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Book Title Generator: Get AI-Driven Book Title Ideas

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Crafting the perfect book title can often feel like a daunting chapter in the story of publishing your work. You’ve poured your heart and soul into the pages, and now you need a title that captures the essence of your manuscript, intrigues potential readers, and stands out in the crowded marketplace. Enter the AI-powered book title generator, a tool designed to transform your thematic elements, genre, and tone into a captivating title. This guide will walk you through the process of using such a generator effectively, ensuring your book not only finds its name but also its audience. From understanding the input needed to refine the suggestions, we’ll cover everything you need to make the most out of this innovative solution. Whether you’re a seasoned author or about to debut, mastering the art of title creation with AI is an exciting step towards your publishing success.

Table of Contents

Why is the Title of a Book Important?

A book’s title is its first impression, often determining whether you’ll pick it up or pass it by. It’s the headline of an author’s work, the bold declaration on a bookshelf that beckons you to take a closer look. You’ve heard the adage, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover,’ yet titles of books are the exception to this rule. They’re designed to be judged, to give you a taste of the story or knowledge within.

The book title, along with its subtitle, serves as a powerful tool in capturing interest. It sets the stage for the content, hints at the genre, and can intrigue or challenge a reader’s curiosity. A strong title stands out in the crowded marketplace, guiding your target audience directly to your work.

When you’re brainstorming titles, remember the importance of resonance and relevance. You want a title that speaks to the theme of your book, that sticks in someone’s memory, and ideally, increases the likelihood of your book being pulled off the shelf. In writing, consistency in style may be key, but in a title, it’s the creativity and connection with the reader that count.

How to write a Book Title

When it’s time to craft your book title, you’ve got options.

You can manually brainstorm titles that resonate with your book’s content and themes, or you can use a book title generator for a quick, creative start.

Whichever path you choose, ensure the title is memorable and reflects the essence of your work.

Manual Methods for writing a Book Title

You’ll need to master title formatting first; it’s the backbone of how to present your book to the world. Crafting a title that’s both captivating and clear can make or break your book’s first impression.

Keep in mind genre-specific conventions and strategic keyword use to ensure your title resonates with your intended audience.

Understanding Title Formatting

Understanding how to format a book title correctly ensures your manuscript maintains a professional appearance and adheres to industry standards.

When you write a book title, use italics or quotation marks around shorter works.

Pay attention to parts of speech within the title; capitalization rules vary.

Consistency in title formatting is key, whether you’re drafting a manuscript or mentioning a book in work communication.

Composing a Captivating Title

Crafting a captivating book title is essential, as it’s often your first opportunity to grab a reader’s attention. To make sure your book title stands out, consider these tips:

• Brainstorm several different book titles to find the perfect fit.
• Use evocative language to create intrigue or excitement.
• Test your titles on friends or potential readers to gauge emotional impact.

Researching Genre-Specific Conventions

While considering the emotional resonance of your book’s title, it’s equally crucial to research genre-specific conventions to ensure it adheres to industry standards. To help you out, here’s a quick guide:

Incorporating Keywords Strategically

Incorporating keywords into your book title can significantly enhance its discoverability and appeal to the target audience. Here’s how:

• Identify core themes that resonate with readers.
• Use genre-specific terms to attract fans.
• Choose emotionally charged words for impact.

Balancing Creativity With Clarity

After identifying the right keywords, it’s crucial to balance creative flair with clear communication when choosing your book title.

A catchy title grabs attention, but it also needs to be informative. Stick to a consistent style, whether it’s italics or quotation marks, and consider how your title will appear in work emails and professional manuscripts.

Clear, creative titles reflect a polished, thoughtful approach to your writing.

Analyzing Successful Book Titles

To craft a successful book title, analyze the elements that make existing titles memorable and effective. Consider:

• Conciseness : Short, punchy titles often stand out.
• Intrigue : Spark curiosity without revealing too much.
• Resonance : Ensure the title connects with the reader’s experiences or emotions.

These components can make your title a beacon for potential readers, drawing them into the world you’ve created.

Crafting a Subtitle for Impact

Understanding how to craft a subtitle can significantly enhance your book’s appeal, guiding potential readers to a deeper insight into your work’s content and theme.

It’s not just about being catchy; your subtitle should underline the book’s main argument or draw in a specific audience.

Think clarity and intrigue, offering a promise that makes the extra seconds spent reading it worth their time.

Considering SEO in Titles

Consider incorporating SEO strategies when crafting your book title to enhance its visibility and appeal in online searches.

• Use keyword research to find terms your audience is searching for.
• Integrate trending topics related to your book’s genre or theme.
• Ensure the title is memorable and clickable, making potential readers feel intrigued.

Testing Titles With Your Audience

Begin by testing your book title with a target audience to gauge its appeal and effectiveness. Seek feedback on its impact and whether it captures the essence of your work.

Analyze responses, considering market trends and genre expectations. Consult professionals, if possible, to refine your title further, ensuring it resonates and intrigues potential readers before finalizing your choice.

Finalizing Your Title Choice

After gathering feedback and refining your book title based on audience reactions and professional advice, it’s time to finalize your choice with careful attention to formatting and style consistency.

• Italicize your book title for a sleek, professional look.
• Ensure consistency throughout your manuscript and marketing materials.
• Choose a title that resonates emotionally, sticking in readers’ minds.

Using a Book Title Generator

You might be wondering why you’d turn to a book title generator when crafting your masterpiece’s moniker. Let’s quickly walk through the steps to use one and uncover the benefits it could hold for your writing process.

These tools can spark creativity and save you time, ensuring your title grabs potential readers’ attention from the get-go.

What is a Book Title Generator?

A book title generator is a digital tool designed specifically to aid writers in crafting engaging and apt titles for their books. It simplifies one of the most critical aspects of book marketing—creating a title that not only encapsulates the essence of the manuscript but also attracts readers.

How It Works:

Input Gathering : The initial step involves you, the author, entering specific details into the generator. These details typically include the genre of your book, a concise description of your story, and possibly other elements like main themes or character names . These inputs help the generator understand the context and the core of your narrative.

Algorithmic Processing : Upon receiving your inputs, the book title generator uses an algorithm to analyze the data. This algorithm might incorporate natural language processing techniques to parse your description and identify key words or phrases. It evaluates this information within the framework of your specified genre and the typical conventions used in book titles for that genre.

Title Generation : Based on the analysis, the generator then produces a list of potential book titles. These titles are formulated to be catchy, relevant, and suitable for your story’s tone and content. The sophistication of the generator can vary, with more advanced tools offering titles that creatively play with words, suggest metaphorical or thematic connections, or use alliteration and other stylistic devices to enhance appeal.

Why use a Book Title Generator

Choosing the right title for your book is more than just a formality; it can significantly influence the first impression your work makes on potential readers and publishers. Here’s why a book title generator can be an indispensable tool for both new and seasoned writers:

Sparks Creativity : Sometimes, you might find yourself stuck, unable to come up with a title that feels just right. A book title generator can provide a burst of creativity, offering unique combinations of words and ideas that you might not have considered. This can lead you to discover a title that perfectly captures the essence of your story.

Saves Time : Crafting a compelling title can be a time-consuming process, involving a lot of brainstorming and consultation. A book title generator simplifies this process by quickly providing several options based on the inputs you provide. This efficiency can be particularly beneficial if you are working under tight deadlines or need to focus your creative energies on other aspects of writing and publishing.

Market Insights : Many book title generators are designed with an understanding of market trends and genre specifics. They can suggest titles that are more likely to resonate with your target audience, thus enhancing the marketability of your book. This is especially valuable if you are unfamiliar with the nuances of titling conventions in specific genres.

Versatility and Options : With a book title generator, you can experiment with different styles and formats without commitment. You can generate a wide range of titles, from the straightforward to the intriguingly obscure, giving you the flexibility to choose a title that not only reflects the narrative but also stands out in a crowded market.

Objective Suggestions : Writers often have a deep emotional attachment to their work, which can sometimes cloud judgment regarding how a title might be received by others. A book title generator offers objective, unbiased options, helping to ensure that the chosen title has a broad appeal.

Enhanced Focus : By outsourcing the task of generating a title, you can maintain a clearer focus on the writing and editing of your book. Knowing that the title can be efficiently handled allows you to devote more attention to perfecting the content, structure, and style of your narrative.

Steps to use the Book Title Generator

The Book Title Generator isn’t a magic wand, but it’s the next best thing for writers seeking that perfect title. Here’s how to use it effectively:

• Step 1: Describe Your Book’s Story Think of your book’s core essence, its heartbeat. What’s it about? Jot down a brief, punchy description. This isn’t the time for lengthy details. Imagine you’re telling a friend about your book while you both wait for your coffee orders. Keep it concise, yet intriguing.
• Step 2: Choose Your Genre Your book’s genre is its home. Is it a thrilling mystery, a heartwarming romance, or perhaps a journey through fantastical realms? Selecting the correct genre is like setting the GPS for your title’s journey. It ensures the title resonates with the right audience.
• Step 3: Click ‘Generate’ Now, the fun part. Hit that ‘Generate’ button and watch as the generator weaves your description and genre into potential titles. It’s like watching stars align in the literary sky – each title a constellation of possibilities for your book.

Before finalizing your book title, it’s crucial to research the styling conventions specific to your genre to attract the right audience. Each genre has its quirks, and what works for a romance novel might not fly in the sci-fi section. You’ve got to dig into the norms of your genre—look at the bestsellers and notice how they play with words to grab attention.

Consulting genre-specific style guides can be a goldmine for understanding what’s expected and what’s innovative. Remember, you’re not just picking a title; you’re crafting a reader’s first impression. Here’s a table to help you get started:

Adopt these insights to craft a title that fits snugly within your genre’s expectations, yet stands out enough to pull readers in. It’s about striking that perfect balance between familiar and fresh.

Tips for writing Book Titles

Crafting the title for your book is like choosing the perfect outfit for an important occasion. It’s the first thing people notice and leaves a lasting impression. A great title can be the difference between someone picking up your book or passing it by. Here are some tips to help you dress your book for success:

• Keep It Simple and Memorable: A good title is easy to remember and rolls off the tongue. Think of iconic titles like “To Kill a Mockingbird” or “The Great Gatsby.” They’re simple, yet they pack a punch. Aim for a title that’s easy to recall and pronounce. A mouthful of words can be cumbersome and forgettable.
• Make It Relevant: Your title should be a sneak peek into your book’s soul. It should reflect the essence, theme, or main storyline of your book. If your book is a comedy, a light-hearted and witty title works best. For thrillers, something that evokes intrigue and suspense fits the bill.
• Use Strong, Vivid Language: Words have power. Choose words that evoke emotions or imagery. Strong verbs and vivid nouns create an impact. A title like “The Whispering Shadows” paints a more vivid picture than “The Quiet Shadows.”
• Consider Your Audience: Who are you writing for? A title that appeals to teenagers might not resonate with adults. If you’re writing a children’s book, a fun and whimsical title is more appropriate. Understanding your audience helps in tailoring a title that speaks to them.
• Avoid Clichés: Clichés are the worn-out shoes of the literary world. They’ve been used so often they’ve lost their impact. Your book is unique; your title should be too. Avoid overused phrases and aim for originality.
• Test It Out: Once you have a few options, test them out. Share them with friends, family, or writing groups. Getting feedback can provide new perspectives and help you gauge the impact of your title.
• Be Flexible: Sometimes, a title that seemed perfect initially might not feel right as you progress in your writing. It’s okay to change your title during the writing process. Often, the best titles emerge when you least expect them.

Remember, your title is more than just a name. It’s the first whisper of your story, an invitation to readers to step into the world you’ve created. With these tips in mind, you’re well-equipped to give your book a title that not only captures its essence but also captivates potential readers. Happy titling!

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Essay Title Generator (Free & No Login Required)

Discover the perfect title for your next essay with our AI-powered Essay Title Generator! Designed for students and writers, this tool creates unique and engaging essay titles based on your topic or main ideas. Simply enter your subject, such as ‘the benefits of renewable energy’, and receive a list of potential titles in seconds.

How to Use the Essay Title Generator

Using the Essay Title Generator is a breeze. Just type in your essay topic, key concepts, or main points into the generator, and with a single click, you’ll receive a variety of title suggestions. Browse through the generated titles and choose the one that best fits your essay’s theme and captures your intended message. Once you’ve found the perfect title, you can use it for your writing assignment, research paper, or academic project. This tool is user-friendly and suitable for writers of all levels, making the process of finding a great title quick and easy.

What is the Essay Title Generator?

The Essay Title Generator is an AI-based tool that creates original and thought-provoking essay titles. By analyzing your input keywords or themes, it generates a range of titles suitable for various academic disciplines and writing styles. This tool is a helpful resource for students and writers looking to create titles that accurately reflect their essay’s content and grab the reader’s attention. Whether you’re working on a persuasive essay, an expository piece, or a narrative essay, these AI-generated titles can provide inspiration and help you get started on your writing journey. The Essay Title Generator aims to simplify the process of finding the perfect title, allowing you to focus on crafting a compelling essay.

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Book Title Generator

Explore endless possibilities for your book's title. Enter your ideas and let AI craft a title that captures the essence of your story.

Below are 0 curated book titles based on your input

Welcome to our title generation service. Here, you can find the right title for your book with ease. Whether you're an experienced writer or just starting out, the importance of a compelling title is clear. It's more than just a name; it's a first impression and a preview of what readers can expect. Our tool combines creativity with technology to help you find a title that truly reflects the essence of your work.

Our platform uses advanced neural networks to generate book titles. This technology examines successful titles across various genres to provide suggestions that are unique and relevant to your book's content and theme. It's designed to support a wide range of works, from fiction and non-fiction to personal memoirs, by understanding and adapting to the core of your narrative.

Our service is user-friendly. You have the option to enter a potential title, a summary of your book, or even the full text (up to 100,000 characters). The system will then suggest titles that match your book's narrative and style. These suggestions are meant to inspire you and help you find the perfect title for your manuscript. Feel free to experiment with different inputs to explore a wide range of creative title options.

Finding the right title is crucial, and our platform is here to assist you in this important step. It's an opportunity to discover a title that fits your story perfectly. We encourage you to try it and see how technology can complement your creativity in the search for a title that stands out. Your ideal title is just a few clicks away, ready to give your book the introduction it deserves.

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• Writing Tips

How to Write Book Titles in Your Essays

• 3-minute read
• 26th May 2023

When writing an essay, you’re likely to mention other authors’ works, such as books, papers, and articles. Formatting the titles of these works usually involves using quotation marks or italics.

So how do you write a book title in an essay? Most style guides have a standard for this – be sure to check that first. If you’re unsure, though, check out our guide below.

Italics or Quotation Marks?

As a general rule, you should set titles of longer works in italics , and titles of shorter works go in quotation marks . Longer works include books, journals, TV shows, albums, plays, etc. Here’s an example of a book mention:

Shorter works include poems, articles, chapters of books, episodes of TV shows, songs, etc. If it’s a piece that’s part of a biggHow to Write Book Titles in Your Essayser work, the piece considered a short work:

Exceptions to the Rule

The rule for writing book titles in italics applies specifically to running text . If the book title is standing on its own, as in a heading, there’s no need to italicize it.

Additionally, if the book is part of a larger series and you’re mentioning both the title of the series and that of the individual book, you can consider the book a shorter work. You would set the title of the series in italics and place the book title in quotation marks:

Punctuation in Book Titles

Do you need to apply italics to the punctuation in a book title? The short answer is yes – but only if the punctuation is part of the title:

If the punctuation isn’t part of the title (i.e., the punctuation is part of the sentence containing the title), you shouldn’t include in the italics:

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Summary: Writing Book Titles in Essays

We hope you’ll now feel confident when you’re writing and formatting book titles in your essays. Generally, you should set the title in italics when it’s in running text. Remember, though, to check your style guide. While the standards we’ve covered are the most common, some style guides have different requirements.

And once you finish writing your paper, make sure you send it our way! We’ll make sure any titles are formatted correctly as well as checking your work for grammar, spelling, punctuation, referencing, and more. Submit a free sample to try our service today.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you write the title of a book in a sentence.

Set the title of the book in italics unless the book is part of a larger work (e.g., a book that’s part of a series):

When do you use quotation marks for titles?

Place titles of shorter works or pieces that are contained in a larger work in quotation marks:

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Book Titles in Essays: Formatting Rules and Examples

How do you write the title of a book in an essay?

A short answer: You look at the assignment’s requirements, see the citation style you should use, and go to a corresponding manual to see what rules it prescribes for writing book titles.

That’s when you might hit a snag:

Most rules for the main styles — APA, MLA, and Chicago — seem identical at first glance. It’s easy to miss a preposition or punctuation rule, capitalize a wrong word, or forget about italics. The devil is in the details, and the final grade for your paper depends on them.

Why not gather the formatting rules for all the citation styles in one place so that it’s more comfortable to compare them and spot specifics?

We’ve got you covered:

In this article, our essay writers share the guidelines for citing book titles in five styles. You’ll see how to write a book title in an essay and how to introduce authors. For the sake of clarity, examples are also here.

What is the title of a book in an essay?

You have several options for formatting a book title in your essay.

First, you can mention it in the essay’s body if you are quoting or paraphrasing information from the book. Also, when compiling a bibliography of the resources you used for research, you’ll need book titles for the reference list.

A book’s title and the details of its author are also essential components in the structure of book review . You’ll mention it in the introduction before summarizing a book’s plot, characters, and themes.

How to put book title in essay:

• Use italics
• Don’t underline or use quotation marks, please
• Don’t capitalize minor words like prepositions and conjunctions of three or fewer letters ( a, of, to, the, etc.) unless they are the first or last word in a book’s title

How to write a book title and author in an essay?

Details to consider:

• Is it an in-text mention or part of a reference list?
• Are you writing about an entire book or one of its chapters?
• Does the book have one or several authors?
• Does the book have a subtitle?
• Is it an independent publication or a collection of essays, series, or short stories? Are you introducing a poem in your essay?

The answers to these questions will give you a clear understanding of how to write a book title and author in an essay. The formatting rules will depend on the above factors and the citation style you should follow. (We’ve covered the two main styles —  APA and MLA — in our essay writing book , available on Amazon.)

There are also some general rules to remember, regardless of the style. Let’s move to them and explore the principles of citing book titles inside and out.

How to Introduce a Book in an Essay: General Rules

Here’s what all the styles agree on in terms of how to introduce a book in an essay:

1 — Italicize the titles of self-contained books. If you mention a novel, a movie, a stand-alone poem, a play, a database, or a website, there’s no need to use quotation marks. For example: 

• Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
• Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
• If by Rudyard Kipling

2 — The titles of parts within a book should go in quotation marks: chapter titles, titles of poems inside a collection, acts or scenes in a play, and so on. For example:

• The Great Gatsby’s “Chapter 5: The Meeting” 
• “The Mirror of Erised” from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

3 — Capitalize both stand-alone book titles and the parts within a complete work. For example:

• The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger by Stephen King
• “Sometimes They Come Back” from Stephen King’s Night Shift

4 — When the title of a book goes within another title (like in cases with monographs about novels or poems), you should also use italics for independent works and single quotation marks for short stories and parts of books.

For example, this is how to write the title of a journal article containing the book’s title:

• “The Unbearable Weight of Authenticity: Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and a Theory of Touristic Reading.”

And this is how you’d write a journal article title containing the title of a short story:

• “Individualism in O’Connor’s ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find.'”

When to use a capital letter is the trickiest part of writing book titles in essays. The rules vary between style guides and their editions, which can appear confusing and make it more challenging for students to align with the requirements and ensure consistency.

Below, we’ll explore how to put book title in essay according to five different citation styles: APA, MLA, Chicago, CSE, and AMA.

How to Write the Title of a Book in an Essay: Citation Styles

While most students use APA and MLA citation styles in their academic papers, some institutions also assign alternatives like AMA or CSE. We’ve chosen the five most widespread styles for this guide so that you can have all the rules in one place and see the tiny differences between them for more precise writing.

Here, you’ll find the book title writing guidelines for these styles:

• APA (the American Psychological Association)
• MLA (the Modern Language Association)
• Chicago, aka CMOS (the Chicago Manual of Style)
• CSE (the Council of Science Editors)
• AMA (the American Medical Association)

We also recommend using an AI essay checker to revise your papers and reference lists once your drafts are ready. Whatever style you use to cite sources, this will help ensure that your text doesn’t look AI-generated. (Believe us, your teachers won’t appreciate it.)

APA is the documentation style that the American Psychological Association uses for citing sources. Originated in 1929, this form of writing is standard for social sciences like psychology, communications, sociology, and anthropology. Sometimes, it also relates to engineering, nursing, education, and other corresponding fields.

APA addresses manuscripts for journals and the academic papers students write in college. It’s the most popular and common citation style for the essays your teachers will assign during a course.

The latest version is APA Style’s 7th edition, released in 2020.

When it comes to formatting the title of a book in an essay, APA style’s requirements are easy to remember. Take a look:

MLA is a citation style created by the Modern Language Association and is mainly used in humanities like linguistics, literature, philosophy, and cultural and media studies. It’s the second most used style (after APA), with the most recent manual released in 2021 (the 9th edition).

The manual focuses on the formatting rules for in-text citations, which most users find challenging. It also has expanded guidelines on research papers, grammar mechanics, and inclusive language.

Here’s how to write a book title in an essay, according to MLA:

The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) is more common for published works than college papers. Many see it as the top one for writers, editors, and publishers to follow when formatting content. Unlike APA or MLA, Chicago style provides two methods for documenting sources:

• Author-date , recommended for works in the physical, natural, and social sciences. It requires using parenthetical citations in the text, with a corresponding entry on the reference page.
• Notes-bibliography , recommended for works in humanities and some social sciences. It requires using numbered footnotes in the text, with a corresponding shortened citation at the bottom of the page and a fuller citation on the reference page.

The author-date system is similar to APA style and, thus, more common for college essays. When in-text, you mention the author, the date, and the page number (if applicable) in parentheses after the quotation. Like this:

• Enlightenment thinkers, such as Kant, believed in the “universal, eternal, and … immutable qualities of all of humanity” (Harvey 1990, 12).

We can almost hear you asking:

“Can you write my essay in this format?”

