How to create a great title for your book or short story

A great title captures the essence of your writing idea and story. It piques the curiosity of your target reader and digs into the center core for your target audience's interests. To achieve this, focus on brainstorming and drafting with your audience and genre in mind. To create a great title for your new book. Try one or a combination of these to spark your imagination and find the best title for your new book or short story.

Before you start:

Know your audience. Who is your ideal reader? What are they looking for? What grabs the attention of your target reader?

These are powerful things that you'll want to know before you consider your title.

Research bestsellers in your category: Success breeds success. There are lots of great books with great titles. Research these and get some inspiration.

For non-fiction try using character names for biographies or combining abstract nouns for some literary fiction. This will help readers immediately know what to expect.

Write the title last:

Many writers, wait till the best draft is completed and their best title emerges once the piece is complete. A working title can help you start, but finishing the draft first allows you to find a perfect, story-driven phrase.

Brainstorming techniques:

The essence test. Distill the entire story or article down to a single sentence. Some call this "the elevator technique" Think of poetic or symbolic ways to express that core idea in just a few words.

Look within your text. Reread your draft, paying attention to powerful lines of dialogue, evocative metaphors, or key phrases that capture the tone or theme.

Many classic titles come directly from the text itself.

Focus on the hook:

Brainstorm a list of titles that create a "curiosity gap"—promising an intriguing detail or unexpected twist.

For example, a title like "Three Reasons Why Nobody Cares About Your Writing" can be enhanced to "Three Reasons Why Nobody Cares About Your Writing and What You MUST NOT Do About It".

Use "fill-in-the-blank" formulas:

This technique is especially useful for non-fiction articles and blog posts.

The "How-to": "How to [Achieve a Benefit]"

The "Numbers" listicle: "[Number] Ways to [Do Something]"

The "Secrets": "[Number] Secret(s) of [Topic]"

The "Why": "Why [Something is Important or Works]"

Play with contrasting ideas:

Juxtaposing two unexpected words or concepts can create an intriguing and memorable title, such as Cloud Atlas or Sharp Objects.

Refining your title:

Keep it short and memorable, especially to start with. Most readers remember short, graby titles better than long ones and you can't argue with the numbers of books sold with short graby titles.

Aim for a title that is easy to say and has a good flow. For longer or more complex non-fiction, consider adding a descriptive subtitle.

Search for uniqueness:

Before settling on a title, search bookseller websites like Amazon and use Google to see if similar titles already exist, especially within your genre. A unique title will help your work stand out and be easier for readers to find.

Gather feedback:

Create a shortlist of your best options and test them on friends, family, maybe a Facebook or Reddit group you belong too. Ask for their first impressions and which one makes them most want to read more of your writing.

Check the flow

Say the title out loud. Does it roll off the tongue easily and nicely? A title with a pleasing sound is more likely to stick in a reader's mind.

Are you planning more than one book in this series?

If you are planning more than one book in this series of books. Your title becomes even more important because you want your series to be recognizable to each of your readers. Sure you can just use "Part 1 & 2 & 3" etc... but I'd suggest that you get a bit more creative than that. Especially if your a newer author.

Lastly don't forget keywords:

Remember these days every algorithm in every search engine uses keywords when searching for things that interest the reader and shopper all over the internet. Ultimately with the goal of selling your work to a reader or a consumer (a consumer you will). Keeping keywords in mind will become very important for your ultimate goal.

Research your keywords:

Every piece of content has a subject and a purpose, which can help you find the keywords of your content. Your job here is identifying what types of subjects your target audience interests are, then go to the above steps with these keywords and play around with them till you can put you title with keywords into a short but powerful title.

Thanks so much for tuning in this week. Please share your thoughts in the comments section. It may help another reader.

Be well until next Monday

Denny