate time and effort to the perfect book title by combing through your book and noting down lines that sound pretty and fancy. You could also note down the things that you would want your readers to turn into quotes.
