{"id":6008,"date":"2019-06-28T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/townhouse\/articles\/how-to-title-a-book\/"},"modified":"2019-06-28T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T12:00:00","slug":"how-to-title-a-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-title-a-book\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Title a Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of all the writing habits I have, one of the worst \u2013 the worst from good financial sense point of view \u2013 is that I like writing LONG books.<\/p>\n

My first novel was a spine-breaking 180,000 words. Not one of my novels has ever been less than 110,000 words. The first \u201cshort story\u201d I wrote was 8,000 words, which is to say miles too long to be an actual short story. Heck, even this email is likely to be far longer than any other email you get in your inbox today.<\/p>\n

Ah well. There are some things you can\u2019t fight, and my addiction to length is one of them.<\/p>\n

But that also means that when it comes to short-form copy, I\u2019m at a loss.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not especially good at book blurbs, which want to be about 100-120 words (depending a bit on layouts and where you\u2019re expecting them to appear.) Since titles need to be short and punchy, I\u2019m not especially good at those either.<\/p>\n

In a word: I\u2019m pretty damn rubbish when it comes to coming up with titles \u2026 and this email is going to tell you how to write them.<\/p>\n

Which means if you want to ignore the entire contents of what follows, on the basis that I obviously, obviously, obviously don\u2019t know what I\u2019m talking about, then I have to say that the evidence is very much in your favour.<\/p>\n

That said, I think it\u2019s clear enough what a title needs to do. It wants to:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Be highly consistent with your genre<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Offer some intrigue\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 for example, launch a question in the mind of the reader<\/li>\n
  3. Ideally, it\u2019ll encapsulate \u201cthe promise of the premise\u201d<\/strong> in a few very short words, distilling the essence of your idea down to its very purest form.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The genre-consistency is the most essential, and the easiest to achieve. It matters a lot now that so many books are being bought on Amazon, because book covers \u2013 at the title selection stage \u2013 are no more than thumbnails. A bit bigger than a phone icon, but really not much. So yes, the cover has to work hard and successfully in thumbnail form, but the title has more work to do now than it did before.<\/p>\n

    Genre consistency is therefore key. Your title has to say to your target readers, \u201cthis is the sort of book that readers like you like\u201d. It has to invite the click through to your book page itself. That\u2019s its task.<\/p>\n

    The intrigue is harder to do, but also kinda obvious. \u201cGone Girl<\/em>\u201d works because of the Go Girl \/ Gone Girl pun, and those double Gs, and the brevity. But it also works because it launches a question in the mind of the reader: Who is this girl and why has she gone? By contrast, \u201cThe Girl on the Train<\/em>\u201d feels a little flat to me. There are lots of women on lots of trains. There\u2019s nothing particularly evocative or intriguing in the image. I don\u2019t as it happens think that book was much good, but I don\u2019t think the title stood out either. (I think the book sold well because of some pale resemblances between the excellent Gone Girl<\/em> and its lacklustre sister. The trade, desperate for a follow-up hit to Gone Girl<\/em>, pounced on whatever it had.)<\/p>\n

    The third element in a successful title \u2013 the \u201cpromise of the premise\u201d one \u2013 is really hard to do. I\u2019ve not often managed it, and I\u2019ve probably had a slightly less successful career as a result.<\/p>\n

    So what works? Well, here are some examples of titles that do absolutely nail it:<\/p>\n

    The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

    Brilliant! That title didn\u2019t translate the rather dour and serious Swedish original (Man Som Hatar Kvinnor \/ Men Who Hate Women). Rather it took the brilliance of the central character and captured her in six words. She was a girl (vulnerable), and she had a tattoo (tough and subversive), and the tattoo was of a dragon (exotic and dangerous). That mixture of terms put the promise of the book\u2019s premise right onto the front cover and propelled the book\u2019s explosive success.<\/p>\n

    Incidentally, you\u2019ll notice that the title also completely excludes mention of Mikael Blomkvist, who is as central to that first book as Salander is. But no one bought the book for Blomkvist and no one remembers the book for Blomkvist either. So the title cut him out, and did the right thing in doing so.<\/p>\n

    The Da Vinci Code<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

    Brilliant. Dan Brown is fairly limited as a writer, but it was a stroke of genius to glue together the idea of ancient cultural artefacts with some kind of secret code. Stir those two things up with a bit of Holy Grail myth-making and the result (for his audience) was commercial dynamite.<\/p>\n

    And \u2013 boom! \u2013 that dynamite was right there in the title too. The Da Vinci part namechecks the world\u2019s most famous artist. The Code part promises that there are secret codes to be unravelled.<\/p>\n

    Four words delivering the promise of the premise in full.<\/p>\n

    I let You Go<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

    This was Clare Mackintosh\u2019s breakout hit, about a mother whose young son was killed in a hit-and-run car accident. The promise of the premise is right there in four very short words \u2026 and given a first person twist, which just adds a extra bite to the hook in question. A brilliant bit of title-making.<\/p>\n

    ___<\/p>\n

    So that\u2019s what a title wants to do. A few last comments to finish off.<\/p>\n

    One, I think it\u2019s fair to say that it\u2019s quite rare a title alone does much to propel sale success.<\/p>\n

    Because there are a lot of books out there, and because everyone\u2019s trying to do the same thing, there\u2019s not much chance to be genuinely distinctive. My fifth Fiona Griffiths novel was called The Dead House<\/em>, but there are at least three other books on Amazon with that title, or something very like it. That didn\u2019t make my title bad, in fact \u2013 it did the promise of the premise thing just fine \u2013 but I certainly couldn\u2019t say my title was so distinctive it did anything much for sales.<\/p>\n

