You wrote your non fiction book and now you want to get it selling. Part of the marketing of your book is your title. In order to sell your non-fiction book, the title has to set a tone, catch a reader’s eye and make them want to read your book. Not too tall an order, right?
The title creates an impression
The title of your book creates an impression. As with all first impressions, one that doesn’t grab the reader won’t sell the book. A great first impression will mean higher sales, for sure. In order to do that, you need to have a strong title. Here’s what you need to know to come up with a fantastic title.
Know the genre
First, and it may sound silly, but know the genre of your book. Without a defined genre you can’t really set a tone to convey within your title. So if you book is a self-help book, please don’t choose a title that makes it sound like a dry, historical tome. Your title must communicate your genre very clearly.
Look at books selling in your genre
Next, look to other books selling in your genre for some ideas. No, you can’t steal them, but you can get an idea of what is working. Go to Amazon and search books by genre, then look at the titles. Will you like them all? Of course not, but look at what catches your eye and think about why. Make some notes about that and then set it aside. Obviously, you want to have your own personality in the title as well, so now it’s time to brainstorm.
Listing words associated with your book
Now start listing words you associate with your non fiction book. List them by type of word: nouns, verbs and adjectives. Be sure to list words that capture what you want your reader to think, feel or do after reading it. Think of your call to action, but also think about words that describe what your book is about. Don’t limit yourself, write down everything. Use visual words, emotional words, words that evoke a sensation, a question or a call to action. Try to get at least 100 words.
If any jump out immediately as words that do all that in a single word, jump on them. If not, then start putting them together in different word combinations: adjective-noun, verb-noun. Use a thesaurus! It is your friend! Also try and come up with at least 15 to 20 title combinations. Then walk away. Time to let them sink into your brain and simmer like a stew.
Come back to your list
Once you come back to it later, add anything you might have thought of in between, then narrow your list. Cross off those that don’t tickle your fancy right away and whittle the list to about 5 title possibilities. Walk away again. Now go back to the Amazon list and see if your title list would fit in, without being a duplicate.
Last few things
Ask yourself do the last few titles you have on your list match the tone of your book? Do any attract attention? If the book were on a shelf and no one could see the cover would the title stand out? Will a reader have any idea what the book is about just from the title?
Found the one where each answer is “yes?” then you have your title!
Next Step >> Now that you have a great title, you need a powerful description to convert buyers. Check out this FREE Ebook on “How To Sell More Books With Awesome Amazon Descriptions”
You know, it’s funny… as authors we know how to write books in our respective genres, but when it comes to writing the most important part of our book (the sales copy) we lack the ability to really knock it out of the park and hook the reader enough to buy our books.
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