Yes, we can. Whenever necessary, ask our academic expert for help with your written assignments. When asking your question, provide detailed requirements, including the citation style you need, so that they know what formatting rules to follow.

Below, let’s explore how to put a book title in an essay in CMOS:

Previously known as CBE (the Council of Biology Editors), this style provided formatting guidelines for the editors of biology journals. Today, we know it as CSE (the Council of Science Editors), and it includes many scientific fields in the life sciences, the physical sciences, and mathematics.

As with CMOS, CSE style recommends two systems for documenting sources:

• Citation-sequence , listing sources on a reference page according to the order of their appearance in the document.
• Name-year , which is similar to the author-date system used in Chicago and APA.

The complete guide is available in Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (8th ed.) by the Council of Science Editors. Below, we’ll explore how to write a book title in an essay according to this citation style.

AMA stands for the American Medical Association, so it’s a standard citation style in medicine. While it’s less popular than APA or MLA, we’ve decided to include it in this guide anyway, given that medical students might find it helpful.

Is AMA citation the same as APA?

Not quite. While sharing some nuances, the core difference between these two citation styles is that AMA doesn’t use an author-date system in the text. Instead, we use a superscript numbering system here. Like this:

• “Smith² argues that….”

Also, unlike APA, AMA style doesn’t organize the reference list alphabetically, but numerically, based upon the order of the sources’ appearances in the text.

How to write the title of a book in an essay when you use AMA style:

How to Format a Book Title in an Essay

Long story short, most citation styles agree on using the same format for book titles in essays: capitalized, italicized, and with no underlining or quotation mark (unless you write about a book’s chapter or a shorter work like an article, an essay, or a poem within a more extensive work).

Speaking of underlined titles:

When googling information on how to write a book title in an essay, you can find questions from people wondering if they need to underline titles in papers. It’s an old-time practice from when essays were written by hand: You can’t italicize when handwriting, so you underline a title to distinguish it.

Check any book review sample online, and you’ll see that underlining isn’t a common practice anymore.

How to format a book title in an essay in your reference list:

So, How Do You Write the Title of a Book in an Essay?

Now that you’ve read our detailed guide on how to write a book title in an essay, let’s recap:

• Read the guidelines from your teacher before writing: What citation style do you need to follow?
• Check the manual for your assigned style (APA, MLA, or any other) to ensure that you format the book titles and author names correctly.
• Most citation styles (except for CSE) tell you to italicize and capitalize book titles in essays. Nevertheless, proofread carefully to avoid mistakes with the formatting of prepositions, punctuation, and subtitles.

Are you looking for a title for your next paper? Get help from our essay title generator : Give it several keywords on your topic, and get relevant and creative titles that hook your readers.

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How To Write Book Titles The Proper Way: A Complete Guide For Writers

• February 10, 2022

Book titles within essays or papers can be tricky. There are specific rules that are given for how to include a book title in a way that sets it apart from the content of your writing given by the Modern Language Association. However, as with many other things in life, there are exceptions to the rules. This article will guide you through the rules of the writing style guides so that you can include a book’s title in your paper or essay correctly.

How to write book titles:

Style guides and book titles.

When it comes to book titles within text, there are a few different style guides that have rules you can follow, depending on your writing type. The three types that you will encounter most often are; MLA style, Chicago manual of style, and APA. A writing instructor will usually tell you what style guide you are expected to use for a particular essay or paper.

MLA Style Guide

The MLA handbook states that you should always italicize book titles when styling book titles within your text. The exception to this rule are religious texts. You would not italicize the Holy Bible or the sacred books or titles of other religions. Note the following example.

Pam had stayed most of the summer indoors, re-reading her favorite book series. She was already up to  Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone , and she didn’t regret not being more active or going outside.

In the above example, the book title is italicized. Fiction titles and nonfiction titles alike must be in italics when within the text.

Series Titles in MLA

In the above example, a book from a series was used. But what if the text had not specified which book from the series Pam was reading? Would it still need to be in italics? The answer is: in this case, yes. In other cases, sometimes.

It’s really not as confusing as it seems. When you are talking about a book series but don’t want or need to include the complete series titles for the purposes of your work, you only have to put words in italics that also appear in the book titles. So, because  Harry Potter  is part of the title of all of the books in the series, you would italicize his name every time you mention the book.

However, if you were talking about Katniss Everdeen, you would not have to do this, as the book series she is featured in doesn’t use her name in the titles of  The Hunger Games  series. The same would be true of books like the Nancy Drew books.

Quotation Marks

There are instances in which titles should be placed inside of quotation marks within a paper or essay. This is done when you cite the titles of poems , a chapter title, short stories, articles, or blogs.

So, for example, if you were to write a paper that featured a poem from a book, you would put the book title in italics and the poems cited in quotation marks.

An example of an enduring love poem is “Annabel Lee” from  The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. 

Chapter Title

Another time that quotation marks should be used is when using the title of a chapter. If you are citing a specific chapter of a book, you would enclose the title of the chapter in quotation marks, and the title of the book should be in italics.

The desperation and sadness of a man on death row can be seen in the “Wild Wind Blowing” chapter of Norman Mailer’s  The Executioner’s Song. 

Short Stories

Short stories are another case. Much like the title of a chapter or poem, in which the title is placed in quotation marks, while the title of the book or collection it is found in is italics. The same can be said for sections, stories, or chapters cited within a literary journal.

Stepping away from his norm of horror and gore, Stephen King writes of trust, love, and regret in his story “The Last Rung on the Ladder,” which can be found in his short story collection  Night Shift. 

Punctuation Marks

If you are citing a story or title that includes question marks, you need to make sure to italicize the question mark when citing. Keep all punctuation, such as a question mark, comma, ellipses, colon, or exclamation mark, as it is in the original individual books.

If you want a funny and irreverent read, you’ve got to try  Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea.  Chelsea Handler has done a phenomenal job of being vulgar, relatable, and explaining life from her viewpoint in this hilarious and memorable book.

The Digital Age: Are Book Titles Underlined Anymore?

MLA style used to dictate that a book title should either be in italics or underlined. However, that is no longer the case. As computers started to take over as the major tool used in writing, it became unpopular to underline book titles. Therefore, this rule was dropped from the style guides.

However, it should be mentioned that when handwriting an essay or research paper, many instructors prefer that you underline book titles, as it’s relatively difficult to handwrite italics. If you are in a writing course or a class that is heavy on handwritten work, be sure to ask your instructor or teacher which method they prefer for citing a book title.

How to Come Up with Book Title Ideas

Now that quotation marks, italics, and style guides have been discussed, let’s move on to how you can come up with your own book title. If you’d like a title for your book that sounds interesting and will get a reader’s attention, you may find this article helpful.

Coming up with a good title for your book is a challenging yet essential marketing decision . The right title can make your target audience choose your new book off of the shelf instead of another writer’s work. Your book cover and your book title are quite possibly the most important marketing decisions you will make.

How to Choose a Good Book Title

Certain criteria should be met if you want to have a good book title , and there are specific steps involved in getting there. You may have assumed up until now that titles of books were just spur of the moment decisions made by authors or publishers, but a lot of work goes into writing good titles.

Grab the Reader’s Attention

As a general rule, you want your reader to remember your title and to sound interesting, even without the reader having seen the cover. There are several ways to do this. You can be a little dark with your title, be controversial, provoke the reader, or even be funny.

There are many examples of such works that use memorable and attention-seeking titles. The following are some different titles that are effective and would most likely provoke a reader to grab them from a shelf for closer inspection.

• Burn After Writing (Sharon Jones)
• Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
• Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (Mindy Kaling)
• Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea (Chelsea Handler)
• The Devil Wears Prada (Lauren Weisberger)
• Chicken Soup for the Soul (various authors)
• God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (Kurt Vonnegut)

Shorter Titles

If your full title for your book is long, you may end up boring a reader or creating a situation where a reader tries to remember the title of your book, but it’s too long and ends up getting it confused with another book. Although you should always do your best to make sure that there aren’t books by other authors that share a title or have a title similar to your book (more on that in a minute), you don’t want a person to get confused and get the wrong book instead.

Research Your Title Ideas

It’s a good idea to take the titles you have considered for your book and make a list. Then, do your homework. You can use tools like Google Adwords to test out your title to see if there are others like it, or you can simply use any search engine and plug your title ideas into the search bar and see what similar or exact titles of the same words pop up.

Readers are generally busy people. They don’t have the time or the energy to ensure that writers get a title right. They’ll look for the book they are interested in, and if it proves to be too difficult, or if there are other books written that have the same title, they’ll move on to something else.

A writer really has to make sure that they have a title that isn’t going to be ignored, is interesting, isn’t too long, and isn’t too similar to other works.

The same goes for titles of short works within a larger body of work. Short works, like poems or stories, need to have unique titles as well when included in a larger body of work, such as a collection. If stories are similar in nature, be sure to title them differently so that readers will be able to tell them apart, as well.

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• Name Generators

Book Title Generator 📚

Looking for the perfect book title? Our brilliant Book Title Generator has over 1,000 creative ideas to spark your imagination. From fun and quirky to mysterious and poetic, this handy tool makes coming up with a catchy title for your masterpiece easy. Keep reading for loads of title inspiration!

• Book Title Generator

Sometimes the inspiration you need is in a book title. If you’re struggling to come up with a solid story idea , then this book title generator is for you! With over 1,000 unique book title ideas, you’re sure to find the inspiration you need for your next story. Feel free to edit and re-adjust these book titles to suit your own story.

Keep on reading this post for tips on creating your own book title and our free book title generator printable. You might also like our daily book title challenge , where you are given a new book title each day to write about.

Other Book Title Generators

Download our app, online book title generator, tips for creating a good book title, create your own book title, random book titles ideas, how do i come up with a title for my book, can you publish a book with no title, can i use any title for my book.

View over 10,000 book title ideas offline, with our brand new Ideas Wizard App . Everything from romance, fantasy and even sci-fi book title ideas. Available now on the Google Play Store:

Just a reminder, our book title generator has been created to give you ideas for potential stories to write. You may need to adjust these titles so that they suit your story. If you’re looking for more book title ideas, please see our free story title generator which is built inside our story creator with thousands of book title ideas to discover:

For more book title ideas, check out our festive Christmas book title generator – The perfect inspiration for your Christmas stories. And if you’re writing a fantasy novel, then you should check out this fantasy book title generator for some magical book title ideas.

What makes a good book title? A good book title summarises your story without giving too much away. It is enticing, exciting and mysterious. Here are some tips for creating an awesome book title for your story:

• Think about the genre: If you’re writing a horror book , then you’ll need a scary or dark book title to suit your story. If you’re writing a children’s story , make sure you think about words that your target readers will understand. Keep your genre in mind when coming up with book titles. And keep your audience in mind! 
• Make a list of descriptive words: What is your story about? Who is the main character? What objects are used throughout? Where is your story set? These are all things you might want to think about when making a list of words that describe your story. This list will come in handy when writing your own book title.
• Leave the book title until the end: It is easier to come up with a good book title when your story is written. The more familiar you are with your story, the easier it is to summarise it in a few words. 
• Review your book title: If you have written your book title before writing the story, then reviewing it at the end is important. You might want to double-check if your book title is still relevant and if it can be further improved. A common theme we’ve seen with writers is that they normally start with a nice, romantic tale, which slowly turns dark and twisted. In which case, the title they gave at the beginning may no longer be relevant after their story is written.
• Don’t overcomplicate it: Avoid making your book title too long or wordy, as this can put potential readers off. Keep it as simple as possible, preferably under five words or even less. When it comes to book titles the shorter, the better – Try to keep the mystery of your book hidden until your readers read it. Similarly, you should try to avoid complicated or technical words in your story. Even if your story is about physics or time travel, try to give it a name that everyone can understand. 
• Keep it relevant: Your book title must have some relevance to your storyline or plot. Don’t go completely off-topic, by giving your book a title that just sounds, ‘cool’, but has no meaning behind it. For instance, you wouldn’t want to read a story called Forbidden Dragons that has no references to dragons in the story at all – How disappointing would that be!

Book titles are hard. And sadly there is no secret formula for creating the perfect book title. However there is a useful exercise you can do to create your own book title (or at least an early draft of it). The easiest way to come up with a basic book title is to think of an adjective and a noun relevant to your story. 

Take for example you have a gothic story about a dragon. Following the adjective and noun technique, you might come up with the following potential book title ideas:

• The Dark Dragon
• The Grim Dragon
• The Gothic Dragon
• The Blood Dragon
• Bone Dragon

As you can see the above example book titles start with an adjective and then are followed by a noun. Including ‘The’ at the beginning is entirely optional. Using this basic technique you should be able to come up with hundreds of potential book titles for your story. 

It may not be a perfect technique for creating your own book title, but it’s a great start. More importantly, it’s a marvellous way to get your brain thinking and to get those creative juices flowing. And you never know, using this technique you’ll be able to come up with the best story title ever! So go on…Give it a go! 

Using this technique we have created a printable book title generator. Here you can use the first letter of your first name and surname to generate a random book title for your next story:

To get you started here is a list of over 160 book titles to inspire you:

• The Magic Tree
• Winter Fairy
• Wizards of Ice
• Call of the Forest
• The Enchanted Ones
• A Spell Too Far
• A Potion For The Wise
• Tower To The Stars
• Me, Moonie and Magic
• The Last Flame
• Lost Warriors Of Elysium
• Night Light
• Eye of the Wolf
• The Hollow Spirit
• Love of Tomorrow
• Never Again
• Eternal Soul
• When Love Lasts
• Nothing In This World
• Tales of the Heart
• Stolen Love
• Yes, Maybe, No
• Together For A Day
• Burning Poem
• Whispers of a Ghost
• Dead Man’s WIsh
• Skeletons in the House
• The Lost Soul
• A Party For Ghouls
• Monster Strike
• See Zombie and Run
• Don’t Go There
• Signs of the Past
• The Monster In The Dark
• Horror Stories In The Dark
• Soulless Dead
• Lonesome Shadow
• Space Galaxy Adventure
• Into The Stars
• The Happy Alien
• Aliens of a New Kind
• Earth To Unknown
• Dark New World
• The One After Mars
• Martian Boy
• Signs of Life on Jupiter
• Dangerous Moon
• Bizarre Robot
• Imaginary Gravity
• Mysterious Cyborg
• Stay Hidden
• What’s Over There?
• Clues And More Clues
• Never to be Solved
• The Mystery of Mr Watkins
• Who Took My Book?
• Who Stole My Homework?
• The Meaning of Z
• The Secrets Of Mr. Miller
• Who Is Mary Walker?
• The Crimes of Martin
• The Lost Portrait
• Blank Paper
• Behind the Door
• Who Were They?
• Bad Surprise
• The Cover Up
• The Perfect Thief
• The Secret Witness
• Season For Revenge
• Innocent Eyes
• Long Road To Go
• One Boy And The World
• Neverending Trip
• Point A to Z
• The Search For Bella
• Travelling To New Lands
• One Car And The Road
• Captain’s Lost Treasure
• Unsolved Crimes
• Who Stole My Cat?
• The Judgement
• Judge of Crime
• Detective Collins and the Van
• Nice Try John
• Get Away And Run Away
• A Sharp Punishment
• Unofficial Crimes
• The New Kind
• Fear Of Those
• We Are Powerful
• Elite of the Unknowns
• We Still Exist
• The New Days
• One Way Ride
• Bang, Crash and Boom
• A Boring Day
• Action Pack Man
• The Bad Guy
• A Cowboy’s Story
• Lone Cowboy
• Riders Of The West
• Cowboys In A Storm
• Horse With No Rider
• Yee-haw! Let’s Get Em!
• Cattles And Horses
• Quest Of The West
• The Two-Cent Men
• Burning The Breeze
• Ridin’ To Roscoe
• The Prince of Darkness
• Cursed Queen
• Warrior Princess
• Slay Like a Princess
• The Blue Knight
• Arealia, Forest Princess
• Iceman: The Melt Down
• The Power Seekers
• Fire And Water
• The Amazing Adventures of Ice Boy
• Homeless Heroes
• Mutant Academy
• Unique And Powerful
• Cupcake Kitty
• Christmas Turtle
• The Angel And The Star
• Snow This Christmas
• A Turkey For Christmas
• Changing Times
• Never The Same
• Back In TIme
• World of Tomorrow
• World of Yesterday
• Yesterday is Today
• Before The Past
• Standing Still
• An Elephant’s Journey
• Cats, Dogs And Other Pets
• The Other Animals
• Swimming With Sharks
• My Best Friend The Lion
• Snail’s Speedy Adventures
• Once Upon A Rat
• Rain On Those
• Miss Minnie And The Bees
• Galaxy Bugs
• Invaders of the Earth
• Trapped Like A Bug
• One Mole And A Cat
• Secrets Of Mara
• The Unwanted Toy
• My Neighbour The Alien
• One Spell Away
• Caveman in the City
• Dragon Invasion
• Talking Trees
• Ninja Cats Rescue Mission
• The Strange Key
• Message in a Bottle
• Whispers in the Wind
• Beyond the Horizon
• Chronicles of Celestia
• Shadow Dance
• The Forgotten Kingdom
• Cogs of Time
• Starlight Serenade
• Veil of Illusions
• The Sapphire Crown
• Phoenix Reborn
• Secrets of the Silver Forest
• Echoes of Eternity
• Midnight Mirage
• Song of the Sirens
• Celestial Dreamscape
• Shattered Realms
• The Astral Alchemist
• Serpent’s Embrace
• Quantum Quill
• Twilight Reverie
• Oracle’s Overture
• Whirlwind of Wonders
• Beyond the Veil
• Enigma of the Ember Stone
• Aurora’s Embrace
• Nexus of Nebulae
• Stormweaver’s Saga
• Labyrinth of Legends
• Whispers of the Waning Moon
• Chronicles of the Crystal Citadel
• Quantum Quasar
• Ember’s Lullaby
• The Velvet Veil
• Enchanted Odyssey
• Moonlit Mosaic
• Scepter of Shadows
• Astral Symphony
• The Chronicles of Evermore
• Echoes of Eldoria
• Sapphire Serenity
• The Stargazer’s Sonnet
• Whims of the Whispering Willow
• Enigma’s End
• Celestial Sonnet
• Oracle’s Odyssey
• Cogs and Chronicles
• Symphony of Shadows
• Echoes in the Silence
• Threads of Destiny
• Silent Reverie
• Whispers of Yesterday
• The Art of Letting Go
• Shadows of Reflection
• Kaleidoscope of Memories
• Uncharted Waters
• Mosaic of Moments
• Fragments of Time
• The Color of Tomorrow
• In the Blink of an Eye
• Footprints in the Sand
• A Symphony of Souls
• The Language of Rain
• Dancing with Shadows
• Serendipity’s Song
• The Road Less Traveled
• Wandering Hearts
• Windows to the Soul
• Notes from Nowhere
• Reflections in Blue
• The Art of Beginning Again
• Whispers of Wisdom
• The Silent Symphony
• Tangled Threads
• The Canvas of Life
• Pages of Possibility
• Trailblazers and Tribulations
• Ripple Effect
• The Unseen Canvas
• Echoes of Tomorrow
• Silent Sparks
• The Tapestry of Time
• The Alchemy of Change
• Veins of Vulnerability
• Footprints of Fate
• The Palette of Promise
• Shattered Illusions
• The Stillness Within
• Untold Stories
• The Journey Home
• Melodies of the Mind
• Hidden Harmony
• Echoes of Euphoria
• Shadows in the Attic
• The Patchwork Path
• The Language of Light
• Whispers of Wonder
• A Symphony of Silence
• Echoes of Myra
• Beyond the Surface
• The Quiet Revolution
• Serendipity’s Edge
• The Canvas of Tomorrow
• Footprints Across Time
• The Art of Balance
• Shadows in the Mirror
• Mosaic Moments
• The Color of Rain
• Songs of Serenity
• Kaleidoscope of Reflection
• Windows to Yesterday
• Echoes of Evolution
• The Ripple Effect
• The Dance of Shadows
• The Road Not Taken
• Pages of Serendipity
• The Unseen Symphony
• The Echo Chamber
• A Palette of Promises
• Shadows of Tomorrow
• Fragments of Fate
• Whispers in the Attic
• Trails of Transformation
• My Mind’s Mystery

Can you create your own book title using the adjective and noun technique or from the ideas in our book title generator? Share your book titles with us in the comments below.

Coming up with the perfect title for your book can be tricky! A good title should be catchy, descriptive and make readers want to pick up your book. When brainstorming ideas, think about your target audience, genre and the main themes or topics of your story.

Using the book title generator can give you a huge list of creative options to get your imagination going. Pick words and phrases that sum up the essence of your book or capture something intriguing about the plot or characters. You can combine interesting adjectives with nouns related to the setting or conflict.

Also consider literary or poetic devices like alliteration, rhyme, repetition and wordplay. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different possibilities until you find the ideal title that captures the spirit of your writing. The most important thing is to choose something memorable that will appeal to readers browsing bookshelves or online listings.

See our guide on how to come up with a good book title .

While it may seem tempting for a book to have no title and let the writing speak for itself, publishers will require books to have a title before being published. Some key reasons for this include:

• Titles are crucial for marketing and helping readers quickly identify what a book is about. Without a title, it’s very difficult to promote or sell a book effectively.
• Titles give structure and context when a book is added to a catalogue or bookshelf. They allow books to be organized and categorized.
• Many online book retailers require a title field when submitting book information. Title-less books would likely get rejected.
• Readers browse books by title all the time. No title means no way for potential readers to easily reference the book.
• Titles provide convenient shorthand to refer to a book in conversation or reviews.

So while a purely content-focused book with no title may sound avant-garde, it’s highly impractical from a publishing and marketing perspective. The title plays a critical role in a book’s discoverability and commercial viability. That’s why publishers require even the most experimental literary works to have a title before hitting the shelves.

When choosing a title for your book, you do have a lot of creative freedom, but you can’t use just any title you want. Here are some important considerations around book titles:

• You can’t use a title that is already in use by another book. Titles need to be unique to avoid copyright issues. Doing a quick search on Amazon or Google Books can help check if your desired title is taken.
• Be cautious about using titles with branded names or trademarks. You may need permission to use words like Band-Aid, Kleenex etc.
• Don’t use misleading titles that have nothing to do with the book’s subject matter, as readers will feel deceived.
• Check if the title is search-friendly. Extremely vague, odd or cryptic titles can get buried in search results.
• Be sensitive with provocative or offensive titles that may turn off readers or distributors.
• Steer clear of book titles with clickbait-y wording, as readers dislike misleading hype.

