The title of your book is perhaps the most important ten to fifteen words of the entire book.
Writing your book, finding a captivating book cover, and coming up with a book title that grabs readers’ attention are the three most important things you will do for your book. Many authors pick Christian or nonfiction book titles that they personally resonate with and not those that will call in the proper audience to read, review, and recommend their book. You perform a great disservice to you and all the hard work you’ve put in if you don’t consider your reader and what will captivate them to purchase your book. The purpose of this blog is to make sure you don’t become one of those authors.
There are an array of ways to settle on a title that works for your book, but today, I will only discuss four. Let’s begin.
Comparative Titles
For indie authors, it’s important that you look up comparative, or comp, titles. Comp titles are books that are similar to your book in terms of subject matter and have been published within the last three to five years. Many traditional publishers look for this sort of information when an author sends in their query letter. However, I believe that authors should also utilize this information for the title selection process (I mean, why waste the research, amiright?). This practice of carefully studying comparative titles helps an author determine if their topic is on par with current book trends, but it can also be a source of inspiration for a book title. And it’s literally so easy to find comp titles — just go to Google, Amazon, or Goodreads.
Book Keywords
Book keywords are also helpful for finding comp titles, but you can use keyword research to your advantage. I say keywords, but really, you can think more like buzz words. A Chrome extension feature like Keywords Everywhere can help you determine how searchable your selected keywords are.
From there, you might decide if it would be useful to use a keyword in your book title. I can’t guarantee you’ll end up on the first page of a search engine should you do this, but hopefully the people that want to find you — and your book — will be able to do so with ease.
Book Themes
Sometimes there is overlap between themes and keywords. However, book themes may be a little more generic and vague compared to book keywords. Nonetheless, your Christian or nonfiction book theme or themes may hold the key to your perfect book title. So, if you haven’t already, spend some time thinking about the three most prominent themes in your book and research those themes to find more specificity and audience reach.
What Problem Does Your Book Solve?
Nonfiction books are all about solving problems for their readers, and most Christian books on the market tie biblical principles with practical tools. As you consider what problem your book is solving (and you have thought about what problem your book will solve, right?), this may give you a clue about what word or words to include in your title.
These techniques are but one of many that you can use to decide on your book’s title. Whatever process you use, the most important thing is that you think carefully, intentionally, and strategically about what to title your book before you place it in the market.
The Anointed Editorial offers a manuscript evaluation service where we compare how appropriate your title is to the content of your book. If you’re interested to know all the details about this service and book a call, click here.
Featured photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash; in-text photo by Agence Olloweb on Unsplash