The prospect of titling your book can be daunting. Surely, if you could have distilled the entire message of your book into one short catchphrase, you wouldn’t have spent the last couple of years writing 100,000+ words about it!

That’s why it’s important to use a guide when creating a title and subtitle for your book. Here are tips from our titling experts on how to create a title that garners readers and sells.

What is the purpose of a title and subtitle in a nonfiction work?

Titles differentiate your book in the market and attract your intended audience by giving readers an idea of your book’s theme and content.

In fiction, you can do this by including characters’ names and the setting in the title. For example, Holly Holiday and the Christmas Forest gives readers an idea of the book’s theme and content by locating it in a time and place (a Christmas forest, presumably around Christmastime) and naming a specific main character (Holly Holiday, a female-coded character that exudes Christmas cheer).

In nonfiction, you can make your book stand out to readers by naming and promising to solve a specific issue of your target audience. For example, Social Equations: The STEM Professional’s User Guide to Building Positive Relationships speaks directly to the target audience (STEM professionals) and promises to solve an issue they might have (building positive relationships).

What makes a good title?

Strong titles should be:

· Attention-grabbing

· Memorable

· Informative

· Easy to say

Make sure that your title doesn’t unintentionally say anything embarrassing or problematic. To prevent this, vet your book’s title the same way you’d vet its content: by doing research and sharing it with editors, proofreaders, sensitivity readers, and members of your target audience.

What makes a good subtitle?

Most nonfiction works use a subtitle to clarify a book’s specific subject to the reader. Strong subtitles should:

· Be as short and specific as possible

(Example: The Grace in Grief: Healing and Hope After Miscarriage)

· Clarify who the book’s ideal readers are

(Example: Money Matters for Nonprofits: How Board Members Can Harness the Power of Financial Statements by Understanding Basic Accounting)

· Showcase your book’s benefits to the reader

(Example: Living On Purpose: Five Deliberate Choices to Realize Fulfillment and Joy)

· Highlight the problems your book will solve

(Example: Love Remembers: Holding on to Hope and Faith in the Face of Early-Onset Alzheimer’s)

· Make readers want to open the book

(Example: More After the Break: A Reporter Returns to Ten Unforgettable News Stories)

Try to include keywords in your subtitle that your target audience might type into search engines like Google or Amazon.

Important factors that impact titles and subtitles

When selecting both a title and subtitle, it’s vital to keep the following criteria in mind:

· Target readers: Does the title reflect their values and interests?

· Branding: Does your title align with your brand message and vision?

· Competitive titles: Are there other titles and/or subtitles in your genre that are too similar?

· Title trends: What’s currently working in the marketplace?

· Amazon optimization: Will Amazon's algorithm "like" your title?

· Searchability/discoverability: Does your title include things like special characters and colloquialisms that could create word confusion and inconsistent search criteria?

· Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Use keywords to ensure that your book comes up when people search the subject online.

· Memorability: Is it catchy, specific, and concise?

· Pronounceability: When you’re interviewed for NPR’s Fresh Air and Terry Gross says the name of your book, does it roll off the tongue?

· Advertising: How will the title appear in marketing and advertising (on retailer sites, in ads, on the author website, in social shares and hashtags, etc.)?

· Genre standards: Does the title fall within the standards of the genre, while also being distinctive enough that the book stands out to the appropriate consumers?

· Trademarks: Are there any possible trademark issues for the proposed titles and/or subtitles?

By considering all of the contexts in which your book’s title will be used, you ensure that it is punchy and effective everywhere.

How do I brainstorm a title and/or subtitle?

1. Create a list of keywords and important phrases from your book—the principal terms that best represent your theme.

While keywords used in a book’s title or subtitle are weighted more heavily by Amazon when determining search results, the more times a keyword appears in the content (which is indexed by Amazon when the “Look Inside” feature is activated), the higher the book will be positioned within search results.

2. Read the Greenleaf Learning Center article about using Google Tools and Trends to help see which keywords could be most beneficial to SEO.

There’s no single way to determine if a title is going to propel your book to success, but there are tools available to help authors make informed titling decisions. Two tools we recommend are Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends.

3. If you need more help, search online for “Title Generator Tools.”

There are plenty of these title brainstorming helpers available that simply ask you to input keywords and will produce title and subtitle suggestions!

4. Get feedback from a few trusted friends, colleagues, and ideally, your distribution, marketing, and editorial teams.

Keep in mind, however, that too many opinions can often cause even more confusion. Listen most to those who have experience in the marketplace, in publishing, and with SEO.

In the end, there’s an art and a science to selecting the perfect title and subtitle for your book, so use these suggested methods and tools to provide insight and direction when making the final decision.