While the book title space is vast, do your research to ensure your chosen title is distinct, accurate, marketable and in line with industry norms and reader expectations. The right title can excite readers and set your book up for success.

Our Book Title Generator provides an endless supply of creative and unique book titles to spark your imagination. Let us know in the comments if you found the perfect title for your story among our suggestions.

What’s your favourite title idea from our generator? We’d love to hear how this tool helped you in your writing journey. Keep using it to brainstorm titles until you discover that ideal attention-grabbing name for your masterpiece!

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

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Table of Contents

Why Do Book Titles Matter?

The 5 attributes of a good book title.

• Steps To Find The Perfect Book Title

Does Your Book Need A Subtitle?

More Ways to Read

• Download a PDF
• Listen To The Podcast

How To Come Up With The Perfect Book Title [Ultimate Guide]

Don’t Have Time Right Now?

Shockingly, there’s little useful guidance out there about book titling. What advice exists is usually of little help:

• Trite (“Go with your gut!”)
• Superficial (“Browse bookstores for ideas!”)
• Or worst of all, actively harmful (“Don’t spend too much time on it.”)

They’re all wrong.

Just like companies that spend millions on naming new products, and media companies that spend time testing different titles for blog posts , you should spend substantial time and energy finding a great title.

This is a very important decision, one you need to get right to ensure your book has the best possible chance of success.

In this comprehensive guide to picking the perfect book title, I will walk you through how to think about book titles, then tell you how to pick yours, and how to test it.

Here’s what we’ll cover in this Scribe Guide:

• Attention Grabbing
• Informative (Gives an Idea of What The Book is About)
• Easy To Say
• Not Embarrassing or Problematic For Someone To Say It

Specific Steps To Find The Perfect Book Title

Step 1: Get Clarity On Your Book Goals

Step 2: brainstorm several potential titles.

Step 3: Make Sure This Title Is Not Already Popular

Step 4: Pick Your Favorites & Test Them

Test #1: Imagine People Saying The Title

Test #2: See What People Click On

Your book title is the most important marketing decision you’ll make. Period.

The title is the first thing the potential reader sees or hears about your book—even before the cover in most cases—and getting it right is the single most important book marketing decision you’ll make. The title forms the basis of the reader’s judgment about your book.

Let’s be clear: A good title won’t make your book do well. But a bad title will almost certainly prevent it from doing well.

The iconic example of the importance of a book title is the title change that led to an obscure book becoming a #1 best seller.

In 1982 Naura Hayden released a book called “Astro-Logical Love.” It bombed.

She then took the exact same book, changed a small amount of the content, and changed the original title to a different title, “How to Satisfy a Woman Every Time…and Have Her Beg for More!”

That book became a massive cultural phenomenon and #1 best seller. Same book, same content, just a different title (I would argue a perfect title).

The takeaway for you is simple and clear: Spend time figuring out the best possible title for your book, because it will largely determine what people think about your book, and thus, your book’s success.

A good title should have all of these attributes:

• Attention-Grabbing
• Memorable & Searchable
• Informative
• Easy & Not Embarrassing to Say

1. Attention-Grabbing

There are a million things pulling on people’s attention. The right title helps you stand out and make that important first impression. A boring title is a killer.

There are many ways to grab attention. You can be provocative, controversial, exciting, make a promise, etc. The point is your title should make people stop and pay attention to it.

Here is what #1 best-selling author Tim Ferriss says about titles:

“The 4-Hour Workweek also bothered some people and was ridiculed by others, which I took as a positive indicator. It’s not accidental that Jay Leno parodied the book on-air—the title lends itself to it, and that was by design. You can’t have strong positive responses without strong negative responses, and beware—above all—the lukewarm reception from all. ‘Oh, that’s nice. I think it’s pretty good,’ is a death sentence. “

2. Memorable & Searchable

It’s much easier to get a reaction out of someone and then be forgotten, than it is to get a reaction and also be memorable.

Remember, a book’s title is not only the first thing a reader hears about your book, it’s the one piece of information that a potential reader has that leads them back to the book itself.

If your book is recommended to them by a friend, and they can’t remember the title, then they can’t go find it in a bookstore or on Amazon. Best-selling author Scott Berkun says it well:

“Often [the title] is all a potential buyer ever gets to see, and if they can draw interest the book crosses its first of many hurdles in the improbable struggle of getting noticed. But titles only help so much. Most people hear about books the same way they hear about new bands. Or new people to meet. A friend or trusted source tells them it was good and it was called  <NAME HERE>. The title at that point serves as a moniker. It’s the thing you need to remember to get the thing you want to get and little more. “

This also means you want the book title to be easily searchable. In the world we live in, search is how people find things now. If your title does not lend itself to easy memorization and searchability on Google and Amazon, that is very bad.

3. Informative (Gives an Idea of What the Book is About)

This is the least crucial aspect for fiction titles, but very important for non-fiction. The title, including the subtitle , should give the reader some sort of idea of what the book is about.

People aren’t going to do your work for you; the easier you make it for them to understand the subject, the more likely you are to draw in the people who’d find your book interesting.

A good test is to ask yourself this: If you were to tell someone the title of your book at a party, would they have to ask what it’s about?

If so, that’s probably a bad title.

Don’t out-think yourself on your title. A title that is overly clever or unclear signals the book is for people who immediately understand the word or phrase—which makes people who don’t get it right away feel dumb (and less likely to buy the book).

By using a word or phrase that is either not immediately understandable by your desired audience or doesn’t convey the point of the book, you’re putting a huge obstacle in front of your success.

Though your title should be informative and easily understood, it doesn’t need to spell out the entire book. Take Malcolm Gladwell’s bestselling Outliers for example: this title does a great job of cuing the content of the book without describing it outright.

4. Easy & Not Embarrassing To Say

Having an easy to say title is a concept called cognitive fluency. It means people are more likely to remember and respond to words and phrases they can immediately understand and pronounce.

Without going too far into the psychological literature, the point is this: Don’t try to be sophisticated at the risk of being obscure.

It’s a basic fact of human psychology—people don’t like to feel socially awkward. If a book title is hard to pronounce, or more importantly, if it’s a phrase that sounds stupid when said out loud, it makes them far less likely to buy it, and chances are they won’t talk about it to other people.

One of the most important things to think about when picking your book title is word of mouth. Think about how people will feel about saying this book title out loud to their friends. Does it make them look smart or stupid?

The worst possible title is one that makes someone feel silly saying it out loud. For example, if the book title is something like “Why Racism Is Great,” no one is ever going to tell their friends about it, no matter how good the book is, because they have to then face the scrutiny of why they bought that book in the first place. Social context doesn’t just matter some; it matters a lot.

Take this list of bad book titles , and imagine saying any of them out loud to your friends in a serious way—you’d never do that.

Generally speaking, shorter titles are best. A short title is not only more memorable and easier to say for your target audience, it also gives space and flexibility for a better book cover. A one-word title is the best.

People get lured into crafting titles that are exacting and long-winded in an effort to make the title signal the book idea and audience. In the title, stick to the core idea. If you want to get wordy, then leave that to the subtitle.

If you can, aim to keep the main title around 5 words or less. The subtitle can offer context or tell a bit more about what the reader will learn. Cameron Herold’s book Meetings Suck has a pithy title, with a subtitle that helps the reader see why the need the book: Turning One of the Most Loathed Elements of Business into One of the Most Valuable.

How To Come Up With A Book Title

Your goals for your book determine what type of title you pick.

If you want to build a brand out of your non-fiction book, your title options are quite different than if you want to publish a racy thriller.

Let’s examine all the functions your book title can serve, and the places for potential use, before we walk you through the precise process of thinking up title ideas:

How A Book Title Can Be Used

• To sell the book to readers
• Establish the author’s authority in a subject
• Be a hook for the author to get media visibility
• Branding for a company, author, conference, or course materials
• Advertise/market the book
• Used in speeches, slides, or other in-person activities
• Used in reviews, blog posts, articles, etc.
• Something the author has to say in all their press appearances
• Become a defining part of an author’s future bio
• Decorate the cover
• Identify the Amazon/B&N listing
• Start a line of books
• Use on t-shirts, flyers, or other promotional material
• Brand a main character or character’s name (Harry Potter)

The point of this whole list is simple: Know which of these objectives apply to your book, and make sure your title can serve those objectives.

For example, if your goal is to build a brand, make sure your book title is your brand. Dave Asprey’s first diet book is called The Bulletproof Diet , because that’s his brand: Bulletproof. The book is about selling everything around the book, not just the book itself.

If your goal is authority in your field, make sure the book title sounds authoritative to whom you are trying to speak. Whimsical doesn’t work in serious academic fields, whereas serious doesn’t work in comedic fields.

If your goal is to get media attention and raise your visibility, make sure the book title l appeals to media and makes them want to cover you.

Brainstorming for titles is not a specific thing you do for an hour, but rather a long term process. It may take you months and hundreds of book title ideas to finalize your title.

But you start by simply brainstorming titles. Literally start a file and write down every working title you can think of for your book.

I know that telling someone to brainstorm is like telling someone to “be creative.” There is no best way to brainstorm, but there are a lot of best practices.

This is a list of every possible way we know of to find a good book title, complete with examples of book titles (remember, these techniques are not just for your main title, they will be the basis for your subtitles as well). Most of these are for nonfiction titles, though some can be used for novel titles.

Also, don’t be afraid to put bad titles on your brainstorm list. Bad titles actually help you–because they will get you to a good title. Here are some best practices:

Use Clever or Noteworthy Phrases From The Book

This is very common in fiction, and can work well with novel titles. It also works well with non-fiction books where the concept of the book can be summed up quickly or with one phrase.

• The Black Swan
• Lecturing Birds On Flying
• I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell

Use Both Short and Long Phrases

We usually start with a really long title and work our way down to much a short title. The goal is the main title be as short as possible—no more than 5 words—and have the subtitle offer the context and put in important keywords.

Use Relevant Keywords

For non-fiction especially, search matters. You want to make sure that when someone searches for the subject or topic of your book, it will come up on Google and Amazon. But it’s a balancing act, because you don’t want to sacrifice the authenticity of the work for what looks and feels like a search string query.

If you are unsure of this, go look on Amazon and see how often subtitles and titles use additional keywords to attract more search engine traffic.

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons In Personal Change
• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
• Predictable Revenue: Turn Your Business Into A Sales Machine With The $100 Million Best Practices Of Salesforce.com

Make a Promise of a Benefit

Some of the best titles promise to help readers achieve a desired goal or get some wanted benefit. They specifically call out an end result that people want:

• How To Win Friends and Influence People
• Getting Things Done
• Think And Grow Rich

Be Simple and Direct

Some of the very best titles are just basic statements about what the book is. There is nothing wrong with this, it can work well, especially for strictly instructional books.

• Getting Past No
• The Power Of Habit

Target an Audience

As we said, people use titles to judge if the book is for them. Part of helping people understand this can be targeting them in your title. You can target specific audiences by naming them or by describing their characteristics. This works especially well if you have a series of books, and then do versions targeted to specific niches.

• What to Expect When You’re Expecting
• Physics For Future Presidents

Offer a Specific Solution to a Problem

This is very popular in the self-help and diet spaces.

You tell the reader exactly what problem your book solves in the title. This is similar to the promise of a benefit, but not the exact same thing; a benefit is something additive, like being sexy. A solution to a problem takes away something negative, like losing weight.

• Man’s Search for Meaning
• 6 Ways to Lose Belly Fat Without Exercise!
• Secrets of Closing The Sale

Use Numbers to Add Credibility

Specifics, like numbers, add credibility and urgency to your titles. The can provide structure for your information, or they can make hard things seem easier. Specificity enables people to engage the idea in a more concrete way, and gives bounded limits and certainty on time frames as well.

• The 48 Laws of Power
• The Five Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts
• The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership

Pique The Reader’s Curiosity (But Withhold The Answer)

Using statements that seem to be impossible, unusual contrasts, or paradoxes can make readers curious about what is in the book. The idea is to make a claim or statement that seems a little far-fetched or fantastical, but promises delivery. This is very popular now with headline writing on sites like UpWorthy and ViralNova.

The iconic recent example of this with books is one we already mentioned, The 4-Hour Workweek. Everyone wants to know how to work 4 hours a week, except it seems impossible, so you pick up the book to see what that guy is talking about.

• Networking Is Not Working
• 10% Happier
• Who Moved My Cheese?

Use Metaphors or Symbols Associated With The Themes in Your Book

Humans think in symbol and metaphor. Using these powerful devices can help you create a strong title that really resonates.

The iconic metaphor-based series is “Chicken Soup for the Soul.” The title signals the warm, nurturing feeling that our culture associates with chicken soup and connects it to something else–stories that nurture your soul.

• The Untethered Soul

Use Alliteration

Alliteration is the use of the same letter at the beginning of all or most of the words in your title. This makes things easier for humans to remember.

• The Mighty Miss Malone
• A Storm Of Swords
• The Pop-Up Paradigm

Alter a Popular Phrase

This is common in book titles and tends to work well—taking a famous phrase and altering it in a way that makes sense for you book. This works because it’s close to something people know, but not exactly the same thing.

• The War of Art
• Assholes Finish First

Slang can work really well, especially if it’s used in a way that is non-intuitive but also novel.

• Ain’t Too Proud To Beg
• No Mopes Allowed: A Small Town Police Chief Rants and Babbles about Hugs and High Fives, Meth Busts, Internet Celebrity, and Other Adventures

Try cliche formats (or reversing them)

There are a ton of book-naming tropes that can work well if used correctly:

• The Art of [TOPIC]
• The Myth of [TOPIC]
• Confessions of [TOPIC]
• How to [TOPIC]
• The Joy of [TOPIC]
• The End of [TOPIC]
• The Art of Racing In The Rain
• The Myth of Male Power
• Confessions of An Economic Hitman
• How to Train Your Dragon
• The Joy of Sex
• The End of Science

Done poorly, these kinds of titles can seem cliched and cloying instead of fresh. This technique is best used when it offers a twist—but isn’t so far out that it confuses the reader.

Consider Coining a Phrase or New Word

This is very helpful, especially if you want to create a brand or company or extended product line out of your book, or brand a character name. The problem with this is that it’s not an easy thing to do. Many authors try to create new words; few succeed, so try this sparingly. The most important element of this technique is that the word is easy to say and understand.

• Essentialism

Use Amazon/Goodreads/Wikipedia For Inspiration

If you’re feeling stuck, you can always go look at how other books are named.

• Wikipedia’s list of best selling books of all time
• Goodreads list of best book titles
• Amazon’s current best selling books

Use Copywriting Manuals For Ideas

If you are truly stuck and cannot think of anything, read some books about copywriting. They are not specifically about book titling, but copywriters have to understand the sell triggers, and they will give you tons and tons of examples. These are three of the best out there:

• POP!: Create the Perfect Pitch, Title, and Tagline for Anything
• The Ultimate Sales Letter: Attract New Customers. Boost your Sales.
• Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich: Create Winning Ads, Web Pages, Sales Letters and More

Step 3: Check Copyright, Trademark, Keywords and Popularity

First off, let me very clear about this: you cannot copyright titles.

Technically, you can call your book “To Kill A Mockingbird” or “Lord Of The Rings” or even “The Holy Bible.”

That being said, copying a popular book makes it VERY hard for your book to stand out, and pretty much guarantees a lot of negative reviews from people who are not getting the book they expected.

That being said, you can trademark a title, if it is part of a larger brand. For example, the term “Bulletproof” is trademarked in the health and fitness space by Dave Asprey. You (probably) can’t title a book “The Bulletproof Diet” because it infringes on a trademark (not the copyright ).

If this is confusing, and you have a book title you think might be a trademark infringement, then talk to an IP attorney.

Also, make sure you check that the title and subtitle have the right keywords you want to address your market, and aligns with any domain and brand issues you have.

Step 4: Pick Your Favorites

At this point, you should have a long list of title ideas. Once that’s done, you can move on to the next step: picking your titles.

I cannot emphasize how important this next step is:

Everyone has opinions on book titles. Most of those opinions are stupid and wrong.

Even people who get PAID to come up with book titles (editors, publishers, etc.) are usually bad at it.

Here’s a great test as to whether or not you have a good book title: imagine one of your readers talking about your book at a party to other people.

If you can see them confidently saying the book title aloud, and the people listening nodding and immediately either understanding what the book is about based on that (and perhaps a sentence or two of explanation), or asking for a further explanation because it sounds interesting, then you’ve got a good title.

If you imagine any other reaction than this one, you need to re-think your title, and probably change it.

Remember, so much of book marketing boils down to word of mouth, and word of mouth is all about people signaling things to other people. You want your book title to inspire and motivate the right people to talk about it, because it lets them signal the right things to their friends.

Test #2: (optional) Test Actual Clicks

Here’s one of the keys to testing your titles: test both the main title and subtitle and test them in many different iterations. Usually what you’ll find is most things test about the same, while there will be one thing that clearly tests better as a title and another that clearly tests best as a subtitle.

This is a great piece about the step-by-step process of using Google Adwords to test a title.

If you have a large audience already, you can also use Survey Monkey .

For real customer feedback, I recommend using Pickfu .

I would also recommend Google Survey . This is real market testing of real people and can be done fairly cheaply.

How Not To Test Your Book Title

Most of the things authors do to test their titles are very, very bad.

For example, posting on social media is NOT TESTING YOUR TITLE. In fact, posting on social media is about the worst possible way to test a title.

Why is this?

Well, your social media friends are probably not your audience, and a tweet about the title won’t help you. And even worse, everyone on your social media has an agenda relative to the author that will often put you off-kilter.

Friends and family don’t work. Generally speaking, they want to make you happy. They don’t want to give you an objective answer. Or they want to make sure you look good, but they don’t know what will actually make you look good.

Furthermore, oftentimes colleagues will be critical—because they are jealous. It happens a lot, and they will give you bad advice , even if only unconscious.

And some authors will go to their marketing teams for title advice, which can often lead you way off-kilter. Do you know the saying that a camel is a horse designed by committee? When you start getting opinions from lots of different sources, you get the “camel effect” hardcore.

If you’re doing a non-fiction book, yes, probably so.

The way we like to frame it is that the title is the hook, and the subtitle is the explanation. The subtitle is the promise of the book.

Books need a subtitle if it’s necessary to contextualize the subject alluded to in the main title. Typically, the subtitle tells the reader some combination of what the book’s central premise is, who the book is for, and what promise the book delivers on or need it meets.

Some examples where subtitles help contextualize the title and deliver the promise of the implied title:

• The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape The 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join The New Rich: See how the title hooks you by being interesting, and the subtitle explains the premise? Very well done.
• Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead: It’s a bit long, but the same thing is going on here; the subtitle contextualizes and frames the title, which is clear, easy to understand, and say.
• Kitchen Confidential: This originally had a subtitle, “Adventures In The Culinary Underbelly,” but it was later dropped. No subtitle was needed on this work of non-fiction, because the meaning is clear, especially when paired with a picture of a chef on the front (and because it became very famous, which helps).
• The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11: This is an example of a book where the subtitle is very important. That title could mean many things, but the subtitle quickly signals what the book is about and who it’s for.

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How to Create Brilliant Book Titles (With Examples)

A good book title can mean the difference between a bestseller and a lifeless shelf-dweller.  

If you don’t believe me, look up  First Hundred Million  by editor E. Haldeman-Julius. He explains that changing just the book title can rocket a book from selling 6,000 copies a year to 50,000 copies a year. 

In this post I’m going to give you a list of great book titles, but I’m also going to give you some information that will help you choose the best title for  your  book. 

The title is what people see first. It’s what they remember when they go home to look the book up. It’s what they say when they recommend the book to others. It’s the most important marketing decision that a writer can make because, while a good title can’t make a book popular, it can certainly keep a book from getting sold. 

Yes, a book’s cover art is important, but there are some books that, once readers see the title, think, “Hmm, now that sounds interesting.” And they pick the book up. 

That  is what we’re after. Cover artists and publishers can decide on the art, but  you  are responsible for  your  book’s title – especially in the case of self-publishing. 

A Good Book Title Is: 

• Unique A unique title captures the essence of the book, stakes out new territory in the arms race of book naming, and provokes curiosity. Upon reading or hearing it, a person should get an idea of what your book is about without entirely knowing what’s inside.   Example:  The Forest of Hands and Teeth . Have you ever heard of a book like that? And don’t you want to find out more?
• Catches the reader’s attention  Think of Dave Egger’s book You Shall Know Our Velocity . I love that title! It’s so energetic. Imagine someone walking in a bookstore, passing by hundreds of books. How can your title stand out among the rest? How can it provoke curiosity?
• Easily remembered Unique titles that catch the reader’s attention should also be easily remembered.  Most easily remembered books are pleasant sounding to the ear, short, and unique.  Pride and Prejudice  is a good example. A bad example would be Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris. Nobody could remember that title. Nobody. Everyone came into bookstores asking for “The Office Book.”
• Easily pronounced  A good title is easily pronounced because that plays a part in being easily remembered as well as how often a reader may talk about your book. This is a movie example rather than a book, but remember the Jennifer Lopez/Ben Affleck disaster that was Gigli ? That could have been the best movie in the world and it still would have flopped because no one knows how to pronounce Gigli.
• Avoids confusion with other books Two books last year had very similar titles: “Girl on a Train” and “The Girl on the Train.” The latter was a best seller. The former was not, but got lots of sales simply by confusion. You want to choose a title which is unique from other books, unless you have a plan to draft off a super-popular book. Discoverability is a big deal, especially for self-published writers. You want people to be able to find your book, and not a book that just sounds like it.

Your title may not contain all of these characteristics, but it should at least be a combination of two or three. 

Titling Nonfiction Books  

Nonfiction titles should get straight to the point of the content (this includes blog posts, articles, etc.). 

For example: if you tell someone the title of your nonfiction book and they have to ask what it is about, you probably need to change the title. 

If you have a great eye-catching title that doesn’t quite get to the point, consider a subtitle . 

