Book title ideas that sell

A smart title is great if it’s clear, but a clear title is always preferable. The best? A clear and smart title. A shorter title is better than a longer one. Your reader will spend only four seconds on the cover. While some long titles have been successful, generally the shorter the better.

A title is part of the cover of your book. Busy shoppers, including shoppers from bookstores, wholesalers, distributors, and your audience, shop primarily because of the cover. Dan Poynter, author of Writing Nonfiction, says, “The outer package sells the inner product.” Make your cover sizzle.

Start with a working title before writing your chapters. Include your topic, your theme, and use the benefits of the book in your subtitle if possible. Here are the ideas for titles of books that are sold!

1. Make an impact for your headline – Check magazine print and radio ad headlines.

See other authors’ titles on bookstore shelves. Your title should compel the reader to buy now. What title grabs you? Greater rage or taking care of dad?

2. Include your solution in your title.

Does your title sell your solution? Make sure you answer the question instead of asking one. For example, Got Minerals ?, or Minerals: The Essential Link to Health. Use positive language instead of negative. For example, without minerals you will die may be minerals: the essential link for health.

3. Make it easy for readers to buy.

Readers want a magic pill. They want to follow the instructions and enjoy the benefits that the title promises. For example, 1001 Ways to Market Your Books by John Kremer offers at least 1001 ways for authors and publishers to market their books.

4. Expand your title to other books, products, seminars, and services.

Make sure your title works well with the title of your presentations, articles, and press releases that you will need to promote the book. Such seminars and teleclasses titled “How to Write and Sell Your Book – Quick!” and “Seven Sure Ways to Advertise Your Business” are included under the umbrella of “speedy book writing, publishing and promoting.”

5. Use original expressions, a way to express an idea for your book, only yours.

Sam Horn, author of Tongue Fú !, puts a special twist on defusing verbal conflict.

6. Include benefits in your caption if your title has none.

Specific benefits invite sales. For example, Marilyn and Tom Ross’ Jump Start Your Book Sales: A Money-Making Guide for Authors, Freelance Publishers, and Small Printers.

7. Choose book covers from others in your field as models.

Go to your local bookstore with markers and five-color paper. Explore the section your book would be placed in. Pick five book titles and covers that appeal to you. Photocopy or draw those, keeping in mind the colors, layout, fonts, and font sizes. Add other colors that you like. Place the cover of the book you love near your workstation to inspire you. For the final copy, use professional cover designers if possible.

8. Be outrageous with the title of your book.

People judge a book by its title. Your reader will spend only four seconds on the front cover and eight seconds on the back cover. It should be so eye-catching and catchy that it forces the reader to buy on the spot or look beyond the back cover. Take a risk. Be a little crazy, even extravagant.

9. Be your strongest salesperson.

Choose the strongest words, benefits, and metaphors to drive your audience to buy. Titles sell books.

10. Include your audience in your title. This gives your book a slant.

When your title is not directed at other famous authors, titles from other famous authors win. Always make the title clear and make it easy for your audience to recognize that they need your book. Your title and cover is your book’s number one sales tool. Short titles are the best, say three to six words. John Gray didn’t get much attention with his book “What Your Mother Couldn’t Tell You and What Your Father Didn’t Know.” He shortened it to the now famous, “Men are from Mars, women are from Venus.”

A prominent title sells books. Be sure to put some time and effort into this part of your book, the main essential “Hot Selling Point.”