How to Choose a Book Title that Sells

A well crafted title and subtitle for your nonfiction book is nothing less than magic. It can convince someone browsing on Amazon to take a chance and when done right, it can put more money into your pocket. If you're wondering how to craft an exceptional book title that will make you money, then this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie, the book broad of Book Launchers. We're your professional Self publishing services team. Team. Your title has two jobs. Number one, help your book get discovered through search engines. Number two, sell your book. It's only two jobs, but they're not easy, especially since there's only 200 characters or less that are there to accomplish the job. To craft a strong title that convinces people to click and add to cart, you need to make every character count. The trick is having the right person in mind while you come up with it. This might be tough to hear, but your title is not for you. It's not for your friends, your family or your colleagues either. It doesn't matter if your partner hates it or if your coffee barista thinks you should change it. Your title is for your reader and that is the only person to prioritize when you're creating that title. When your ideal reader sees your title, they should be able to recognize that your book is meant for them and that it provides the solution to the problem that they need solved. The best title will enhance your discoverability for your ideal reader and and sell your book directly to them. Crafting a winning title that's profitable, marketable, and speaks to your ideal reader takes work. At Book Launchers, we rely on a six step process to help our authors create wow worthy titles that jump off the Amazon page. And I think it will help you too. Step one Start with your hook. Who is your reader and what is the primary benefit that they'll gain from reading your book? By the way, did you catch our Author Spotlight video with Martha Tetenborn? If you missed it, you definitely should give it a watch. Thank you because Martha offers some wonderful insights into the way your concept and book can change while you get further into the writing process and connect your book better with your ideal reader. Martha came to us with a title that meant a lot to her. Powerful Beyond Measure, Using Nutrition and Spirit to Journey Through Cancer. Yes, it had importance for her and it matched the name of her blog, but it didn't fully convey her cook or the benefit of her book as her concept evolved. While she worked with us, she came up with a new title Hacking Chemo using Using a Ketogenic diet, therapeutic fasting, and a kick ass attitude to power through cancer. Now that is a strong title that speaks to her reader. It feels great to say hacking chemo. It just packs a punch and it's memorable. And most important, it's reader focused and highlights a clear benefit. Her hook hits you right there in the subtitle. It's essential to grabbing the attention of a potential reader. Step 2 Do your keyword research. Your book won't be discoverable without those keywords. The most profitable place for your book's keywords is in your title and subtitle. Amazon and search engines will love that, and you'll be making it much easier for your reader to find and buy your book. Step 3 if you have ideas, start there, no matter how simple or silly they sound. Beware of cleverness, though. A clever phrase might sound appealing, but you're almost always better off with a title that offers solutions or showcases a unique aspect, or presents possibilities. Or presents possibilities in a positive way. Whew, that's a mouthful. Presents possibilities in a positive way. Here's a great example from one of our authors, Matthew Harmon, his book the Marijuana Hater's Guide to Making a Billion Dollars from him, the Next Disruptive Industry. It launched with phenomenal sales, showing the impact of a well crafted title. This book is for investors searching for new opportunities, but a stage especially for people who weren't keen on hemp. It's offering a solution to profit from an investment and explaining all the opportunity for business, government and beyond. Even better, it uses detailed descriptor words like the Hater's Guide a Billion dollars, and these words evoke emotions of the reader. If you're struggling to come up with ideas, I suggest taking your keywords and entering the best ones into a title generator. These can give you a great starting point to begin your brainstorming in, even if those first few titles generated are probably not that great. Our entire team at Book Launchers contributes to title brainstorms, and sometimes we'll start with comically bad ideas and go from there. Because you never know if a single word, no matter how silly the context, could actually be the thing that sparks something brilliant. What step was I on? Step 4 Go through your list and play with the titles you've come up with until you have about five main ones you like. Now, before you fall in love with any of them, make you sure. Make sure the title isn't taken by another famous author or someone else in your genre, and check to see if you can get the URL for that book title, and you might want to verify that it's not trademarked either. Remember, you want discoverability and memorability, not confusion. Then, after you've come up with a few winners, Step five Run your tests. Once you see your picks in action, you'll be ready to get a feel for how they might perform and affect your ideal readers. Suppose some helpful ways to test your title. Put the title in an email subject line and see how it looks in your inbox. Does it catch your eye? Is it too long or too short? Check your metrics. Are more people opening that email than open your other emails? Tell your friend the title and then ask them later to repeat it back to you after some time has passed. Do they remember it? If your friend can't remember your title, chances are your readers won't either. Say your title about 20 times out loud. Is it a tongue twister? Do you mix up any of the words? Your title will be repeated over and over by you, your readers, media. If it's a mouthful or it's difficult to say, it'll be even more difficult for everyone else. This is the test I wish I would have done with the new, brand new my second book, because inevitably people always call it the brand new you. If I'd done that test, I would have found that out. Book Launcher's author Katherine o' Brien's title is a perfect example of a memorable title that would pass these tests. Happy with Baby Essential Relationship Advice When Partners Become Parents it's easy to say, easy to remember, and packed with keywords. It's a triple threat. If that's not enough and you're still on the fence, you could do a poll of your clients, followers, or a group of target readers that you have access to to see what they think about your title options. Your coffee barista's opinion might not matter, but your clients and followers who would end up wondering if they should buy your book or. Well, their opinion might help you buy many more cups of coffee if you take their advice when it comes to your title. Finally, step number six Settle on your title and then hit repeat on this whole process for the subtitle, but for the subtitle, put an emphasis on your keywords and focus on making sure it speaks clearly to the reader and sells a benefit. The search for the perfect title that will make you money isn't always simple and straightforward. Follow these six steps and you'll land on a reader focused keyword rich and more likely to be highly profitable title in 200 characters or less Curious about how to write an awesome book description to pair with your new title. Learn more about how to pack in more keywords into the description in this video right here or catch the video with Martha right here. Before you go though, make sure you subscribe and turn those notifications on. There's some great videos coming up every Tuesday and Friday, and I really want to hang out with you on those videos and these. See you there.