Do you ever choose a book by its title?
I know that we’ve discussed titles before, but there is a lot to be said about a book (or an article) title. As titles go, there are excellent ones, bad ones and many levels in between. A title is sometimes subjective—while some people love it, others might not resonate with it at all. But, I guess, a good title is one that the majority of the audience for that book are attracted to or drawn to.
It seems to me that if you like cats, you might be attracted by books with “cat,” “kitty,” “feline,” or “kitten” in the title. If you enjoy adventure stories, you’re going to be more intrigued by books with the words, “adventure,” “journey,” “escapade,” “quest,” etc. in the title.
That’s definitely one reason why it is important and even wise to use words that identify your genre or topic in your title or subtitle. You want to let readers know whether your book is a mystery, history, romance, memoir or a collection of short stories.
Be honest with your readers. I’ve known “self-published” authors who wrote one book, but wanted it to fit into another genre—one that was, perhaps, selling better. I applaud authors who study the industry and know what’s selling. But you can’t fit a square book into a round hole. You can’t fool the readers. If they want a light read and they pick up your book of “gentle stories,” they will be extremely agitated to find murder and mayhem inside the pages. It’s not fair or ethical to label your erotic book as a young adult novel.
And this is a dumb thing to do, anyway. If you plan to establish a reputation as a writer in a certain genre or topic, you’d darn well better create books that are representative of that genre or topic.
So how do you entice your particular audience to buy your book? Through your amazing book cover and through your title. Once you know who your audience is, then direct everything toward their tastes, their interests, their intellect, their questions… For a nonfiction book, choose a title that responds to your readers’ questions or concerns, for example.
So what does this tell you? What have you deduced from this blog post so far? If you’re paying attention, you’re beginning to understand how critical it is that you know your audience. And this takes us back to the evergreen topic of writing a book proposal. Yes, a book proposal is a multi-purpose document. It can even help you to determine your book’s title.
For more about how to write a book proposal, purchase my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html
Also consider signing up for my online Book Proposal Course. http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookproposal.htm