#8 - Thinking Of A Title (HOWNTWAN)

This is the eighth article in the semi-comedic series, How Not To Write A Novel (HOWNTWAN). The first article in the series can be found here: What's Your Story About? Keep reading during the next couple months for the rest of the series.

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8. Thinking Of A Title

“Hey, what’s you book called, by the way?”

“First Blood.”

“And it’s on Amazon?”

“Yep.”

But don’t expect to find it.

I searched First Blood on Amazon Kindle today and I found 161 results. I just hope you can remember the name of that author, or you’ll never find her book.

Choosing the correct title for your book may not seem a very important task, but it can make a huge difference to your sales. Here’s another scenario:

“Hey, what’s your book called, by the way?”

“Jermaine’s Legacy.”

“And it’s on…”

And again, don’t expect to find it. German’s Legacy, Charming Legacy, and The Main Legacy, all yielded results, but not the correct one.

And then there are the authors that go for something so unique, you’ll never find their book either. Examples are (all real): Palimpsest, Kydona, and Aurora Abroad.

Amazon lists over two million books in its Kindle store. That’s a lot of books. So, if you’re looking to stand out, and at the same time be found, you’d better think long and hard about the correct book title.

The choice of a title alone will not consign you to keeping your day job, but it can have an effect on the visibility of your book. I’m not going to make this a long article, I’ll use the extra words in another essay, later in this book. All I will say is this:

1/ Keep it as short as possible - Long titles look very small in thumbnails

2/ Keep it punchy - remember you’re competing against two million titles, so make it memorable

3/ Keep it different - First Blood. Enough said

4/ Keep it genre-appropriate - Her Midnight Ride, may not attract the correct audience for a book about taxi-cabs

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