Discoverability is the “Good Title” characteristic most important for nonfiction works. Keywords are essential. You want your book to pop right up when someone types in their problem. If you want to tell someone how to plant a garden, consider titling your book, “How to Plant a Garden.”  

Check to be sure that your chosen title isn’t already used because that can create unnecessary confusion and competition.   

It wouldn’t surprise me if “How to Plant a Garden” is already taken, so consider adding or shifting around the words. This is also where subtitling could be considered. 

Examples:   

• The Best Way to Plant a Garden. 
• Gardening Made Simple and Easy 
• 6 Steps to the Perfect Garden 
• Gardening Advice 
• The Perfect Harvest: A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting the Perfect Garden 

Making the title unique without tarnishing its discoverability is probably one of the best things a nonfiction writer can do. 

Dale Carnegie achieved this with his bestselling novel, “ How to Win Friends and Influence People .” This title is much less boring than “How to Be a Leader.” 

Titling Fiction (Novels & Short Stories)

Fiction differs from nonfiction in that titles should rarely get straight to the point. They instead should be mysterious and thought provoking, inducing curiosity. Fiction titles should lead a reader to pick up your book, not because they need a solution to a problem or information on a matter, but because they are curious.  

Now, whether they buy or not depends on the content, but the title is what provokes them. 

I also offer advice on writing the inside of your book (imagine that!).

If you want advice on novel plotting, characterization, pacing, theme or a hundred other topics, you should definitely check out my post on HOW TO WRITE A BESTSELLING NOVEL.

Click that link above to have your mind blown with novel possibilities.

Titles come in all shapes and forms. 

Single words: 

• Endurance 
• Atonement 
• Allegiant 
• Nevermore 
• Boneshaker 

Poetry: 

• The Fault in Our Stars 
• For Whom the Bells Toll 

Famous Sayings: 

• Liberty or Death 
• Double Jeopardy 
• Till Death Do Us Part 

Quotes From Within the Book: 

• To Kill a Mockingbird 
• Gone With the Wind 
• Monsters of Men 
• Their Eyes Were Watching God 

Wordplay: 

• Of Mice and Men 
• Pride and Prejudice 
• I Capture the Castle 
• Sally After Sal 

Opposing Subjects: 

• War and Peace 
• Love and Hate  
• Angels and Demons 

There are hundreds of examples. Simply look at your favorite book and ask yourself why that title sounds interesting. Now, think of how the author might have come up with that. Use that same technique. 

How to Come Up With a Title 

I am going to give you a list , but read this anyway in case you don’t like any of my ideas. 

1. Brainstorm. 

You are a writer. You are your own best source of creativity. Your best ideas are going to come from inside your pretty little head, so use it. Sit down and think of all the interesting titles that come to your mind. Ask yourself what your book is truly about, and give an answer in three or four words. Use lines of poetry. Use song lyrics. Use quotes from your own book. Look up title generators and, while you may not use the exact title, you can find inspiration by combining different words and such. Here’s a list of the best title generators , and they are organized by genre. Ask your friends and family for ideas. Use  every  resource available to you.  

2. Write them all down.

Do this for a couple of days or until your creativity bank has run completely dry, then go back through and pick out the top ten.  

3. Next, take it down to five.

Use the requirements listed under “Good Book Title” in the first portion of the article. Is it catchy? Memorable? Easy to find on the internet? 

4. You have two choices at this point.

• You can either begin asking others which title they think is best – it’s best to use an unbiased survey with people you don’t know very well who are within your target audience. (See below.)
• Or you can scratch everything and go through steps 1 – 3 again. Some ideas for testing these titles include: Facebook polls  – Find a book group, list your titles, and see which gets the most votes. Facebook ads  – Create an ad for each title and see which gets the most clicks. Google Adwords  – Same as the Facebook ads including the use of keywords to make sure only your target audience is polled.   

Rules to Remember 

• Don’t use Identical Titles . While titles cannot be copyrighted, the same rules for using identical titles apply just about anywhere. It is  not  recommended. Don’t name your book  The Holy Bible, Harry Potter , or  The  Lord of the Rings hoping to catch some readers deceptively. If a reader stumbles across your book when searching for the other identically named book, imagine how upset they may get and what that could mean for your book’s reputation. You may not even mean to copy a title. This is why research is so important: because even if the other identically named book isn’t famous, having the same title will hurt your discoverability.
• Stick with your genre . A book with the title of “Thy Mystery of the Blonde Lady” should be for a mystery book – not a thriller. Likewise, “The Devil’s Woods,” isn’t a very suitable title for a romance novel. Again, do  research . (I know. This is much more work than just slopping down some words on the cover of your masterpiece.) Find successful books in your genre and see what they are titled.
• Don’t use derogatory language . You may think that adding some explicit language to your book title will add shock appeal and will do a better job at grabbing attention. It may certainly grab people’s attention, but it may not be the attention you want.  Many people become uncomfortable  because of this sort of language, and they will avoid your book specifically for this reason.  Books with titles like these will probably not get recommended as often because readers may not want to say the words out loud, admit that they are reading such a book, or have to go into a detailed explanation as to why they were reading such a book in the first place.
• Avoid Titles with negative themes . Names such as: Why Slavery is Necessary, Racism is a Good Thing, and How Murdering My Children Set Me Free are all examples of terrible titles for obvious reasons. 

The moment you’ve been waiting for. I’ve composed a list of titles that I’ve come up with over the years by using the exact same tips and rules I’ve given to you. (Sometimes, interesting titles even inspire writers to write something based around it, and how awesome is that?) Feel free to use these, but let me know because I’d love to see if any of my ideas have helped you.  

A List of 44 Great Original Titles

• The Stars Tonight 
• A Guide to Courteous Thievery 
• Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down 
• Dark Days Under a Black Sun 
• Darkness is Fallen 
• Shattered Pieces 
• Unmasked 
• Remember Me 
• The Sound of Light 
• Long Far Away 
• Resonance 
• Asterism 
• Into the Abyss 
• Firedance 
• Evenstar 
• The Kings of Old 
• Legend 
• Burned 
• Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves 
• Some Nightmares are Beautiful 
• Walls of Fire 
• The Polite Murderer 
• The Windrunner 
• Renegade 
• Evanescent 
• Winter Ark 
• Eventide 
• Blood Roses 
• Those Who Play With Demons 
• Wintertide 
• The Friend of Death 
• Two Roads 
• Crimson Sky 
• Emerald Dream 
• Ashes and Snow 
• Blood Moon 
• One Last Hundred Chances 
• Heaven’s Demons and Earth’s Angels 
• The Stars Have Eyes 
• Twenty-one 
• I Heard it Once, Long Ago 
• Golden Girl 
• Why She Said Yes 
• From the Ashes We will Rise 

I have no idea if any of these titles have already been used. I hope not, but do your research just in case. Good luck and be sure to check out our writing courses . 

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125 comments

Hey Christian, great article and thanks for the mention of the Book Title Generators list.

Superb ideas, I am already brainstorming. May be there should be an activity – give a book title to someone and ask them to imagine a brief plot of the book

Hello Christian, I very much enjoyed your article. I am retired ENT surgeon and written my autobiography. Please any catchy book title. Thanks Sat Mehta

How about: The Life of Sat Mehta Sat Mehta: Tales of an EMT Surgeon

ENTer the theatre

Under the Knife

Great article . Any suggestions for my upcoming book on violence again hospitals health workers This is from India Thank you

Cool thoughts. Thanks for providing that list to peruse. The one I like is “The Sound of Light”; has that synesthesia thing going for it.

Yeah, a bit like Terry Pratchett’s ‘The Colour of Magic’

All are marvelous. But, “Heaven’s Demons and Earth’s Angel’s” sound more Superb to me. Great Job.

Hello, there. Thank you for the… 5 posts (maybe more?) I’ve read so far. Honestly, a forced brainstorm is a nightmare. However, these 44 Title ideas are a lifesaver: it really helped me brainstorm! Less than half of my books had names. Now, I’ve got a good list of names to all of them, all thanks to you. My favorites were #2, #4, #19, #23, #31, #39 (they helped me create new original titles). Keep up the awesome work!

Hi there! I will take just any good idea. I’m writing a script about anorexia but don’t want to just name it “Anorexia” because that is very bold and obvious for a title. I’d really appreciate some help. Thanks!

Hi! I’m not the author of this post, but I had some ides what I saw this. I have a friend who struggled with (not very severe) anorexia, and when she said some things they really struck hard, so here are a few ideas I had: Empty, Ignore the Hunger, The Hunger is an Addiction. this may help you come up with some ideas of your own!

Lies of A Reflection

Mirrors sometimes lie

The Weight Of Hunger

I know that carrot will hurt me.

Am new to writing and this book is long overdue. and Am writing a book about my life, my struggles, my pain, my loss, my victory, where I am at present and what ot took. It is basically about rising from the ashes, irrespective of. I want a book to enpower, motivate, mentor, and encourage people especially targeted at women folk and anyone having a hard time, facing difficult times and cant really see light at the end of the tunnel. I dont want use obvious names. Any suggestions? Anyone?

My Becoming

“My Becoming” sounds a lot like Michelle Obama’s book “Becoming” though

Hi, there! i’m writing a short story about a topic that is pretty close to me, mental illness to be pretty exact. i don’t want my title to be bland and cliche, i want it to pop out and catch attention, and with the topic i’m writing about i do not want the title to imply that the story is a joke, any suggestions? thank you!

Lemon tears?

Depression?

Hi, I am thinking of writing a book on parenting on substance abuse and my target group should be the youths. Please is it possible to help me with a nice short and catchy title of the book. I would be glad you did. Thank you

“The Windrunner” is too similar to “The Kiterunner” IMO, which is a bestseller.

The High Life

Great article. I don’t usually have any trouble coming up with a title and I rarely come up with more ideas than 2-3 per book. I really like some of your suggestions at the end, especially 2,3,4,6,19,20,22,37 and 41.

Hi, Good article. I thinking of writing a book about my struggles, and how I’m overcoming them one step at a time by the help of the most high. Am always writing, short stories of my daily life & quotes. Keep doing your awesome work. Any suggestions. Thank you.

For SOFIA STERLING: How about, OUCH !! with a front cover picture of a fire-walker stepping on a bed of hot coals, with a subtitle of ”DARING TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP? just a thought, good luck .. Gerry. ‘PS, do not mention God or any sort of religious words, a HUGE turn-off’.___________ (2) CHIZOBA ETUKA. ”Needles do more than, get to the point”….. (3) ASHLEY… I might have exaggerated a little when I said I was sane…. (4)SHO. How about, ” My journey to the next station” showing a picture of a rail tunnel, rail lines and the light at the end…. (5)SAMREEN… ”Slimming, without showing my ribs”

Wow thank you so much for this article! I find this very useful!

Scripting a Hunger Ignored

THANKSfor the kick in the pants you got me going on a name that pops”TEACH YOUR DINOSAUR TO FLY” is the one that I settled upon

i’m writting a book on answer to all absurd hypothetical questions. could you pls help me get the title.

For YASWANT, a title I can come up with for you, The Ifs, Ands, or Buts. Good luck!

Wow those are some good titles there! Thanks for the article Fox! These are some of the hardest points, though, to a story! Title can make or break your book XD. I find that making titles comes easy to me though. And yes a title can generate a whole story just from it.

Thomas Rogers that is a fine title to a book! It kinda says, “Oh I want to see what this is about”

Good luck on your titles all who are writing some now!

Hi, I wrote a story of my school days and my love in school days. I was not a good student. All girls used to hate me. All teachers had have frustrated due to my bad behaviour. But she was in love with me. But due to some reason we didn’t married. Now she is married with some one else. Me to married and living happily. My wife’s love turned me to forget my first love. Wife’s sacrifices became greater. And in school days all opinion about me turned into positive at the end of school days. This is a what about my story. Kindly suggest me effective tittle.

For SHRIKRISHNA, might I suggest, Can You See Me? Good Luck!

Echoes Of My Past or Echoes Of that Boy I Use To Be or Past Opportunities Forgotten or Affairs of My Youth

The Missed Chance or My Missed Chance

Imperfect me

Thank You for writing this article. It gave me great ideas

Hi everyone 🙂 I am embarking on my first book and it is an erotic classy novel part fiction but based on life experiences. In a nutshell about meeting a soulmate only twice in life but impacted forever….the love wont die…the passion is insane….what should I name it?

What about, “Passion” or, “Only Twice?”

Think about this one too, “Love is for eternity,” or “Love is Immortal.”

Contact me at [email protected] if you like anything and want more, because that’s what I do…all of you people.

Sin and Sinuous

HI guys I am writing a book which is a thriller genre and i was searching for good book titles and i you know went into some sites and i was not 100% satisfied.. But this site is the best like i have made over 5 books and i am going to publish it and Thank god I saw this site… I have got good titles… Awesome Keep going on!

A wonderful piece you got there. It’s been super helpful

I am working on a book with a tittle SLEEPINESS MY ENEMY. This is a motivational book which i would like to recommend it to students and to every worker because sleepiness has hindered many students a comfortable study.Please i need help, i want to know if the book can make sense

Hello! I am writing a story similar to “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan in the way that I am writing about my different uses of languages, slangs, and accents I have unknowingly used throughout my life. It’s going to be about how I have used many different ways of speaking such as the way I speak to my peers, my family, and in school

If you don’t have a title already, it could be, Word of Mouth or Word of My Mouth

Hello, a great article I was looking for. Really interesting and informative. It helped to brainstorm great ideas for titles. Thank you for sharing all these things

thanks for the good ideas I am writing Arabic story’s about Continents of the world, Antarctica will be the most important one , I am thinking to call it Mama Antarctica , is it good one or shall I search for anther . I have a story called Mama olive it will be published within a week … so I shoos Mama Antarctica . hope to hear from you

I’m writing a story on elves, faeries, warlocks, wizards, troll, and so on but I dint know what to name could you please help me? thank you.

The Untold Stories Of The World? Good luck!

Could it be, The Secrets of The Woods

Hi my name is Layal Jaffal and I really like your ideas it is really good but I think you should move to the next step my book is about horror, love, fear, jealousy, friendship, and confidence

A good name Evelyn Mae is eds

Thanks for the book title generators list. It really helped me a lot.

Dark days under a black sun…using that ..thanks so much

Hello all, my name is Jasmine. I am a young writer and let me say, this piece helped me a ton. I am currently writing a love story, it is part fantasy, but the reality of drugs, gangs, and life tests the strength of their love. Any title ideas? Thanks!

Reality is the lie in truth? (I’m not the best at titles)

Heyyy.. there is a story out there called ‘thirteen reasons why’ .. you could go somewhere down that line .. or something like ‘love conquers reality’ .. or ‘Love shaped my future’ or … ‘tried love’ .. a few options.. sorry not the best at this kind of thing >_<

I am trying to come up with a title for a story about a young boy overcoming his negative self concept and learning to love himself.

By identifying the positive qualities within

I loved the ideas! I am a very young writer, so these really helped me! I am trying to write a book about an older teenage girl who has a gambling addict, and I thought up some ideas. I’d really like your feedback on them! “The Dealing of Poker Chips” or “The Sound Made of Nothing” If you guys have any other title ideas I’d love to hear them.

It should really be “The Dealing of Cards” but, in my book there’s a twist, so I wanted it to be poker chips instead of cards

So I’m writing this book about how a mother’s mistake affect her child’s love life any help on the title?

Hello! I’m currently writing a book, it’s about a girlfriend looking for her lost boyfriend. Their childhood friends help, and secrets reveal along the way, it’s romance but it’s also a mystery. Any titles you have in mind? Thank you!

Whom I Love

Two Roads is already a book. I was reading just a few minutes before I read this article. It is by Joseph Bruchac. I just wanted to let anybody who was thinking of using the name know.

1-My mother left me at 6 months, rejected me 7 times. 2-Trusted a family member, but turn out to be my kidnaper and molester 3-I saved my father’s life and health when everyone abandon him. 4-I visited a UNHCR office for 18 months 6-6pm Mon-Friday to get a chance to come overseas. Yes am here. Please help me to find chapter tittles for the above numbers. Thank you million times.

2-Hidden Horridness

4-I’m not sure I don’t know what a UNCHR office is

I hope this helps

My New Home? Good Luck!!!

Hey, I was wondering if anyone could help me come up with a name for my book. It is an adventure/fantasy book about a girl named Fern Griffin and her friend Nitza Sage. They find an underground maze in their town and a bunch of stuff happened and their are witches and dragons and stuff. There is a blade called the Snakeroot blade that takes a big part in the book and I was thinking something related to that? I don’t know, anything helps. Thanks!

Snakeroots and Secrets?

I’m writing a story about a girl who meets who she thinks is her soulmate and starts a new amazing job. Basically, her life is going great. But then her boyfriend starts acting weird and she finds out that he has been cheating. So she gets drunk, and buys a gun. She gets home and catches him in the act and shoots. The neighbors here the commotion and call the cops, she gets arrested. She then appears in court, where the reader finds out that she did not, in fact, kill her boyfriend but shot him in the arm. She is found guilty of attempted murder and the book ends there. All title ideas are welcome and criticism is greatly appreciated.

Loved No Longer Not The One Wrong Things Soulmates Hope I gave you some ideas!

Thank you so much that was very helpful but i decided to go with the title ‘Guilty’ because that is the last word in the story.

Trying to give a title to my war/romance story. A girl called Adelle Yorke gets separated from her brother Harris and their parents and she has to live with a nasty farmer and his horrible wife. They have a son, Karl Blake, who she falls in love with. They run away together to help wounded soldiers. Harris turns up and they learn that the Blake’s farm has been bombed. Karl, Adelle and Harris return to the city to Adelle and Harris’ parents house, but it no longer exists. They then search for Adelle’s parents and end up in a German camp. They manage to escape with a few other people from the camp. The group sticks together and gets smaller as people find their families. Finally only Adelle, Karl and Harris remain, still searching. The story ends there, but I may change it. Will be majorly grateful if someone could give me a few ideas. Thanks guys!

I think thats a perfect place to leave it and could it be called ‘Remember Me’ Good Luck! 🙂

I don’t know, but the searching thing seems to play a big part. However, when they go to their destinations, there’s nothing good awaiting them. What about something about searching (like ‘Searching for Nothing’ or something like that)?

Actually yeah thata much better than mine.

I’m writing a “how to” book. Guide for Creating a Saint Joseph Altar. Seems to boring. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. [email protected] Thank you Viva San Giuseppe

Well I read somewhere that St. Joseph’s colours are gold and red and that the flower that is associated with him is the lilly so you could do something to do with that. Hope this helps. 🙂

Hi, great article. So here’s the thing. My story is fantasy slash mystery revolving around a girl who finds her life trajectory change when she finds on her sixteenth birthday that she infact is one of the 12 heirs to the kingdom of Atricia. This kingdom lies hidden in the south pole and connects different parallel lands where all possible creatures that you can think exist. There is a romantic twist to it and the story line is quite humourous and light hearted but filled with unexpected turns. Any suggestions? Advices and critics are welcome too. I am a very young writer so that will be of great help. Thank you.

Hi i want help i am writing story about bad attitude so please someone help me to choose title name i think WORLD REALIZE AFTER LOST EVERYTHING is good or bad?

I personally don’t understand the ‘WORLD REALIZE AFTER LOST EVERYTHING’ but it is your book and you should go with whatever you think is right. I’m not exactly sure of what your book is about but i thought of ‘The Cost Of A Bad Attitude’ or something like that.

Looking for a powerful title for an exceptional book for the carer of someone with Alzheimers disease. Its very detailed practical and helpful advice. A reader will get to see the sufferer from a new perspective and understand his/her actions and therefore react appropriately. Much info also on where to get help etc. Its a guide, or companion but trying to go beyond the common A guide or companion for the caregiver. Thank you.

Hi, I am searching for a title for a story of my life. Basically I was raised in a children’s home from the age of 6 to 16 years with my 4 siblings whom my father paid to keep us all together. (My Mother walked out on us all for another man). My mother visited us twice in10 years and we never saw her again as she went on and had another 5 kids!. The cruelty endured at times was sadistic inhumane and cruel. I made a vow somehow that I would do good with my life. I secretly applied to go to college, got accepted, then went on to university. Eventually went in the corporate world, worked my way up to the top. Cannot think of a title, so if anyone can help with a title, I will be incredibly grateful. Many thanks J

Hi am writing a story about a girl who has a problem with both math and God but through her tutor he teaches her how to be able to love and trust God and also become better at math. Can anybody give me a suggestion . Thanks

-Rising up – I am still standing -Applied -At the top

LOVED THISSS!! xx NEEDED 🙂

Hi I got an enormous number of tips in suggesting a good novel title, I believe now I can solve my own task Much Thanks

Is there somewhere I can go to test a book title?

Im writing an Avengers fanfic where the main character becomes the daughter of Sam Wilson (Old Falcon, New Captain America) she has the powers of teleportation, control over the elements and creation of forcefield. Her name is Sapphire Angel.

“The Stars Have Eyes” is a work of science fiction by Thomas Farmer published in 2018.

Hey! I am writing a short story about this group of friends on spring break. and then one of the friends snaps and kills everyone else and ends with none of that happened in real-time. she’s in a mental institute and is writing in a journal. ANy ideas for a title. anything would be appreciated

Great write up. Gave a lot of insights Thank you

Hey guys… I’m writing an Anthology. It consists of poems about passion, strength, nature and being firm but I’m stuck for a title. Would really appreciate if anyone can help me out

Hi, I am writing a book on how to become a rueda de casino (dance) teacher. It contains the standard syllabus and new perspectives. What should I name it?

I have been reading posts regarding this topic and this post is one of the most interesting and informative one I have read. Thank you for this!

if I have a title named ” The tribes of plant foxes” and I need to shorten it… does anyone have any ideas?

Tribes of the ploxes

The fox tribe xx

Sparkling titles, wonderful guide

I’m writing a book with best friend not sure what to name it we have a lame title called lost in the woods but its not good enough it doesent describe our story they dont even get lost in the woods I NEED HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, just because it has nothing to do with the woods doesn’t mean it can’t be called that. The woods could stand for something, such as a crowd of people. Or, in the sense of your title, it could mean that they got into trouble way bigger than they are.