    Two, if you\u2019re going for trad publishing, it\u2019s worth remembering that absolutely any title you have in mind at the moment is effectively provisional. If your publishers don\u2019t like it, they\u2019ll ask you to change it. And if they don\u2019t like your title #2, they\u2019ll ask you to come up with some others. In short, if, like me, you\u2019re bad at titles, you just don\u2019t need to worry too much (if you\u2019re going the trad publishing route, that is.) There\u2019s be plenty of opportunity to hone your choice well prior to publication.<\/p>\n

    Three, you don\u2019t want to think about title in isolation. There should, ideally, be a kind of reverberation between your title and the cover. That reverberation should be oblique rather than direct. Clare Mackintosh\u2019s I Let You Go<\/em> had for its cover image a butterfly trapped against a window \u2013 a metaphorical reference to the anguish of the book\u2019s premise. If instead it had shown a mother obviously distraught as a car struck her son, the cover \u2013 and title \u2013 would have seemed painfully clunky and ridiculous.<\/p>\n

    If you get a great cover image that doesn\u2019t work with your chosen title, then change the title. If you have a superb title and your cover designer\u2019s image is too directly an illustration of it, then change the image. That title\/cover pairing is crucial to your sales success, so you can afford no half-measures in getting it right.<\/p>\n

    That\u2019s all from me.<\/p>\n

    My kids are making elderflower cordial and singing as they do so. They are also wearing helmets for no reason that I can possibly understand.<\/p>\n

    Till soon<\/p>\n

    Harry<\/p>\n

    PS: Want to know what I think of your title? Then I\u2019ll tell you. Just pop your title (plus short description of your book) in the comments below. I\u2019ll tell you what I think.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Of all the writing habits I have, one of the worst \u2013 the worst from good financial sense point of view \u2013 is that I like writing LONG books. My first novel was a spine-breaking 180,000 words. Not one of my novels has ever been less than 110,000 words. The first \u201cshort story\u201d I wrote<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29292],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-harrys-friday-email"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJericho Writers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-title-a-book\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How To Title a Book – Jericho Writers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Of all the writing habits I have, one of the worst \u2013 the worst from good financial sense point of view \u2013 is that I like writing LONG books. My first novel was a spine-breaking 180,000 words. Not one of my novels has ever been less than 110,000 words. The first \u201cshort story\u201d I wrote\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-title-a-book\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jericho Writers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jerichowriters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-06-28T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Harry Bingham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@JerichoWriters\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@JerichoWriters\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Harry Bingham\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Article\",\"BlogPosting\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-title-a-book\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-title-a-book\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Harry Bingham\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/person\/34f531ec178a2b069ca3debe26c60e5a\"},\"headline\":\"How To Title a Book\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-28T12:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-title-a-book\/\"},\"wordCount\":1368,\"commentCount\":113,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Harry\u2019s Friday email\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-title-a-book\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-title-a-book\/\",\"name\":\"How To Title a Book – Jericho Writers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-28T12:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-title-a-book\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-title-a-book\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-title-a-book\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How To Title a Book\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/\",\"name\":\"Jericho Writers\",\"description\":\"Getting you published\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Jericho Writers\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/cropped-footer-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/cropped-footer-logo.png\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"Jericho Writers\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jerichowriters\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/JerichoWriters\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jerichowriters\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/jericho-writers\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCcs1qhjwLR6bQYDR2x3PbOw\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/person\/34f531ec178a2b069ca3debe26c60e5a\",\"name\":\"Harry Bingham\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Harry Bingham\"},\"description\":\"Write novels and non-fic. I've published trad & self-pub. Love both. Best known for my Fiona Griffiths crime series. Oh yes, and I'm the capo di tutti capi at Jericho Writers.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/author\/harryjericho\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jericho Writers","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-title-a-book\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"How To Title a Book – Jericho Writers","og_description":"Of all the writing habits I have, one of the worst \u2013 the worst from good financial sense point of view \u2013 is that I like writing LONG books. My first novel was a spine-breaking 180,000 words. Not one of my novels has ever been less than 110,000 words. The first \u201cshort story\u201d I wrote","og_url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-title-a-book\/","og_site_name":"Jericho Writers","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jerichowriters","article_published_time":"2019-06-28T12:00:00+00:00","author":"Harry Bingham","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@JerichoWriters","twitter_site":"@JerichoWriters","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Harry Bingham","Estimated reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-title-a-book\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-title-a-book\/"},"author":{"name":"Harry Bingham","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/person\/34f531ec178a2b069ca3debe26c60e5a"},"headline":"How To Title a Book","datePublished":"2019-06-28T12:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-title-a-book\/"},"wordCount":1368,"commentCount":113,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Harry\u2019s Friday email"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-title-a-book\/","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-title-a-book\/","name":"How To Title a Book – Jericho Writers","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-06-28T12:00:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-title-a-book\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-title-a-book\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-title-a-book\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How To Title a Book"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/","name":"Jericho Writers","description":"Getting you published","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization","name":"Jericho Writers","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/cropped-footer-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/cropped-footer-logo.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Jericho Writers"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jerichowriters","https:\/\/x.com\/JerichoWriters","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jerichowriters\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/jericho-writers\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCcs1qhjwLR6bQYDR2x3PbOw"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/person\/34f531ec178a2b069ca3debe26c60e5a","name":"Harry Bingham","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg","caption":"Harry Bingham"},"description":"Write novels and non-fic. I've published trad & self-pub. Love both. Best known for my Fiona Griffiths crime series. Oh yes, and I'm the capo di tutti capi at Jericho Writers.","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/author\/harryjericho\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}