Choosing the Title for Your Book

By Rick Frishman - Mar 21 , 2008

Great book titles have gigantic impact!

Your book’s title can be the most important element in your book’s publicity campaign. A fabulous title, by itself, can generate tremendous interest in your book. Upon hearing it, others will react and want to know more about it.

Great titles practically sell books by themselves. Of course, books with great titles will do even better when the books’ content is also fabulous, but the fact that they have outstanding titles certainly never hurts.

In your title and subtitle, explain the benefits your book will provide. For example:

• Networking Magic: Find the Best—From Doctors, Lawyers, and Accountants to Homes, Schools, and Jobs
• The GIFTionary: An A–Z Reference Guide for Solving Your Gift-Giving Dilemmas . . . Forever

The media loves titles that tell it the benefits that the book will provide or the problems it will solve.

Analyze recent wonderful titles and the reasons for their successes. For example:

• The One Minute Manager
• Who Moved My Cheese?
• Catch-22
• Chicken Soup for the Soul
• The Tipping Point
• L.A. Confidential
• Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive
• Guerrilla Marketing

Write an extraordinary title for your book, one that people will immediately respond to and retain. Test it by running it past your friends, family, and associates, and observe the reaction it evokes. Great titles get repeated and mentioned by the media. They alone can sell books.

Plaster the title of your book on everything and display it widely. Incorporate it in your website address, your e-mail signature, and your letterhead. Make T-shirts, postcards, bookmarks, calendars and other products that can publicize your book. Wear them, carry them, and give them to your family and friends.

Have branded items created that relate to your book. For instance, if you wrote a gardening book, create items such as pots, tools, gloves, fertilizer packs, or plant markers made that bear your book’s name, logo, and/or cover art.

“Authors should trademark their book titles, especially when they are extensions of their businesses or are based on them,” noted New York City publishing attorney Lloyd J. Jassin says. “If the title represents the goodwill of your business, try to obtain the exclusive right to use the title or similar identifiers. However, only series titles, not single or one-shot titles, can be registered. So, if you plan to launch a companion newsletter or publish a series of books, try to get federal trademark protection.”

Since trademark law is a highly specialized area, consult with an intellectual property or publishing attorney about protecting your book’s title. Jassin also cautions authors to keep an eye on their publishing contracts because most contracts give the publisher, not the author, the right to select the title.

Similarly, how your book looks can be a dynamic publicity tool. Great-looking covers attract readers and promote sales. Covers that look good and state the benefits that they provide or problems they answer are even better.

Publishers usually control book-cover designs and don’t give authors much input. An exception may be artists or authors in visual fields. When appropriate, my associate, Robyn Freedman Spizman, will design a cover and submit it with the book proposal to her publisher. To strengthen her pitches, she lists specific ways in which her design will help to promote her book. Elements that she suggests are often included in the final covers.