Thank you for this thought-provoking list of titles. I will research as you said, to see if they’ve already been used. I design custom and pre-designed book covers.

I’m just a beginner l now where to start compiling a suitable title for my book thank you 💝 this is a superb

Hi – I am putting together a “coffee table” type book of a collection of my deceased brother’s art. His focus was ceramics of all kinds – wheel, raku, hand thrown, sculpture, etc., and also water colour paintings. I have written a short bio of his life leading up to his career as the head of the art fundamentals department of a college, but the book is mostly pictures of his work which collectors have in both Canada and the United States. The ideas and suggestions on this site are great, but if anyone would like to throw out a thought or two I would be delighted.

How do you find this title and subtitle:

The Rise of Ninja Gods

How Is Covid-19 Changing The World?

THANK Y0OU FOR THE IDEAS!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOOKIMG FOR A TITLE… A RICH BEAUTFIFUL GIRL WHO MADE BAD BHOICES..THEN THANKS TO A PILGRIMAGE TRANSFORM HER LIFE INTO A POSITIVE BLISSFUL RENEWAL OF HER LIFE

Hi, there! i’m writing a motivational book. I want suggestions for a catchy book that pops up and grab readers attention.

Any suggestions please? thank you!

Hi, I suppose that no one will see this, but I’m willing to try anyways. I’m planning on writing a book about A police officer roped into supernatural happenings. The MC is the supernatural “hunter.” I’m fresh out of ideas, and it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Officer capture your heart xx

I am giving a presentation about the importance of books titles. You information is spot on and very helpful. Thank you

Any suggestions for my memoir?

[tenatitive title] I Was WABC’s Last Top 40 DJ (Another One Bites the Dust)

Am writing a book about two young people who are not in love but eventually fall in love . Help me with a cover page and a title n pictures of two girl and boy

“Unlikely Hearts: A Love Story in the Making”

“Love’s Unforeseen Path: Embracing the Unexpected”

“Falling into You: A Tale of Serendipitous Romance”

Thanks for this page. Thought of many potential titles for my anthology. Decided on “Smashing walnuts and other existential pleasures” because everything else was too pompous/boring/twee/done before, etc. The words “Smashing walnuts” is in a poem in the book. Silent Light on Sapphire, the next best option would put you to sleep I think. Please advise. Thanks

can I use one of the suggested titles for my book?

I’m just gonna use one of the suggested titles for my book I’d you don’t mind 😉

Can i have someone contact me in regards to writhing a book with an amazing concert and story line

hi, I need help writing a personal book

one of these titles are available or how to come up with one

Every writer NEEDS this book.

It’s a guide to writing the pivotal moments of your novel.

Whether writing your book or revising it, this will be the most helpful book you’ll ever buy.

Kindlepreneur

Book Marketing for Self-Publishing Authors

Home / Guides / Book Publishing / How to Title a Book: 13 Steps to Choosing a Title That Sells

How to Title a Book: 13 Steps to Choosing a Title That Sells

• Do book titles matter?
• What’s in a bestselling book title? 4 Crucial Book Title Elements
• Amazon Rules and Requirements for Book Titles
• 13 Steps to Choosing Your Book Title
• Good Book Titles: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

To write the title of a book, craft a title that is:

• Enticing to potential readers
• Relevant to your genre
• Relevant to your story
• Search engine friendly

Lots of writers struggle with how to title their book. There’s no shame in grappling with what your book title should be. It can be overwhelming to sum up your book in 1-5 words.

Second only to your book's cover design , good book title ideas can lead to sales conversions and high discoverability on Amazon.

Having worked with publishing companies and multiple The New York Times bestselling authors, I've been a part of the NYT bestselling titling process on many occasions.

To help you craft the perfect title of your book, I’ll go through 13 actionable steps to choose a title that sells, as well as the crucial elements that every good title needs.add a subtitle

• Good book titles and why they work
• 4 crucial elements of the perfect book title
• Proven step-by-step process on how to title a book [13 steps]
• Advanced resources and tactics to help

Links in this article may earn me some commission if you use them to purchase products. There’s NO extra cost to you! I like to think of it as my coffee fund, fueling me to create articles like this one for you.

Yes, having the right book title matters because having a poor title hurts your sales, reaches the readers, and hinders your book marketing efforts .

Let’s look at a prime example of why book titles matter, from the book titling genius Emanuel Haldeman-Julius and his famous title experiments .

Haldeman was a writer and publisher in the early 1900s who ran a tight publishing company . If a book didn’t sell at least 10,000 copies a year, he’d send it to his “hospital,” where he would brainstorm new ideas for the right title until it performed well.

• Original title: Gautier’s Fleece of Gold
• Original title’s sales: 6,000 copies/year
• Why the original name: French writing was the rave at the time.

Here are his documented change, results, and reasoning:

• New title: The Quest for a Blonde Mistress
• New title’s sales: 50,000/year
• Why he believed the original title failed: The title doesn’t tell you what it's about.

You read that correctly. Haldeman’s publishing company sold over 44,000 additional units because they changed the name to something less broad and more to the point. People ate it up.

In the following example, you'll see that significant changes aren’t always necessary. Sometimes just a simple tweak is all you need:

• Original title: Mystery of the Iron Mask
• Original title’s sales: 11,000/year
• Why the original name: It was mysterious and to the point.

His changes:

• New title: The Mystery of the Man in the Iron Mask
• New title’s sales: 30,000/year
• Why he believed the new title worked: A man wearing an iron mask is an intrinsically more intriguing mystery than just some iron mask.

(I would argue extra alliteration also piques readers’ interest.)

His list of book title changes and their dramatic increases in sales goes on and on. These examples serve as empirical proof that book titles make a difference in your marketing and sales.

Even modern-day authors like Joanna Penn have discovered this .

Let's face it, writing a book is super expensive. Best to make sure when you publish, you do everything you can to make it sell, including re-titling it.

Before we get into the step-by-step process of how to write a book title, let’s talk about the crucial elements that should go into book title selection.

What makes a good title for a book? Here are 4 crucial elements that make a good title for a book:

• Intrigue factor
• Title discoverability
• Genre pairing
• Relevance & specificity

Based on your situation, fan base, marketing tactic, and type of book, you may find that one particular element deserves priority over the others. I recommend using all 4 ingredients, but you may find the perfect title that only uses one.

You need to make sure your book title stands out for the right reasons. These 4 vital parts of a book title are proven to increase sales and draw in the right readers.

Intrigue Factor

Nothing draws a reader in more than creating intrigue with your title . The intrigue factor plays upon one’s curiosity and is a powerful motivator for readers to hit the “buy” button.

WARNING: On the path to creating intrigue, it’s easy to stray from the genre or get too broad, causing confusion. Watch out for this mistake!

3 examples of using the intrigue factor in book titles:

• Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies: I bet you weren’t expecting that last part.
• Trust Me I’m Lying: Anything contrarian catches a reader’s eye.
• John Dies at the End: This great title makes you wonder why they just gave away the ending.

Title Discoverability

Bestselling authors have the luxury of not worrying about whether their titles are discoverable because their name recognition and author brand sell books.

The rest of us need to consider title discoverability.

That’s where Kindle keyword generation and research can come into play. If you want your book to show up on Amazon every time someone types in “How to train your border collie,” you should consider making that your book’s title.

If you'd like to see which words you can use in your title to improve the chance of discovery, you should definitely use Publisher Rocket . (Check out my full review of Publisher Rocket .)

Here’s a good book title that is very discoverable: How to Write a Children’s Book by Katie Davis. Straight and to the point, this book clearly tells both the buyer and Amazon precisely what this book is about.

(Check out Kindlepreneur’s free article on How To Write A Children's Book .)

Test it out. Go to Amazon and type: “How to Write a Children’s Book.” That’s discoverability!

Genre Pairing

Your title should match your genre. There are plenty of helpful tropes for fantasy titles, young adult titles, horror titles, mystery titles, non-fiction titles, etc. These tropes are not bad. Genre pairing helps the right kind of reader find your book.

A romance book should not be called Warborn: Battle for Arrakis . The cover may show images of love and passion, but the title screams, “epic science fiction military book.” In your effort to be different, try not to alienate your genre and potential readers.

3 examples of genre pairing in book titles:

• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: It’s evident that this is science-fiction, but it also tells us it's about robotics and that it will be a deep thinker. (This is the book that the Blade Runner movie was inspired by.)
• Neverwhere: I love Neil Gaiman’s mystic cryptic fantasy. With just one compound word, Gaiman perfectly captured his genre.
• Slasher Girls & Monster Boys: It immediately harkens to the thriller and horror genre without question. It even emphasizes the YA punch with the terms “Boy” and “Girl.”

Increase Your Book Marketing

See the Publisher Rocket effect, when you use the right keywords and categories to help get your book seen more on Amazon.

Relevance & Specificity

The title might be the only thing a potential buyer ever sees, so your title needs to convey what your book is actually about. The book title needs to be relevant and specific .

(I lumped in “relevance” with “specificity” because to be specific is to increase your relevance. The more specific your title is, the more relevant it is to your story, and the better a reader understands what your book is about.)

For non-fiction , you must title your book in such a way that a reader knows exactly what they’re buying. Often, non-fiction books will feature a simple, eye-catching title with a longer, more informative subtitle .

For fiction, relevance is still super important. Don’t mention dragons if there aren’t any dragons in your book. Don’t mention sexual themes if there are no sexual themes. Don’t mention corporate America if it doesn’t feature in the book. (Definitely do mention these if they show up in the book.)

Ensure your title helps the reader know what the book is about or what to expect from the get-go. That way, you draw in the right kind of reader instead of setting up the wrong reader for disappointment, leading to negative book reviews.

3 examples of relevant titles:

• The Devil Wears Prada: Easy to see that this involves fashion and someone who is a complete pain in the butt from someone’s point of view . And I got all of that from 4 words!
• I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell : Pretty easy to know immediately that this book is centered around the crazy antics of a jerk — no offense to Tucker Max, because he's a heck of a writer.
• How to Lose Friends & Alienate People : This gets a nod for the intrigue factor because it’s using the familiarity of a famous book. However, it’s clear this is a book about… well, losing.

As far as specificity goes, a title tends to be more intriguing (and more relevant) if it offers specific details. Here are 4 examples of specific titles:

• Moby Dick is more specific (and therefore better) than The Whale .
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is better than Down the River .
• The Fellowship of the Ring is better than The Fellowship .
• The Shining is better than The Hotel.

It's very important that these rules are followed, or your book may not be able to be published on Amazon.

Amazon has certain book title rules and requirements that authors must follow:

• The title on your cover must match what you put into Amazon .
• You can’t use claims of bestseller, rank, etc., in your title, even if it’s a bestselling book.
• Don’t mention deals, discounts, or reduced prices — even if it isn’t a lie.
• You can't reference other books or any other trademarks.
• You can’t reference other authors or their pen names .
• No irrelevant advertising is allowed.

Many books violate this and don't get dinged by Amazon. But if you intend on making a name for yourself, keep it above board — follow Amazon’s book title rules.

Choosing a book title is more than just creating a catchy phrase or memorable title.

Try this proven, step-by-step process for crafting a great book title:

• Use parts of your story
• Look up famous phrases
• Consider a one-word title
• Keep it simple
• Obey your genre
• Put a hook in your title
• Use relevant keywords
• Speak in benefits
• Consult a book title generator
• Add emotional trigger words
• Check discoverability (including international)
• Test your title for success
• Add a subtitle

1. Use Parts of Your Story

For fiction, in particular, use parts of your story to come up with a relevant title that is both specific to your book and evocative to your target audience.

Look at these examples of book titles that use parts of their stories:

• Character names: Harry Potter, Emma, Robinson Crusoe
• Settings with embellishments: Murder on the Orient Express, Animal Farm
• Dates/time/season: The Winds of Winter, 1984
• Character motivation: Call of the Wild, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
• Main event or showdown: The Last Battle, Red Rising
• Central theme: Return of the King, Waiting for Godot
• Important lines: Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird

2. Look Up Famous Phrases

Consider using familiarity as a way to catch a potential reader’s eye. Look up famous phrases and words from poetry, classical literature, or popular culture.

This strategy is best to do before you write the book. Looking up a famous phrase for your title may feel tacked on if you simply… tacked it on.

Here are 7 examples of book titles that use famous phrases:

• Fault in our Stars
• For Whom the Bell Tolls
• Double Jeopardy
• The War of Art
• Till Death Do Us Part
• Liberty or Death
• A Song of Ice and Fire ( inspired by Robert Frost )

WARNING: Don’t use trademarked material, such as an author’s name or copyrighted work from the past 100 years or so.

3. Consider a One-Word Title

One-word titles are all the rage in today's fiction and non-fiction books. Consider a compelling one-word title for your book. I’m not recommending most of you should make your title only one word, but simply consider it.

Don't pick a random word. Select a powerful word that represents your book’s hook and themes and complements the strong imagery of your book cover.

One-word titles don’t necessarily need to refer to an event in the book, although they may. Sometimes, a robust emotional word, or even a word you make up, provides the power you need.

Examples of excellent one-word titles include:

• Referential: Nevermore, Allegiant, Wicked, Frankenstein
• Powerful and emotional: Endurance, Atonement, Euphoria
• Made up words: Freakonomics, Essentialism, Brisingr
• Iconic imagery: Twilight, Boneshaker, Ulysses, Lolita

WARNING : One-word titles can wreak havoc on your discoverability, particularly if they’re ubiquitous words or misspelled/made-up words. (Have you ever tried to look up Stephen King’s It ?) If you use a one-word title, make sure it is unique and easily searchable.

When it comes to search, many readers will add the word “book” to your title if it’s a single word. Before selecting your title, try searching for “Your Title” + “Book” to see what appears.

4. Keep It Simple

It’s a proven fact; people don’t like to feel awkward. Titles with inappropriate words or hard-to-say words can make readers feel uncomfortable.

Keep it simple. Don’t use overcomplicated words that people may have trouble saying (or spelling in a Google or Amazon search box).

Also, title length is important. Don’t make long titles that won’t fit on your book cover. Short titles aren’t just for short stories .

Pro tip: Imagine people saying your title out loud.

There are exceptions, of course. But those are the exceptions that prove the rule.

Long words, nonsense words, archaic words, and made-up words from your story have their place in titles, but make sure they are at least easy to say and spell. You want readers to be able to search for your book on Amazon or Google.

Intriguing, eye-catching, evocative titles can be simple. In fact, it’s easier to market a book that uses simple words to evoke powerful emotion.

5. Obey Your Genre

If you don't stick to the titling tropes of your genre, your readers won't know what to expect. This leads to unhappy readers and bad Amazon reviews.

You must obey your genre. Research your genre’s titling norms. Look at other books in your genre, topic, or niche. Analyze their title structure. Write down a list of genre-specific terms that sound right for your book.

If your book is a crossover genre, feel free to research all the genres that are combined in your book. To help your readers know what to expect, you should probably include terms and tropes in your title that apply to both genres, coupled with the powerful imagery of your book cover.

If you're still stuck, then this is where genre-specific title generators can come in quite handy.

6. Put a Hook in the Title

A good hook can get people to say, “I need this,” or, “What the heck? I better check this out!”

If done right, a hook in the title can stop the right readers dead in their tracks.

Turning genre tropes on their head tends to work.

You can also take a cliche title structure and turn it on its head, such as “The Art of [TOPIC].” This could sound cliche, but you could make it hook and surprise a reader with a twist: “The Art of Making Bad Art.” (I just made that up, but now I want to read it because it’s such a good hook.)

Hopefully, you wrote your book with an initial hook in mind — or at least a one-sentence synopsis to draw in readers. You should already have a hook for your story, so consider using it in your title.

5 examples of putting a hook in the title:

• I Still Miss My Man, But My Aim is Getting Better
• Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
• Death of a Salesman
• In Search of Lost Time
• A Season in Hell

7. Use Relevant Keywords

This one's my favorite. By doing your Kindle keyword research , you can find what terms people are searching for. Once you know this, you'll be able to use relevant keywords to boost your discoverability and marketability.

Example: Someone writing a resume might call it a “CV” or a “curriculum vitae,” especially outside the United States. Research may also reveal that people writing resumes are writing a cover letter as well.

A non-fiction author notices this and includes relevant keywords , increasing discoverability and sales. They could insert “resume” in the title and “CV” and “cover letter” in the subtitle.

Now that you have a short list of keywords people are actively searching for, use them in your title and subtitle to make sure your book ranks for those searches. That way, your book has a better chance of being discovered and bought.

If searching for Amazon keywords seems rough or time-consuming, you're going to love Publisher Rocket.

With Publisher Rocket , you can achieve the following:

• Know how many people are searching for a phrase on Amazon
• Gauge the competition for your book on that topic
• Determine how much money others are making
• See how much money a specific keyword makes on average
• Ensure your book beats the competition and ranks at the top for that keyword

8. Speak in Benefits

Especially for non-fiction, it is often more compelling to speak in benefits the reader will receive rather than the problems you are solving.

In marketing speak, this is the argument of features vs. benefits. The features are what many companies (or authors) tend to focus on, but consumers tend to buy the product (book) they feel can offer the benefits they need.

As Krista Walsh of Honest eCommerce puts it : “Features tell customers what, and benefits tell customers why.”

Imagine you’re suffering from migraines. Which book would you prefer? Pain-Free Mind or 4 Ways to Treat Migraines ?

“Pain-Free Mind” makes you think of better days and more pleasant scenarios. “4 Ways to Treat Migraines” sounds like a dull pamphlet from your doctor’s office. Plus, using the word “migraine” may subconsciously remind the reader of their pain, which may sour them to your book.

In this example, Pain-Free Mind is likely the preferred title for most authors.

(Don't worry about it being too ambiguous; that's where the subtitle comes in. Pain-Free Mind: How to Completely Eradicate Painful Debilitating Migraines and Headaches .)

3 more examples of non-fiction book titles that speak in benefits:

• How to Win Friends and Influence People — instead of “how to be a leader” or “why you don’t have friends”
• Winning: The Ultimate Business How-To Book — instead of “how to be a good business person” or “why you aren’t winning”
• How to Be a Real-Estate Millionaire — instead of “how to sell more real estate” or “you’re not as smart as I am”

9. Consult Book Title Generators

Book Title Generators use algorithms, Google, and Amazon information to create random titles that can inspire the perfect title. Did I mention that basically all of them are free ?

For a list of the best book title generators, check out my article on the Best Book Title Generators . In that article, I list the different book title generators and break them into categories and genres.

WARNING: When you consult book title generators, remember these are often generic story titles that reference random genre tropes. Some allow you to insert your own info, but most generators simply spit out general, randomized titles that are mainly meant to inspire you. Don’t take their suggestions as prescriptions.

10. Add Emotional Trigger Words

There are fundamental words that hold more weight in readers’ minds. We call these power words or emotional trigger words.

A few word changes can instantly evoke emotion in your potential buyer. These power words may elicit urgency, mysticism, intrigue, etc. They are proven marketing words that increase engagement and drive better conversions .

Switch out the weaker words in your title with the right emotional trigger words to drive a better mood or feeling.

Imagine telling someone that a book is good . Now imagine how much more weight your description would have if you said mind-blowing .

Here are a few other examples:

• Big versus ginormous, monumental, or gigantic
• Neat versus exciting, exhilarating , or jaw-dropping
• Scary versus monstrous, repulsive , or unnatural
• Get versus obtain, steal, earn, or pilfer
• Beat versus slaughter, destroyed, or obliterated
• Small versus tiny, miniscule, or bite-sized
• Hit versus slam, strike, or pound
• Soft versus tender, hushed, or muffled

In writing your book, not just writing the title for it, watch out for common modifiers that try to strengthen “weak” words. Very strong is a weaker way of saying powerful . These modifiers, like the word “very,” help spot your weakest words and rewrite them.

Bonus download: Check out my personal list of 400+ Power Words to help improve your book titles and give you superb ideas.

11. Check Discoverability (Including International)

Check your book title’s availability and discoverability by doing a simple Google and Amazon search for your potential title. If there are no matches, you’re golden.

However, if your title is exactly the same or very similar to another book’s (or movie or board game), you may want to go back to the drawing board.

In the US, there are no copyright laws on titles . For this reason, you will see a lot of books and movies with the same title, like these .

(Check out Kindlepreneur’s article on How to Copyright a Book in the US — Written by a Lawyer to cover yourself legally.)

Don’t compete with a more-popular book of the same title. Some scheming people might think this would be a great strategy to trick readers. But if someone downloads your book by mistake, be prepared to earn a scathing review.

Self-publishing authors should also check discoverability and marketability internationally .

When J.K. Rowling published Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in the UK, her marketing team realized that the US market wouldn’t be as receptive to the name . To Americans, the word “philosopher” didn’t have the same connotation as in the UK and was perceived as boring.

They changed the name for the US market to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone .

As it turns out, many movies, TV shows, and novels change their titles internationally. Check out some examples here .

You should also check for your book’s domain name availability .

I don’t recommend creating a website just for a book. If you are going to make a website, it should be for you as an author, and you can showcase all your books there. This is author branding versus book branding. Some disagree with me on this .

If you intend to create a website just for your book, make sure you can get your book title’s domain name. This will really help the discoverability and marketing of the book .

Alternatively, you might buy your book’s domain name and turn it into a redirect to your author website .

12. Test Your Title For Success

You should be brainstorming multiple title ideas. All authors need to test their new book titles among their target market to set themselves up for success. This includes side-by-side testing, Facebook groups, SurveyMonkey, and more.

Just ask Tim Ferriss.

In 2007, Ferriss finished a fantastic book, and he thought he had the perfect title: Broad Bands and White Sands . Thankfully, he didn’t just go with his first impression. He tested his possible titles and found his third option, The 4-Hour Workweek , resonated most with his target reader.

If Ferriss had gone with his personal favorite, he would have missed the success that he soon found. He spent maybe $200 on testing, but it likely earned him a 1,000x return on investment.

Ask the experts. Instead of asking family, friends, and coworkers who may not fall in your target audience (and who may just want to make you happy), show your working title to individuals with experience in all sides of book publishing, including:

• Editors and proofreaders
• Book store clerks
• Other authors
• Readers in your specific target audience

I say librarians and book store clerks because they see what people are reading and buying. They can tell you if your title (and cover) sounds (and looks) like something their customers would pick up.

Use PickFu to test your title for success. PickFu is a robust service that allows you to submit your different titles (or covers) to anonymous people who vote on which they prefer. It’s super easy to use and quick to set up. And it’s affordable when you use Kindlepreneur’s link to buy.

Steve Scott of Authority.pub credits PickFu for helping him choose the right book cover and ultimately helping his 10 Minute Declutter book become as successful as it is.

Use Facebook groups to test your title for success. Social media is a free and easy way to test your book title among potential readers.

Find a book group on Facebook and create a poll post. In the poll, list your potential titles and ask group members to vote on which they prefer. This is not a perfect system, but it’s free.

WARNING: One mistake many authors make with this is that they use just any old Facebook group. However, you need to ensure the group you use relates to your niche and contains potential buyers or professionals in your target market.

13. Check for Trademarks

While you can't legally trademark most titles, there are specific instances when someone can. That's why it is important to check your government's database of trademarks before choosing your title, just in case someone has trademarked it. Here are the links for the US, UK, and Canada:

• US Trademark Search
• UK Trademark Search
• Canada Trademark Search

But isn't it illegal to trademark titles? Yes…except when you can.

A trademark applies to branding, which is why you can trademark a series name instead of an individual title. That series name is an example of a brand.

But it gets tricky when you have a Title, or Title elements that are also part of a brand. For example, “Catcher in the Rye” is trademarked, because it is part of a larger brand beyond just the book title.

Many authors might remember #CockyGate , where one author tried to trademark the word “Cocky” in relation to books. That one ultimately didn't hold up legally, but you can see how this could be a problem.

The Bottom Line: Make sure your book title is not already violating a trademark before you use it.

14. Add a Subtitle

Regarding non-fiction, you absolutely should use a subtitle to help your book's sales conversions and discoverability.

For fiction, you may or may not use a subtitle. Your book cover and title should effectively tell potential readers exactly your book’s genre and target audience, without the need for a subtitle.

Some fiction authors put “a novel” or “a young adult novel” as a small subtitle to clarify any potential confusion.

Of course, book series often use the series title as the main title and the individual book title as the subtitle.

Ask yourself, if you gave your fiction book cover to a total stranger and asked them what genre it was, would they get it right? If yes, then you're good — no subtitle needed. If no, you might want to use your subtitle to clarify the matter.

To understand how to effectively create a book subtitle, be sure to check out my full article here .

Real life examples and why they're good, bad or just plain ugly.

Check out my video on the best book titles. Plus, at the end, we have a little fun covering some of the more horrendous, terrible, and absolutely ridiculous book titles out there.

Want more videos like this? Then SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube channel.

There are a lot of great resources out there that can help you with this process. During my years of research on the topic, here are some that I would recommend you check out so as to build a stronger title selection.

• 100+ Blog Title Templates That Grab Attention : Sure it’s for blog titles, but you’ll find out that this list of titles can really stimulate some creativity.
• Michael Hyatt Four Favorite Strategies for Creating Titles : From the master himself, he has a couple of ideas that are pretty unique.
• Tools to Help You Title Your Book : This is a guest post that I did for Write to Done that uses some blog title generators to help stimulate a title idea.
• A-B-C-D Formula for Irresistible Nonfiction Book Titles : a guest post by one of my favorite self-publishing authorities, Derek Doepker. He lays out the goods on nonfiction specifically.
• How To Write An Unforgettable Book Title That Screams “Buy Me! : my friend Steve Scott shares the 10 steps he uses to create profitable book titles (he’s sold over 1 million copies)

Podcast Episode – When and How to Title a Book

What to watch out for.

When you're creating your title, there are a few things that can easily cause it to sink at the marketplace. So to avoid poor sales resulting from your title, here are a few additional things to avoid:

• Complex Language: A title is not the place to write your thesis statement or explain everything that is going on. You want your title to be clear and concise, otherwise you might frighten potential readers away.
• One-word Titles (sometimes): This one comes with a caveat. Generally, one-word titles are unclear and harder to rank for on Amazon. This is especially true of non-fiction, but you can rely on a subtitle to include your primary keywords if your title is shorter. Fiction is a little bit different, where one-word titles are often much more common, and even encouraged in some cases. For fiction, it's best to see if other books in your genre are doing the same thing.
• Misleading or Confusing Language: You'll want to make sure that your title clearly illustrates exactly what it is about. Bear in mind that you could be using a word or phrase that means different things to different people. Make sure to screen your book title for references that might be considered offensive or have a double meaning.

Thankfully, if you follow the steps above, you should have no problem creating an amazing title for your book.

What’s your title going to be?

Let me know if you composed the perfect title using this step-by-step guide.

After all, it’s how I title my books. It’s how The New York Times bestselling authors title their books. It’s how self-published authors should title their books.

Fun example: Although this book cover typography could use some work, I consider this book title a success because it catches my attention and makes sure that when I double-take, I see that it is actually about quilting:

Hey, you go, girl!

As you can see, crafting a perfect book title is not an exact science. Follow my 13 steps, and you’ll come up with an interesting, relevant, marketable title. It needs to convey the point of the book, not alienate the genre, be discoverable, and convert customers into buyers.

Dave Chesson

Related posts, cyber monday deals for writers 2023, how to write a nonfiction book in 2024: the ultimate guide for authors, launching a book: the ultimate step by step guide, sell more books on amazon, amazon kindle rankings e-book.

Learn how to rank your Kindle book #1 on Amazon with our collection of time-tested tips and tricks.

32 thoughts on “ How to Title a Book: 13 Steps to Choosing a Title That Sells ”

Excellent post Dave. And so rich with additional links out to other articles thanks Vicki

Cool post Dave.

Many people miss the 1900s book title experiment and believe that ebook titles are a “new thing” or just something that you throw together that makes it sound nice. Another way to test a title is to ssend people through Adwords and see which title they click on. it can be expensive in the long run, but a couple of hundred dollars can make a world of difference (search for Google $100 coupon for free Adwords cash). It will also gain a really good understanding of what exact searchers are looking for. Kind regards Jasonera

Very true. That’s how The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss got his title. It was going to be something like White Sands and Broad Bands until Ads told him otherwise.

Comments are closed.

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‌How to Title an Essay with Literary Analysis Examples

How to Write a Controlling Idea Essay

You may have spent hours brainstorming your thesis, searching for quotations and polishing your final draft, but a good title can make the difference between someone reading your literary essay and tossing it aside. Good literary essay titles not only capture your reader's interest, but they also preview the argument you'll be making in the paper itself. They capture the central idea that is presented in your work, and entice the viewer to read. Creativity, humor and innovative plays on the work you're writing about can transform a dull title into one that piques your audience's curiosity.

Include the Subject and Focus

Your title should not just name the literary work that is the ​ subject ​ of your essay but also describe its ​ focus ​, the target idea, literary device or theme that the piece explores. This is sometimes referred to as a "working title" as well, since it focuses heavily on the main part of your essay, and can remind you of your focus as you read. In an essay about morality in "To Kill a Mockingbird," for example, Harper Lee's novel would be the subject of the paper, while morality would be the essay's focus. Including the phrase "Morality in 'To Kill a Mockingbird' " somewhere in your title would clearly indicate to audiences what themes your essay will deal with. This is a more basic example of an essay title, but effective in most all cases.

Link Two Ideas With a Colon

While including the subject and focus in the title gives a good summary of your essay topic, it's not enough to pull readers in. Using a colon to punctuate the subject with a catchy explanation of the focus can not only add an air of professionalism to your paper but also give a more in-depth, eye-catching preview of your topic for readers. An essay about Holden Caulfield's painful transition to adulthood, for example, might be titled "The Precarious Edge of the Cliff: Loss of Innocence in J.D. Salinger's 'The Catcher in the Rye.' "

This title choice also allows you to present two ideas that are key parts of your essay, if you choose to. Maybe you can't decide on just one, because both are equally important. This choice would be a good tool for featuring both ideas and connecting them to each other. Displaying a longer, more developed essay title, can also give you the freedom to discuss these ideas in your essay with more detail since they are featured in the title.

Include a Quotation from the Work

Sometimes, a quotation from the book can provide inspiration for your essay's title. Try adding a brief, snappy portion of this quote to your title's focus statement. For example, the title for an essay about mother-daughter relationships in Flannery O'Connor's short stories might borrow from a quote in the story "Good Country People," in which the central character, Hulga, tells her overbearing, critical mother, "If you want me, here I am -- like I am." The title of this essay might read, "Like I Am: Mother-Daughter Dysfunction in Flannery O'Connor's Short Stories."

Use Wordplay

While the tone of your literary essay should ultimately be professional and credible, using puns or humor to play off an aspect of the title can be a friendly way to entice your audience to read further. For example, an essay about the symbolic villages of East and West Egg in "The Great Gatsby" might be titled "The Eggs Came First: Settings as Symbols in F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby.' "

You can be assured your teacher, or whoever is viewing your paper, is going to sift through many boring and unoriginal essay titles, so making sure that yours will pop is important.

Related Articles

How to Write a Thesis Statement for "Robinson Crusoe"

How to Start a Good Book Report

How to Add Figurative Language to an Essay

How to write an essay with a thesis statement.

How to Write a Thesis Statement for a Critical Lens Essay

How to Write a Lab Report Title

How to Write Conclusions for Expository Papers

How to Write an Anecdotal Essay

• Dawson College: Some Tips on Titling Your Critical Essay
• Bucks County Community College: How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay

Kori Morgan holds a Bachelor of Arts in professional writing and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and has been crafting online and print educational materials since 2006. She taught creative writing and composition at West Virginia University and the University of Akron and her fiction, poetry and essays have appeared in numerous literary journals.

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Blog • Perfecting your Craft , Book Marketing

Posted on Jun 27, 2018

How to Title a Book: What Do Good Book Titles Have In Common?

About the author.

Reedsy's editorial team is a diverse group of industry experts devoted to helping authors write and publish beautiful books.

About Dario Villirilli

Editor-in-Chief of the Reedsy blog, Dario is a graduate of Mälardalen University. As a freelance writer, he has written for many esteemed outlets aimed at writers. A traveler at heart, he can be found roaming the world and working from his laptop.

So you’ve (finally) finished your book, only to find one last question standing between you and the bestsellers list: how to title your book. Maybe you don’t like the working title you’ve been using these past few months. Perhaps you’ve come up with a title you love — but everyone else says that it might hurt your market potential.

So what makes for a truly good book title? Luckily, there’s a short, simple, 4-point checklist that will help you choose a book title that’s guaranteed to catch a reader’s roving eye. Only joking! Although that would be nice, wouldn’t it? While there’s no sure-fire method for formulating the perfect title, this post will give you ideas for devising a title that enhances your book and gives it the best chance of success.

We recommend downloading this actual free book title checklist to follow along while you read this post. Otherwise, let's get started!

FREE RESOURCE

Book Title Checklist

Create a title that stands out — and sells.

Why do book titles matter?

Without a book title, your book can't exist. Having a title in place before you start writing can help inform or reinforce your themes and what your novel is actually about . To learn more about the planning process, go here for a  complete guide and a free book outline template. Secondly, if you don’t already think of the title of your book as a marketing decision, start now. Your book title might be the single most important marketing choice you make. The title plays a key part in creating a first impression — possibly even more so than the design of your book cover. Think about the last time you browsed Amazon or looked at a bestsellers list. Chances are that what caught your eye was the:

• The book cover design, and

Now, a good title won’t magically make a book sell, but a bad one will hinder sales at best and, at worst, alienate its core readership. With that in mind, let’s start making some good decisions!

What do good titles for books have in common?

Like we said earlier, there are no hard-and-fast rules for crafting the perfect title. There are, however, some patterns and similarities between good titles that may help you choose your own.

They intrigue and entice the reader

Think along the lines of: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?  by Philip K. Dick.

They match the book to its genre

Think along the lines of: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie .

They are (normally) of a sensible length

The aim is for your readers to have some idea what’s going on, without revealing too much or having a paragraph on the front cover. Long titles can work — just think of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer — so long as people can recall just enough of it to find it on Amazon (or by asking a bookseller in a store).

Think along the lines of: The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.

They help readers discover the book

Think along the lines of: Beekeeping for Dummies or Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker.

Things to watch out for

Whilst there aren't things you  need  to do, and so there aren't things you need to  not do when choosing a book title, there are certain things that are best given a wide berth.

Overly complex language

Even books about a specialist subject can have a simple, accessible title, like Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Remember that a title is there to intrigue and entice — not repel and frighten off readers by making them think that your book is going to read like a thesaurus.

One-word titles

If you title your non-fiction book “Bottles,” it’s going to be very difficult to rank as the first search result: you’d be competing against people selling hot water bottles, books on the ecological impact of plastic water bottles, and research on bluebottle flies. Avoid confusion by striking the balance between cryptic titles and ones that attempt to summarize the entire book on the front cover. (The exception is flash fiction , where the brevity of one-word titles matches the brevity of the story itself.)

Potential confusion

Don’t get caught out — be careful not to choose a title that might be offensive in certain regions, or that might have an unintended double meaning. Equally, if your book title relies on a reference that is extremely local, or perhaps a little niche, it might be an idea to reconsider and aim for something more universal.

How to title a book: a couple of methods

There really are no bad ideas when you’re coming up with potential titles — just ones that are better than others. Try to write down anything that comes to mind.

Start free writing

Write absolutely anything that comes into your head: words, phrases, names, places, adjectives — the works. You’ll be surprised how much workable content comes out from such a strange exercise.

Look for formulas or set phrases

Obviously, we’re not advocating plagiarism, but try playing around with formats like:

“The _____ of _______”

“______ and the _____”

These will work for certain genres, though they are by no means the only patterns you can play around with. Have you noticed how many blockbuster thrillers these days feature the word “woman” or “ girl” somewhere in the title?

Use characters as inspiration

If your central character has a quirky name or a title (like Doctor or Detective) you can definitely incorporate this into your book title. Just look at Jane Eyre , Percy Jackson , or Harry Potter , for instance —  working with one or more or your characters’ names is a surefire way to get some title ideas down. Equally, you can add a little detail, like Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure , to add a little color to a name and make it title-worthy.

Do the same for setting

Is your book set somewhere particularly interesting or significant? Even if your title isn’t just where the action takes place (like Middlemarch by George Eliot), it’s something to have in the back of your mind. You can include other details, like The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum or Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay, to give your readers a sense of action and character, as well as setting (which tend to be linked).

Is there a particular phrase or idea you can work with?

Think Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird here — this is a central symbol and significant piece of dialogue in the novel. It’s enigmatic (what does it even mean? Is it a warning? An instruction?) and makes us really sit up when these words appear in the text itself. Try and think of your inspiration for writing your book or sum up your central theme in a few words, and see if these inspire anything.

Find inspiration from other works

You might be surprised at how many books refer to other works in their titles ( The Fault in Our Stars by John Green comes from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar , and Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men takes its inspiration from a Robert Burns poem). Going this route allows authors to use an already beautiful and poetic turn of phrase that alludes to a theme in their own book. From Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls to Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials , so many books have used this technique that might also work for you.

To subtitle, or not to subtitle?

In non-fiction publishing, there’s a trend of evocative or abstract titles, followed by a subtitle that communicates the content (and is packed with delicious keywords that the Amazon search engine can’t resist). This is also another way to get around long titles — and to add a little panache to an otherwise dry subject matter. In the United States, it’s also quite common to have “A Novel” as a subtitle (if, you know, it’s a novel). In the United Kingdom, this practice is much rarer.

Start with a generated title!

If you’ve gone through all of the above and are still wringing out your brain trying to come up with the golden formula — fear not! There are other ways to get the cogs whirring and inspiration brewing, such as title generators .

What are the rules for choosing a book title?

There are no actual rules when it comes to naming your book. Editors and agents might have their own rules of thumb. But hey, it’s your book and you can call it what you want to. That being said, each retailer has its own particular rules and standards for titles — rules you’ll need to adhere to if you intend to publish there. Let’s take a look at Amazon’s guidelines. Not permitted in Amazon book titles:

• Unauthorized reference to other titles or authors – so don’t think you can get away with titling your book “Stephen King’s Dreams.”
• Unauthorized reference to a trademarked term.
• Reference to sales rank (e.g., "bestselling") – even if it is a bestselling book.
• Reference to advertisements or promotions (e.g., "free") –  a lot of people search for ‘Free books’, which is why Amazon doesn’t want you to call it that.
• The title field should contain only the actual title of your book as it appears on your book cover.
• Foul, vulgar, or obscene language – as Jeff Wheeland , author of  There's More to Life than a Shitty Cubicle found out, you can't advertise your book on Amazon if you swear in the title.

Whilst Amazon doesn’t always effectively police their own rules, if you want to build a reputation as an author, you’ll naturally want to avoid underhand practices.

Test your book title

Congrats! If you’ve got this far, it’s time to test your title. Thought you were done? Oh, no. Even if you are 110% certain that you’ve hit upon the next Harry Potter title-equivalent, a little market research won’t hurt and could be the crucial difference between an okay and a bestselling title.

Here are some ways you can check if your title floats in the real world and in the heads of your audience who, after all, are the most important people in this process . It’s vital to remember that book titles are ultimately for readers.

Start local

Begin with your family and friends, but remember that if you just poll inside your immediate circle for feedback, chances are it will be biased towards the positive and not totally objective. While this may be great for the ego, at this stage in the game you need some genuinely constructive criticism. Distinguish who your target audience is (they might not be your friends), and try to get some feedback from these people.

Facebook groups

Like many things, there is a Facebook group for this exact purpose. Just searching for ‘book title review’ or ‘test book title’ will yield some preliminary results. All it takes is to put up a post asking people to choose between two or three, and some real-life (probably literary-headed) people will give their honest opinions. If you're looking for a group to help you out, why not check out The Street Team , a book marketing group moderated by Reedsy?

SurveyMonkey

In a similar vein, gain the opinion of people slightly further out of your inner circle by making a survey on SurveyMonkey and share the link with as many people as you can. Obviously, this will start amongst friends and family, but if you encourage them to share it the ripple effect should kick in and you’ll be getting some valued feedback from all sorts of participants in no time. Nothing beats genuine, honest opinions, and it’s even better the wider you can cast your feedback — people are less likely to be clouded by personal bias if they don’t know you.

Not a fan of SurveyMonkey, or want to try different survey methods? Check out this list of useful SurveyMonkey alternatives .

Run an Adwords campaign

Depending on your technological capabilities (although it sounds more complex than it is in practice) you can A/B test your title, provided you have a final two, via an Adwords campaign . This way, success is measured by clicks, and you have in-depth analysis to work off. This will require a bit more work than the others, maybe involving creating ads that have people sign up to for a free sample or free chapter of your book. But, like most things that take more effort, the results will be worth it.

Unbiased surveys

We were recently introduced to Pickfu — a testing service that allows authors to ask strangers their opinion. Their tagline is ‘optimize without an audience,’ shouting loud and clear how they’re going to help you test your book title, even if you don’t have hundreds of willing participants that you know personally. Getting the opinions of strangers is just as (if not more) useful than polling those you know personally — they are sometimes going to be more like your target audience than those closest to you.

Now it’s your turn

Your book title is the foundation that your book will stand on once it’s published, and will be a key part of convincing readers (or publishers!) to take a chance on your book. Hopefully, all this will get the ball rolling on your book title, and we’d love to hear the results! Once you've got a title you're happy with, double check you're capitalizing it properly by reading through rules about title capitalization. You can't be too careful.

3 responses

Tom Chmielewski says:

27/06/2018 – 18:51

I use basically the same tactic that I used writing headlines for newspapers and magazines I've worked for. I search out a phrase that hits at some core idea in my novel. In my first novel, "Lunar Dust, Martian Sands," I took from a prayer at a Martian memorial service for a crew who died when their tug exploded, and partly quoted the prayer on the back cover. "We travel beyoond Earth on Moon dust, and build our homes from the sands of Mars." The Moon dust is the Heiium-3 found in the dust to fuel the fusion drives for the interplanatery tugs. The Martian sand is the raw materialls on the planet colonists use to build their homes and other structures. Martian Sands is also the name I'm using for the book series.

Esbe van Heerden says:

19/12/2018 – 05:13

These are amazing tips on book titling, wow! This blog in general is sooo helpful. Something I’ve seen work for nonfiction authors, in particular, is a really simple formula: 1. The defining main title 2. The informative subtitle 📚The Defining Main Title📚 Make sure your main title is short (around 5 words or less) so that it is easy to remember, and specific. It needs to be easy to say when you talk about your book, and something you wouldn’t be embarrassed saying over and over again at a formal event. It could be something to do with your brand (Start With Why—part of Simon Sinek's brand), a movement in your industry (Deep Work—a focus-based movement in the entrepreneurial industry) or something else related to your book's theme that's catchy. 📚The informative subtitle📚 Make sure the subtitle gives context—it can be longer, more SEO-friendly, and descriptive. This is especially important when your main title is catchy or based on a brand, because that means the main title isn’t necessarily a good indicator for a fresh reader as to what the book is about. So the subtitle needs to give a new reader this context. When brainstorming subtitle ideas, here are three quick tips:
 1. Don't be a stuck record player! Avoid writing a subtitle that informs the reader about something they can already glean from the main title—don’t repeat ideas from your main title.
 2. Become a keyword master. Amazon is the biggest search engine after Google and YouTube and your subtitle should include a few key keywords. In saying that, don’t overdo it—it still needs to make sense and sound genuine to potential readers.
 3. Be clear and concise. Don’t let people get bored before they even finish reading the title of your book! And once you’ve come up with a few potentials, always ask yourself: What does the title I’m considering sound like when I say it out loud to new acquaintances at a party? If you are embarrassed to say it or can’t remember it—you’re in trouble. If people get what your book will be about after hearing your title—you’re onto a winner.

ginger northcutt says:

20/02/2020 – 12:16

i have become a great fan of reedsy this year. just like this one on titling, all the articles, how-to breakdowns, the courses (&amp; much more still to explore), they all have been super-informative &amp; offered w/ clarity &amp; then more resources are given. you will be seeing me hanging around reedsy's place more often, for sure!

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Choose Good Titles for Essays and Make Them Sound Great

Good titles for essays act like an attractive factor that draws readers to have an interest. The first step to enjoying the luxury of being the best selling author is the ability to develop attention-capturing and curiosity-arousing titles. People have desisted from reading reviews or summaries written on books and essays when buying them.

Instead, they closely examine the creative titles that will make it to their reading list. Books are also subjected to the same style of choosing when scouting for the next read. Writing an essay can be challenging but assigning a title should not be as difficult. A poorly written paper with a good title will attract more attention than a well written one with a boring title.

Why Are Titles Important in Essays?

The functionality and importance of good essay titles are synonymous to that of a door. Its attractiveness is what will motivate you to find out what lies inside the house. It also gives a sneak peek on what you are more likely to interact with when reading that particular essay. Great essays usually have creative titles that do not allow you to stop your reading at the cover page.

The title of an essay is the single most crucial factor that determines the impression of the reader towards an essay. Much thought should be given when coming up with one. There are many instances when great titles have been shoved aside falling victim to morale killing variants. Sometimes the little time you have only allowed you to glance at the heading.

It is during these times that the significance of a heading is clearly portrayed. The next time you are making a good title remember it is of utmost importance and should be given enough thought. This is because it greatly determines the reception the essay will receive based on it foreshadows what is in the essay.

How to Format the Title of An Essay?

After getting the heading for essays, you need to know how to format them to look catchy and in place. Read on to get an insight into what to consider.

Exactly how long should an essay title be?

The length of essay titles is a topic that has been largely contested by authors. Though a consensus on the exact number of words has never been reached, proposals have been put forward on the approximate number. It is proposed that a typical essay title should contain between 3-15 words. This largely depends on the niche the essay is addressing.

With college essays, for instance, paper titles should give sufficient information about the research paper without revealing too much information. It should also not be too short and ambiguous. Its length should be long enough to capture the reader’s attention while preparing what awaits in the essay.

Can A Title Be A Question For Essays?

There are many styles employed in the structuring of essay titles. Different authors will use whichever style that befits their article and is conversational. They prefer to remain in their comfort zones and use conventional statement titles. In fact, the format is left for you to determine.

The heading could be expressed in numbers, questions or even alphanumeric order, depending on the written  types of essay . In rare instances, it will be pictorial. When using a question as your title, then the essay should be engineered such that it answers or attempts to answer it. Questions are effective and form good catchy titles to trigger curiosity.

What Are the Main Components of Good Titles for Essay?

• Catchy hook

A paper name is an ambassador to readers. It should communicate or cast a positive picture of the essay. This is best achieved by capturing the reader’s attention through its creativity. The first thing an essay wants is to get noticed.

Catchy headings for an essay will make a composition stand out and compel the readers to read it to completion.

• Topic keyword

This is the “what” of your essay. It identifies the component your dissertation will be exploring. Topic keywords should be captured in good paper titles to shed more light and introduce the reader into the essay.

Usually, it should be a general term that best describes what the author is putting across in the essay. This will ensure readers have an idea of what the essay is all about just by a glance at the title.

• Active voice  

If your title contains verbs, consider putting them in active rather than passive voice. Active voice tends to relate with the readers directly engaging them on what they want to know. The best combination is expressing your title in an active voice in a question form. This makes the readers identify more with the essay and aspire to explore your opinions on the same.

• Focus keyword

Unlike the topic keyword which describes the center of focus of your paper, the focus keyword describes the extent to which the topic keyword will be addressed. It predicts the limits and boundaries how the essay addresses the topic.

A perfect example of a good title for an essay is “the effects of global warming.” In this label, the topic keyword is global warming, but the essay will be limited to its effects.

What Are the Steps for Making Good Titles for Essays?

There are is no logical, sequential order authors should follow to arrive to the most creative and captivating title. However, there are some guidelines that could make sure you end up with the best one. The steps below describe  how to write analytical essays  titles effectively.

• Reversed law order

The first step to writing an effective title is writing it last. Write your essay draft first then revise it before deciding on the label. This is because essays often change in the course of revision. Therefore, your heading may not necessarily reflect what is in the essay. The best thing is to name it last to avoid tilting your essay.

When you are out of creativity when making a title, consider seeking external motivation through the work of other authors. Reading the labels of other essays written in your niche will inspire thoughts leading to the conception of a perfect title for your essay.

• Identify your target audience

Knowing your audience is instrumental in coming up with a title that will net a huge demographic of readers. If you are writing a formal paper like a college essay, titles have to be as formal as the setting in which they will be reviewed. But for fiction and story-telling compositions, the heading can have a pun or slang included to relate with the target audience.

Some Personal Statement Essay Examples

Personal statement essays are written to describe a person, and yes, they too need to be labeled. Some of the best examples of titles written for personal statements have been outlined below.

• Excellent Marriage Life
• Battling Depression
• Healthy Living
• Career Trajectory

Compare and Contrast Essay Title Examples

This type of paper seeks to bring out the comparisons between two aspects mostly in a bid to identify the superior one. It is synonymous to argumentative where the contrasting view of a subject is discussed.  Most  argumentative essay topics  tend to have a similar naming style as compare and contrast titles shown below.

• Using Online Writing Against Traditional Writing Services
• Facebook or Myspace: Which Social Media Network Is More User-Friendly?
• Books Against Movies: Why Reading Is Preferred

Reflective Essays Title Examples

A reflective essay is an academic paper that describes the personal experiences the author has had. Some interesting titles for essays of this type include:

• Smelling a Rare Flower
• Unwinding the Spring
• Staring at tThe Morning Sunrise

Final Thoughts

Considering the importance of the heading in an essay, its construction has to be given utmost attention. It is the creativity channeled into coming up with a heading that will rank a well-written article among the best. Authors should identify the right title styles for their essays.

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50 Eye-Catching Autobiography Titles (+ How to Write Your Own)

You’ve written your life story. 

You’ve laid your heart bare before the world

So, what’s the best title for your one-of-a-kind masterpiece?

“____________: An Autobiography”?

Seriously, unless you’re a household name, using “autobiography” as part of your title might not work in your favor, but not to worry. You don’t have to be famous to write an autobiography , but you do need a title that will grab a buyer’s attention, so they know your book is worth a second look.

Book Title Generator

Don't like it?

The purpose of this article is to break down what makes a standout autobiography title and the process for creating your own. 

Need autobiography titles? Let’s dive in!

The secret sauce for writing an amazing book title.

The process of creating an autobiography book title that gets noticed starts with a marketer’s mindset.

Yes, it all boils down to strategic book positioning in the marketplace. Creativity is a big part of it, but that’s a small part of the bigger picture. After all, if your book doesn’t get in front of the people who would be most likely to read it, you can’t change lives with the content inside!

Unlike fiction books or other types of nonfiction books (e.g. business books or textbooks) where there’s a specific category or genre expectation, autobiographies play by their own set of rules—the more creative the better. 

How to think like a marketer when creating your title

If you are self-publishing your book, then you’re probably already aware that marketing is a key component of your book’s success, but what is marketing exactly? 

The American Marketing Association defines marketing as

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. 

When marketing your book, knowing how to write a good book title matters, because, along with your cover, it’s the first thing a potential buyer sees (reads) before making a buying decision. A casual search for “autobiography” on Amazon pulled up over 700,000 results. This doesn’t mean that every book belongs in the category, but it’s still a lot of books.

You might be asking how you get your book to rise to the top of search results.

Start with a great title. 

Here are some best practices:

• Make your title relevant – You can never go wrong with a title that reflects the theme of your book . This will clue buyers into what to expect. You can also go with a significant statement or quote drawn directly from your story. Clever titles also work, but try to stay away from the cheesy ones that confuse buyers.
• Appeal to your ideal audience’s needs – Every book is not for everyone. Target a specific reader type when creating your title. For example, meteorologist and television personality Ginger Zee titled her book Natural Disasters. This title works well for her because her book’s content is about the unpredictable “storms” of life she has faced and she also covers storms in her reporting. 
• Stay away from clickbait – Or anything that leads readers to believe your book is about one thing but it’s something else. This only frustrates readers and could potentially lead to bad reviews. 
• Use a primary keyword in your title if it fits – First Gen by Alejandra Campoverdi and Cooked by Jeff Henderson include keyword(s) that are relevant to buyer searches. 
• Invite the reader into your story – This can be done by asking a question like the autobiography title What Are You Doing Here? by Baroness Floella Benjamin. Or, create an image in their mind like The Ugly Cry by Danielle Henderson or The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish. 

Hint: Keep it short. According to Amazon, “Customers are more likely to skim past long titles (over 60 characters). There are exceptions to the rules. You’ll see some in the list that follows.

Don’t forget about writing a subtitle for your book . They are optional but a great way to add a splash of flavor. 

50 eye-catching autobiography titles that inspire

After an exhaustive search in the autobiography categories of the top online book retailers, I selected 50 incredible autobiography titles as a starting point for creating an amazing title for your autobiography. Note: Memoir titles listed under the autobiography category are included in the list.

Autobiography titles about celebrities

• What Are You Doing Here? – Baronness Floella Benjamin
• Tis Herself – Maureen O’Hara
• F inding Me by Viola Davis
• Not That Fancy: Simple Lessons on Living, Loving, Eating, and Dusting Off Your Boots By Reba McEntire
• Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories by Kelly Ripa
• Thicker than Water by Kerry Washington
• We Were Dreamers by Simu Liu
• Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today by Valerie Bertinelli
• Just as I am by Cicely Tyson
• A Promised Land by Barack Obama
• Making It So by Patrick Stewart
• Inside Out by Demi Moore
• In Pieces by Sally Field
• The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish
• Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder by William Shatner
• Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology by Leah Remini
• Look Out for the Little Guy! By Scott Lang
• I Can’t Make This Up: Life Lessons by Kevin Hart, Neil Strauss
• No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality by Michael J. Fox
• Scenes from My Life by Michael K. Williams
• The Way I Heard It by Mike Rowe
• I Came as a Shadow – John Thompson

Autobiography titles about authors

• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings  by Maya Angelou
• Lit by Mary Karr

Autobiography titles about family

• The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
• Mott Street by Ava Chin
• The Girl in the Middle by Anais Granofsky
• All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung
• The Ugly Cry by Danielle Henderson

Autobiography titles about immigration, culture, and race

• Good Morning, Hope: A True Story of Refugee Twin Sisters and Their Triumph over War, Poverty, and Heartbreak by Argita Zalli, and Detina Zalli 
• Negroland by Margo Jefferson
• First Gen by Alejandra Campoverdi
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
• Heart of Fire: An Immigrant Daughter’s Story – Mazie K. Hirono
• The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clementine Wamariya, Elizabeth Weil

Autobiography titles about beating the odds

• Cooked by Jeff Henderson
• The Pale-Faced Lie by David Crow
• Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Mann, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust by Michael Hingson and Susy Flory
• When the Tears Dry by Meredith Hawkins
• Reaching for the Moon by Katherine Johnson
• 80 Percent Luck, 20 Percent Skill: My Life as a WWII Navy Ferry Pilot by Ralph T. Alshouse

Autobiography titles about faith

• Like a River: Finding the Faith and Strength to Move Forward After Loss and Heartache by Granger Smith
• The Barn by David Hill
• All My Knotted-Up Life by Beth Moore

Autobiography titles about journalists, reporters, and media

• Natural Disaster: I Cover Them. I am One by Ginger Zee
• Going There by Katie Couric
• Rough Draft by Kati Tur
• The Long Loneliness by Dorothy Day

Use a free tool to generate your own autobiography title

You obviously can’t use these published autobiography titles for your own book – but you can use our free book title generator to come up with suggestions that you could use.

It’s really easy to use, and instantly gives you an unlimited amount of working titles – or even final titles – to use for your book!

1. Select nonfiction for the book’s genre in the drop-down menu

2. Fill in the details

For the next question, if you have a book description, type “yes” and add your description in the text box.

If you don’t have a description yet, answer “no” and fill out the questions. Eventually, you will need to write a book description , but this is often something our authors do after they complete their manuscript .

3. Click “generate”

That’s it! Get ready for some unique autobiography book title suggestions. Remember, if you don’t like the one that you see, you can continue to generate as many as you’d like.

Final thoughts

Your autobiography title can be the difference between someone scrolling past your book on Amazon or stopping to read a sample. Whatever title you choose, remember that it’s just as much about you as your reader. Make them want to read your story by giving them something unique that piques their interest. 

You can also look for inspiration in other genres. For example, some memoir book titles could also lend well to an autobiography – like What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo. Intriguing, isn’t it? Don’t limit yourself!

Are you ready to take the next steps with your autobiography? We have a professional publishing team ready to guide you through the book development process. 

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Tips and Examples to Create Catchy Titles and Get More Readers

An attractive title can trigger reader response, as your title is a snapshot of what to expect in your essay or book. Catchy titles for essays, newsletters, articles, blogs, science projects and autobiographies have a big effect on your readership.

Creative and tricky titles catch the attention of the readers. To fulfill the expectations of the readers, you should also have good content in your essay, article, or newsletter. Here are some examples of catchy titles in different areas of writing. Pay attention while reading the following titles and watch which titles grab your attention.

Science projects

School going children are often interested in science fair projects. A title in the ‘question form’ always arouses curiosity of the reader to know more.

Attractive Titles for Science Projects

~ How do Mosquitoes Breed ~ How to Make an Egg Float ~ Tornado in a Bottle ~ Does Music Affect Plant Growth ~ Why Does the Cow Keep Chewing Cud? ~ Physics of Baseball

Creating unusual titles for essays is almost same as creating attractive titles for science projects. Essay writing is an art but title writing also requires skills.

Good Titles for Essays

~ Three Ways in Which Chemistry is Related to Your Life ~ Importance of Media ~ Bad Effects of High Population ~ Ways to Save Money ~ Is Praying Beneficial ~ Global Warming and Deforestation ~ Pros and Cons of Zoos ~ Bilingual Education in School ~ Living Without Television ~ How Much is Too Much Homework ~ Mobile Phones – Necessity or Nuisance

Impressive Titles for Articles

~ Why is the Sky Blue ~ Why is the Ocean Salty ~ Why Am I Always Hungry ~ Am I Overweight ~ Why Do Dogs Eat Grass ~ Side Effects of Fish Oil ~ Advantages of Internet Banking ~ What Women Want from Men ~ How to be a Good Husband ~ Rioja – Spain’s Great Wine

Newsletters

One of the most common naming techniques used by people is using the name of your niche in your newsletter. This explains what the content is about. The target market also plays an important role. Some names are creative, catchy and easy to remember. The risk in such names is that the audience can’t understand what your newsletter is about.

Appealing Titles for Newsletters

~ Affiliate Marketers Weekly ~ Pet Lovers Tips & Trends ~ Christians Weekly Talks ~ Work at Home Moms ~ Blue Velvet Times ~ Zapping Tides ~ Daily Bread

These days, blogging is quite common. You can express and share your thoughts through your blog. You can even earn a lot of money through advertisements; but for that your blog should have good and authentic content. A good title can definitely bring more visitors. Blog name should be readable and memorable. One should find it easy to spell and pronounce. It should be short and obviously unique. Here are a few examples of good blog-titles.

Nice Titles for Blogs

~ Mind Salad ~ Slow Turtle ~ Fresh Kites ~ Thanks a Lot ~ Daily Insanity ~ Born Confused ~ Death Valley ~ Short Circuit ~ Here Comes da Pain ~ We Regret To Inform U ~ Caffeine in My Brain

Autobiographies

Autobiographies of world-famous personalities are read by people with curiosity. They don’t need any introduction. In fact, a simple title is enough for a reader to pick up the book. Some autobiography titles are symbolic, revealing the facts in the life of the person.

Perfect Titles for Autobiographies

~ Jackie Chan, I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action, 1998 ~ Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, 1869 ~ Helen Keller, The Story of My Life, 1903 ~ Mark Twain, Mark Twain’s Autobiography, Posthumous, 1907 ~ Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (My Struggle), 1925 ~ Mahatma Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, 1927 and 1929 ~ Nirad C. Chaudhuri, The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, 1951

~ Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1969 ~ Ronald Reagan, An American Life, 1990 ~ Nelson Mandela, Long Walk To Freedom, 1995 ~ Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father, 1996 ~ A P J Abdul Kalam, Wings of Fire, 1999 ~ Craig Thompson, Blankets, 2003 ~ Chelsea Handler, My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands, 2005 ~ Ronald Reagan, The Reagan Diaries, 2007 ~ Fidel Castro, My Life – A Spoken Autobiography, 2006 ~ Eminem, The Way I am, 2008

Writing Captivating and Creative Titles

The article title or the newsletter title is the key to getting people to open up and read your article. Catchy titles for science projects can make the reader enthusiastic. A good title sums up what the essay is all about. With the help of a nice title, you can influence a book buyer to buy your book. People do judge the book by its cover. Without an attractive title, the rest of your words may be in vain.

Splendid subject matter

~ For writing impressive titles, you should first take into consideration the subject matter, how you are going to argue, etc. If you have chosen one word, then you should look for the synonyms; as you may get a catchier word than the original word you’ve chosen.

Crisp title

~ Your title should not be either too long or too short. Don’t cram too much information into the title. Re-read your title aloud and check whether it sounds like a paragraph, cut out some words to make it as concise as possible. The title should sound catchy.

~ Being specific will make your reader pay more attention to your articles, essays or newsletters. The title should reflect the things which the audience is looking for.

Target audience

~ Determine your audience and then decide on a title. For writing a better title, you should put yourself in the reader’s shoes.

~ You can then try puns or play on words which can give your title a clever element as long as they’re not overly cheesy.

Imitating famous titles

~ You may try imitating any famous TV show title or select a phrase from any famous song which can work as a catchy title.

Simple words

~ You should avoid difficult to pronounce words in your title. The language should be simple.

If your articles or essays are on the Internet, title plays a major role in the whole phenomenon. By using title as a part of your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, you can cover the top 10, top 20 and top 30 results to increase your on-line exposure. Writing attention-seeking titles involves imagination and creativity. Skillfully designed titles lure people into clicking. These days, software that generate random albeit super catchy titles for articles that are bound to make people click, are available. You can enter subjects to generate titles related to them. So, generating attractive titles is no big problem.

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Laura Sackton

Laura Sackton is a queer book nerd and freelance writer, known on the internet for loving winter, despising summer, and going overboard with extravagant baking projects. In addition to her work at Book Riot, she reviews for BookPage and AudioFile, and writes a weekly newsletter, Books & Bakes , celebrating queer lit and tasty treats. You can catch her on Instagram shouting about the queer books she loves and sharing photos of the walks she takes in the hills of Western Mass (while listening to audiobooks, of course).

View All posts by Laura Sackton

Aspiring authors, meet your new best friends: Liz Morrow and Ariel Curry. These seasoned pros provide an engaging and effective resource that includes a practical roadmap for planning, writing, and publishing your book, plus insider tips on capturing the attention of agents and publishers—even without a massive following. Writers at any stage will thrive with this comprehensive guide and ready access to  HungryAuthors.com  for additional support.

I know I’m not the only writer who loves reading about writing and publishing, so I’ve collected some of my favorite books on the subject. I veered away from the more popular how-to guides, and you’ll notice some classic writing books missing from the list as well. Instead, I’ve included books that approach writing and publishing from unique perspectives, books that blend craft lessons with memoir, and books that have changed the way I think about writing, revising, publishing, and the creative process more broadly. I reach for many of these books when I’m stuck—and I can’t think of a better endorsement than that.

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee

This is my all-time favorite book about writing. It’s a memoir-in-essays, and Chee doesn’t exclusively focus on writing: there are essays on his childhood in Maine, growing roses, AIDS activism, and more. But even the essays that are ostensibly about something else are full of Chee’s wisdom and insight into what it means to be a writer. This book is vulnerable, generous, challenging, and moving. It’s the first recommendation out of my mouth whenever anyone asks me for a book to hand to new and aspiring writers.

1000 Words by Jami Attenberg

This book grew out of Jami Attenberg’s wonderful 1000 Words of Summer community initiative. Every June, thousands of writers from all over the world cheer each other on as they attempt to write 1000 words every day for two weeks. Each day during the event, Attenberg sends out an email with a letter from a different writer; this book collects many of those letters, along with Attenberg’s own advice and encouragement. You’ll find wisdom and inspiration from Carmen Maria Machado, Roxane Gay, Celeste Ng, and many more. Anyone who’s ever felt alone with their pen will appreciate this vibrant collection.

Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses

This book is a blend of craft lessons and a critique of the concept of “craft” itself. Salesses explores how definitions of craft, as well as the ways most writing workshops function, are set up to serve white men and no one else. So many of the craft ideas we’re taught are based in Western understandings of storytelling and rarely serve writers from marginalized communities. In this invigorating and inviting book, Salesses offers a different approach to workshopping that honors and celebrates diverse storytelling traditions.

Black Women Writers At Work edited by Claudia Tate

This seminal collection, first published in 1983, has long been out of print. Rereleased in 2023, with a new forward, it’s just as illuminating and important as it was 40 years ago. It includes interviews with luminaries such as Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Nikki Giovanni, among others. These poets, novelists, essayists, and playwrights discuss how and why they write, who they write for, the connections between their lives and work, and much more.

A People’s Guide to Publishing by Joe Biel

Book publishing can be a daunting field, and some of the books about it are equally daunting—long, dense, and full of details. This accessible, informal, and highly informative guide is a great place to start if you’re curious about the publishing industry. Joe Biel, founder of Microcosm Publishing, draws on 20+ years in the industry and shares everything you need to know to get started. His style is forthright and direct, and he’s great at explaining industry concepts in ways that make sense.

Before and After the Book Deal by Courtney Maum

This is a fantastic, inviting guide to all aspects of the writing and publishing process. Author Courtney Maum answers loads of common questions about writing and publishing your first book. She also includes the words and wisdom of dozens of other authors and book professionals, including translators, editors, agents, film producers, activists, and others. It’s a lot of fun to read this cover to cover, but it’s also a great resource to refer to as needed.

Body Work by Melissa Febos

Febos is one of my favorite writers who writes about writing. In this slim book, Febos asks big questions about writing memoir: how and why do we tell intimate stories about our lives? How does the act of writing affect our non-writing lives and relationships? How are art, trauma, and experience connected? This is one of those rare craft books that has something for both writers and readers. Whoever you are, I promise you won’t look at memoir the same way again.

Book Wars by John Brookshire Thompson

If you’re looking for a book to help you understand the current state of publishing and how we got here, Book Wars is a must-read. Thompson offers an in-depth look at how technology has changed (and not changed) publishing over the last several decades. This is definitely history and analysis, rather than how-to, but it provides a lot of essential context for anyone interested in writing and publishing (and, of course, for readers).

How We Do It edited by Jericho Brown

There’s truly nothing better than learning from the masters. In this vibrant collection, Black writers working in diverse mediums reflect on their creative lives. A combination of interviews and essays, this book offers a beautiful, complicated tapestry of perspectives on the intersections of Blackness, art-making, language, history, and more. Contributors include Natasha Trethewey, Jamaica Kincaid, Carl Phillips, Jacqueline Woodson, and many others.

Never Say You Can’t Survive by Charlie Jane Anders

Writing doesn’t happen in a vacuum: writing and life are inextricably linked. This is a book about writing, and about creativity, and about living. Anders uses stories from her own creative life to examine how art-making, whether it’s writing stories or dreaming dreams, can hep get us through the hardest times. Funny, inspiring, and warm, this is a book for anyone interested in using art to imagine—and build—better futures.

Looking for more books about writing and publishing? Check out these books about writing , as well as this massive list of books about writing and the writing life . You might also be interested in these novels about publishing .

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Utah Bans 13 Books From All Public Schools

This is the first time titles have been prohibited statewide, according to a free speech organization. The list includes books by Judy Blume and Margaret Atwood.

By Elizabeth A. Harris

The state of Utah has ordered schools to remove 13 books from classrooms and libraries, including books by Margaret Atwood and Judy Blume, because they have content considered pornographic or indecent under a new state law.

The edict issued on Friday was intended to comply with a law that went into effect on July 1, which says that local education agencies — including school boards and the governing boards of charter schools — should prioritize “protecting children from the harmful effects of illicit pornography over other considerations.” Traditionally, schools and librarians have decided whether a book is appropriate for children based on a range of factors, including its literary or artistic value.

Any materials that include a description of sex or masturbation would run afoul of the new rule. When a local education agency removes a book because it violates the new law, it must notify the state board of education. And when something is removed by three school districts — or by two school districts and five charter schools — it must be removed statewide.

The Utah State Board of Education said it was required by law to compile the list and was committed to compliance.

PEN America, a free speech organization that has been tracking efforts to restrict books for several years, said this is the first time it has seen a state require all of its schools to remove a list of titles.

“This is different,” said Jonathan Friedman, the managing director of the U.S. Free Expression Programs at PEN America. “This is literally the government saying that ‘Oryx and Crake,’ by Margaret Atwood, cannot be shelved in public schools.”

The new law in Utah is one of several regarding book access to take effect this summer. Proponents of these restrictions say they are necessary to protect children from encountering sensitive topics while alone in the library or in the classroom without the guidance of their parents.

The Utah list includes several books by the best-selling fantasy author Sarah J. Maas, including “A Court of Thorns and Roses” and “A Court of Mist and Fury.”

The list also includes “Forever,” by Judy Blume, an award-winning graphic novel called “Blankets,” by Craig Thompson, and “Tilt,” by Ellen Hopkins, which follows three teenagers as they navigate issues like teen pregnancy and a romantic relationship between two young men, one of whom is H.I.V. positive.

  More about Elizabeth A. Harris

David "Record Breaker" Rush claims 15 titles in one day in whirlwind GWR HQ visit

Serial record breaker David Rush did not come to play when he stopped by Guinness World Records HQ in London.

With well over 150 record titles to his name right now, the American author, speaker and entertainer loves challenging himself.

So it’s no wonder he stopped by our offices to claim a few more titles during a recent visit to the UK.

And never one to disappoint, David broke an impressive 15 records in one day under the watchful eye of Guinness World Records Official Adjudicator Will Sinden, as well as our host Will Munford.

“COME ON!”… as David would say.

First, he put on an impressive display of juggling… and five-a-day consuming…

David chomped his way to the most bites taken from three apples whilst juggling in one minute with an impressive 198! Those are some tiny little bites.

He said: “This one feels good. This just goes to show, if you set your mind to a goal, believe in yourself and pursue it with a passion, you can accomplish virtually anything.”

“One down, a bunch to go,” he added with a laugh.

He then used his dexterity to claim the fastest time to bounce a table tennis ball on two bottle caps ten times using alternate hands , achieving the tricky feat in just 2.09 seconds.

He also smashed the record for most touches of a baseball with alternating sides of the hand in 30 seconds with a whopping total of 125.

After that, it was back to his old friends – the ping pong balls - for a string of successful record attempts:

• The most table tennis balls bounced against a wall with the mouth in 30 seconds – 47
• The most hits of a table tennis ball against a wall in one minute - 398
• The most table tennis balls bounced and caught in shaving foam on the head in 30 seconds (individual) – 16

David isn’t just a master manipulator of table tennis balls though.

He also managed the most behind-the-back basketball passes against a wall in 30 seconds (38), although not without bringing our star and pedestal logo crashing down from the wall.

“I have mixed feelings about that one,” David admitted, feeling a little guilty about breaking our wall décor.

Don’t worry, David, all’s fair in love and… record breaking.

Quickly moving on, he broke the most juggling tricks in one minute with three balls with a total of 49, juggling around his shoulders, over his head, under his legs and behind his back.

From left, Will Munford, David Rush and Will Sinden

For those of you who can juggle, have you ever swapped one of the balls for a bowling ball? And then juggled them all while standing on a balance board?

No? Well, David has.

He performed the most juggling catches of a bowling ball and two balls on a balance board in one minute – 243!

And when it comes to paper planes, nobody can fold ‘em and throw ‘em quite as fast as David can.

He clocked in the fastest time to fold and throw a paper aircraft with just 5.12 seconds.

Sticking with throwing, he soon claimed the title for most chopsticks thrown at a target in one minute with 29.

Proving he’s a man of many talents, David rounded off the day by smashing the following records:

• Most T-shirts put on in 30 seconds (individual) – 20
• Fastest time to stack 10 toilet paper rolls (one hand) - 5.38 seconds
• Most water moved by the hands in 30 seconds - 5,100 ml
• Fastest time to drink one litre of lime juice through a straw - 13.99 seconds

After all that record breaking, David said: “I’m feeling Officially Amazing!”

Reflecting on the epic day of record smashing, Will S said: “Adjudicating that many records in one day was tiring, so I'm even more impressed how David kept breaking records without seeming like he was breaking a sweat.”

And host Will M added: “That is what he does! Record titles broken, 15 in a day – unbelievable!”

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9 best travel books to inspire your next adventure

From eco-minded adventures to coffee-table tomes, these travel books left us totally transported, article bookmarked.

Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile

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Book sales rocket during periods when we’re most likely to jet off on holiday (there’s always room in the suitcase for just one more), be that during school summer break or Easter weekend. However, the best travel books can (and should) be read year-round, whether you’re heading off on your own adventure or relaxing at home.

There are myriad travel books to dive into, from books designed to fuel our sense of wanderlust with stories about far-flung places to those that focus on how certain aspects of history shaped destinations we know and love. Owing to the sheer number, it can be tricky to know which tomes to plump for and which should be left on the shelf.

Here, I’ve rounded up my favourite travel titles, including guidebooks (the two Lonely Planet entries will make for brilliant gifts ), memoirs and more. One thing all of these books have in common is their ability to provide insights into not only specific destinations but the wider world, albeit in very different ways.

Keep scrolling for our full review and to get your daily dose of wanderlust.

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How I tested

I selected a range of travel books to suit different tastes. Some were enjoyed at home while others were read during a jaunt across the US, on internal flights, train journeys and at airport check-in desks. I considered not only the written content but, where relevant, the images and added extras. Although I’ve listed the prices for physical copies, ebooks are also available for all of my recommendations.

The best travel books for 2024 are:

• Best overall –  Why We Travel by Ash Bhardwaj, published by Bedford Square Publishers: £15, Amazon.co.uk
• Best coffee table book – Best In Travel 2024 , published by Lonely Planet: £9.98, Amazon.co.uk
• Best children’s book – Little People, Big Dreams: Tenzing Norgay by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara, published by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books: £9.15, Amazon.co.uk
• Best for holidays – The Guests by Nikki Smith, published by Penguin: £4.50, Amazon.co.uk
• Best UK-specific travel book – All Boats Are Sinking by Hannah Pierce, published by Summersdale: £9.85, Amazon.co.uk

‘Why We Travel' by Ash Bhardwaj, published by Bedford Square Publishers

• Best : Overall
• Pages : 272
• Includes fascinating facts

As a travel writer, I’ve always respected Ash Bhardwaj’s work. The title of this book initially left me wondering whether it would be a speculative look at the benefits of travel or an autobiographical look at the author’s globe-spanning explorations to date. As it turns out, it’s both – and much more. Bhardwaj’s memories of his childhood in Windsor and a school rugby tour double as deep dives into the reasons for our wanderlust, but I also learned a lot (for example, the mind-boggling fact that Hinduism had 330,000 gods).

For me, the most fascinating bits related to Bhardwaj’s adventures – joining friend Levison Wood for stints of his walk along the Nile; forays through far-flung corners of the world (as a fan of Japan, the section focusing on Hokkaido was a favourite), and adventures closer to home. Most importantly, in an era when many travellers are simply keen to simply scratch off another section on a foil-backed map, it’s a call to action to consider the benefits of thinking about what we want to achieve from our travels, too.

‘Best In Travel 2024', published by Lonely Planet

• Best : Coffee table travel book
• Pages : 224
• Fantastic photography
• Information goes beyond the obvious

Wondering where to go for your next holiday? Start with this tome, which is part guidebook, part listicle (albeit a very in-depth one). The perfect book to have on hand for when you’re wondering where to go next, but you can also simply sit and peruse it, for a bit of escapism.

The photographs are gorgeous and the information relating to the destinations listed in each top 10 (countries, cities, regions, best for value and best for sustainability) goes well beyond the obvious, highlighting lesser-known areas and attractions in popular destinations. It also makes a great case for why often-overlooked areas (Saalfelden Leogang in Austria is now on my hit list for 2025) are worthy of being on your radar.

‘Slow Trains to Istanbul' by Tom Chesshyre, published by Summersdale

• Best : For train enthusiasts
• Pages : 352
• Entertaining anecdotes

I was rather excited to get my hands on this book. The insights into the destinations Chesshyre passes through are fascinating, and his obvious interest in the histories of these places meant I learned a lot too.

What I enjoyed the most, though, were the anecdotes that illustrate the unexpected joys that are part and parcel of off-the-beaten-path travel – whether it’s random encounters in bars in Bratislava or a tour led by a guide who starts her urban exploration by saying: “Feel free to leave if you are bored or hungry.” Brilliant.

‘Little People, Big Dreams: Tenzing Norgay' by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara, published by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books

• Best : Children’s book
• Inspirational for younger readers (and adults)

The late, great Tenzing Norgay is the kind of person we could all learn a lot from. A Nepalese-Indian mountaineer, he was one of the first two people to summit Mount Everest (he was Edmund Hillary’s sherpa). However, you don’t have to dream of following in Hillary’s footsteps to appreciate this children’s book, with its colourful, awe-inspiring depictions of the Himalayas.

The book not only focuses on the all-important climb of 1953 but also the obstacles Norgay overcame beforehand, including the 20 years he spent climbing Himalayan peaks before he was selected (out of 200 people) to be Hillary’s sherpa.

It’s a book that teaches the importance of a never-say-die attitude, as well as an inspirational tale about quite possibly the greatest mountaineer who ever lived.

‘A Ride Across America' by Simon Parker, published by September Publishing

• Best : Non-fiction book
• Pages : 386
• Fascinating insights into USA tourism

Let’s face it, there are more than enough books about epic bike rides/hikes/unicycles across various countries, but what sets Simon Parker’s book apart is his motivations, more specifically his desire to see whether the America he envisioned as a teen really exists. This makes it so much more than a merely observational book – he’s genuinely determined to take a deep dive into today’s USA. In doing so, he also provides a fascinating insight into the workings of tourism across the pond. Who knew, for example, that 0.1 per cent of overseas tourists made it to Arkansas in 2022, while Florida bagged 29.8 per cent of incoming tourists? Well, I do now, but I also know that even underrated Arkansas has some hidden gems – Subiaco Abbey, I’m coming for you.

‘Empireworld: How British Imperialism Has Shaped the Globe' by Sathnam Sanghera, published by Viking

• Best : Informative book
• Pages : 464
• Thought-provoking

As a travel writer, I found this book fascinating. Yes, it’s hard-hitting and brutally honest, but one could argue it’s about time (indeed, the writer points out Britain should have been more honest with itself about the realities of the empire long before now).

The book takes a no-holds-barred look at Britain’s colonial and imperial history – not just how the darkest periods continue to shape the world we live in, but how acknowledging the horrors of colonialism and imperialism is essential if we’re to move forward.

A side note – don’t be too intimidated by its 464 pages, as the main book finishes on page 247 and the rest (somewhat shockingly) is dedicated to an index and references.

‘The Guests' by Nikki Smith, published by Penguin

• Best : For holidays
• Pages : 336
• Quick and easy holiday read

We’ve always got time for some fiction in our suitcase. We don’t want to give the game away, but some basics: this book (which I suspect was heavily influenced by the White Lotus TV series) is set in the Maldives and focuses on the guests staying at a luxurious resort. In addition to the secrets they’re keeping, there are plenty of (unwanted) surprises in store for them, too.

The Guests is never going to win the Booker Prize, and shouldn’t be taken too seriously (as a keen diver who spends a lot of time in the Maldives, the clichés and inaccuracies almost drove me around the bend at times) but, for a quick and easy read, it does the job. Just make sure you pack some other books, too.

‘Offbeat North America', published by Lonely Planet

• Best : For fuelling wanderlust
• Pages : 328
• Full of useful tips
• Spectacular photos

I’m a huge fan of offbeat destinations (my favourite trip will always be North Korea – a destination I was desperate to get to and finally visited around 15 years ago), so this book had instant appeal.

It’s another title that ticks multiple boxes – it’s brilliantly informative, but it’s also seriously stylish, putting my other dog-eared coffee table books to shame.

It goes well beyond being a simple list of places, too – for each entry, there’s in-depth information about where to stay, how to explore the destination and endless useful tips, whether you’re a first-timer or a repeat visitor. The sections about the best times to go were especially thorough (and useful) and the clear maps – alongside spectacular photos – make these places seem somehow less remote.

‘All Boats Are Sinking' by Hannah Pierce, published by Summersdale

• Best : UK-specific travel book
• Pages : 368
• Light, easy read for holidays

This memoir follows Hannah Pierce’s decision, following a break-up, to purchase a narrowboat named Argie Bargie and take to Britain’s waterways. Full disclosure: narrowboats move very slowly, as does this book at times, due to the mundane nature of some of the observations. However, it’s also unexpectedly informative and its slow pace is strangely calming – we don’t just learn about the history of Great Britain’s canals and navigations, we also learn about narrowboats (more specifically, how hard they are to maintain).

There’s plenty of humour, particularly relating to the more unfortunate incidents (such as when Hannah damages her hand mooring up her boat and meets a plastic surgeon strangely obsessed with her ring finger), and slightly random encounters (including one with boxer Tyson Fury). In summary, this is a light, easy read perfect for holidays – although, a passing interest in UK waterways helps.

The verdict: Travel books

Ash Bhardwaj’s speculative contemplation about why we travel is a fantastically written book that provides plenty of food for thought but is also full of colour, anecdotes and fascinating insights into the destinations in question. For an instant coffee table upgrade, you can’t go wrong with Lonely Planet’s Best In Travel 2024 . While Tom Chesshyre’s story of an epic adventure to Istanbul didn’t just provide plenty of humour, it left us with a burning desire to visit the countries he describes so brilliantly, strange bars in Bratislava and all.

Want more recommendations? Find out what the IndyBest team are reading this summer

How to cite ChatGPT

Use discount code STYLEBLOG15 for 15% off APA Style print products with free shipping in the United States.

We, the APA Style team, are not robots. We can all pass a CAPTCHA test , and we know our roles in a Turing test . And, like so many nonrobot human beings this year, we’ve spent a fair amount of time reading, learning, and thinking about issues related to large language models, artificial intelligence (AI), AI-generated text, and specifically ChatGPT . We’ve also been gathering opinions and feedback about the use and citation of ChatGPT. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and shared ideas, opinions, research, and feedback.

In this post, I discuss situations where students and researchers use ChatGPT to create text and to facilitate their research, not to write the full text of their paper or manuscript. We know instructors have differing opinions about how or even whether students should use ChatGPT, and we’ll be continuing to collect feedback about instructor and student questions. As always, defer to instructor guidelines when writing student papers. For more about guidelines and policies about student and author use of ChatGPT, see the last section of this post.

Quoting or reproducing the text created by ChatGPT in your paper

If you’ve used ChatGPT or other AI tools in your research, describe how you used the tool in your Method section or in a comparable section of your paper. For literature reviews or other types of essays or response or reaction papers, you might describe how you used the tool in your introduction. In your text, provide the prompt you used and then any portion of the relevant text that was generated in response.

Unfortunately, the results of a ChatGPT “chat” are not retrievable by other readers, and although nonretrievable data or quotations in APA Style papers are usually cited as personal communications , with ChatGPT-generated text there is no person communicating. Quoting ChatGPT’s text from a chat session is therefore more like sharing an algorithm’s output; thus, credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the corresponding in-text citation.

When prompted with “Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, “the notation that people can be characterized as ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth” (OpenAI, 2023).

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

You may also put the full text of long responses from ChatGPT in an appendix of your paper or in online supplemental materials, so readers have access to the exact text that was generated. It is particularly important to document the exact text created because ChatGPT will generate a unique response in each chat session, even if given the same prompt. If you create appendices or supplemental materials, remember that each should be called out at least once in the body of your APA Style paper.

When given a follow-up prompt of “What is a more accurate representation?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that “different brain regions work together to support various cognitive processes” and “the functional specialization of different regions can change in response to experience and environmental factors” (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).

Creating a reference to ChatGPT or other AI models and software

The in-text citations and references above are adapted from the reference template for software in Section 10.10 of the Publication Manual (American Psychological Association, 2020, Chapter 10). Although here we focus on ChatGPT, because these guidelines are based on the software template, they can be adapted to note the use of other large language models (e.g., Bard), algorithms, and similar software.

The reference and in-text citations for ChatGPT are formatted as follows:

• Parenthetical citation: (OpenAI, 2023)
• Narrative citation: OpenAI (2023)

Let’s break that reference down and look at the four elements (author, date, title, and source):

Author: The author of the model is OpenAI.

Date: The date is the year of the version you used. Following the template in Section 10.10, you need to include only the year, not the exact date. The version number provides the specific date information a reader might need.

Title: The name of the model is “ChatGPT,” so that serves as the title and is italicized in your reference, as shown in the template. Although OpenAI labels unique iterations (i.e., ChatGPT-3, ChatGPT-4), they are using “ChatGPT” as the general name of the model, with updates identified with version numbers.

The version number is included after the title in parentheses. The format for the version number in ChatGPT references includes the date because that is how OpenAI is labeling the versions. Different large language models or software might use different version numbering; use the version number in the format the author or publisher provides, which may be a numbering system (e.g., Version 2.0) or other methods.

Bracketed text is used in references for additional descriptions when they are needed to help a reader understand what’s being cited. References for a number of common sources, such as journal articles and books, do not include bracketed descriptions, but things outside of the typical peer-reviewed system often do. In the case of a reference for ChatGPT, provide the descriptor “Large language model” in square brackets. OpenAI describes ChatGPT-4 as a “large multimodal model,” so that description may be provided instead if you are using ChatGPT-4. Later versions and software or models from other companies may need different descriptions, based on how the publishers describe the model. The goal of the bracketed text is to briefly describe the kind of model to your reader.

Source: When the publisher name and the author name are the same, do not repeat the publisher name in the source element of the reference, and move directly to the URL. This is the case for ChatGPT. The URL for ChatGPT is https://chat.openai.com/chat . For other models or products for which you may create a reference, use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (i.e., the page where you can access the model, not the publisher’s homepage).

Other questions about citing ChatGPT

You may have noticed the confidence with which ChatGPT described the ideas of brain lateralization and how the brain operates, without citing any sources. I asked for a list of sources to support those claims and ChatGPT provided five references—four of which I was able to find online. The fifth does not seem to be a real article; the digital object identifier given for that reference belongs to a different article, and I was not able to find any article with the authors, date, title, and source details that ChatGPT provided. Authors using ChatGPT or similar AI tools for research should consider making this scrutiny of the primary sources a standard process. If the sources are real, accurate, and relevant, it may be better to read those original sources to learn from that research and paraphrase or quote from those articles, as applicable, than to use the model’s interpretation of them.

We’ve also received a number of other questions about ChatGPT. Should students be allowed to use it? What guidelines should instructors create for students using AI? Does using AI-generated text constitute plagiarism? Should authors who use ChatGPT credit ChatGPT or OpenAI in their byline? What are the copyright implications ?

On these questions, researchers, editors, instructors, and others are actively debating and creating parameters and guidelines. Many of you have sent us feedback, and we encourage you to continue to do so in the comments below. We will also study the policies and procedures being established by instructors, publishers, and academic institutions, with a goal of creating guidelines that reflect the many real-world applications of AI-generated text.

For questions about manuscript byline credit, plagiarism, and related ChatGPT and AI topics, the APA Style team is seeking the recommendations of APA Journals editors. APA Style guidelines based on those recommendations will be posted on this blog and on the APA Style site later this year.

Update: APA Journals has published policies on the use of generative AI in scholarly materials .

We, the APA Style team humans, appreciate your patience as we navigate these unique challenges and new ways of thinking about how authors, researchers, and students learn, write, and work with new technologies.

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

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APA Style Guidelines

Browse APA Style writing guidelines by category

• Abbreviations
• Bias-Free Language
• Capitalization
• In-Text Citations
• Italics and Quotation Marks
• Paper Format
• Punctuation
• Research and Publication
• Spelling and Hyphenation
• Tables and Figures

Full index of topics