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 platform. 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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Authority Self-Publishing

The Best Free Book Title Generators For Choosing Your Bestselling Title

You have a book — or a great idea for a book — and you want a title that will immediately grab the attention of your ideal readers and make them want to click on it.

But you’ve been racking your brain for hours to think of good titles and you’ve come up with maybe a few.

And they’re all missing something.

Where can you go for help on how to name a book ?

Fortunately, there is such a thing as a book title generator , and we’ve created a list of some of the best to be found on the internet.

The thoughtful geniuses behind the generators listed in this post have created innovative, time-saving resources for authors everywhere.

For your convenience, we’ve grouped them according to genre, so you can try all the generators designed to help you create the best possible title for your specific book.

What is a book title generator?

Title generator pros and cons, easy to remember, attention-grabbing , direct and unambiguous , easy to pronounce, make sure your title is genre-appropriate. , steer clear of morally repugnant expressions and themes., when in doubt, leave out the swear words., avoid copyright infringement. , other ways to come up with cool book names, fantasy title generators, romance title generators, random title generators, story name generators, novel title generators, sci-fi title generators, horror name generators, mystery novel title generators, crime book title generators, nonfiction title generators, children’s book title generators, character name generators, the magic of keywords, putting your titles to the test.

Generally speaking, a book name generator takes the information you give it and creates good book titles based on your genre.

If you don’t like the first suggestions, you can ask for more.

Some of the book title generators listed in this article offer only random title suggestions, while others require some input in order to generate titles better suited to your specific book project.

You can also use these title generators to get ideas for your next blog post, short story, or online course.

books on a bookshelf book title generator

While looking for the best title for a particular book, you might just find one that’s perfect for another creative project (or something you’ve put on the back burner for now).

So, whether you’re a novelist, a nonfiction book writer, a blogger, a course creator, a coach, or a combination of any of these, you’ll benefit from using these book title generators.

If a title sparks something in you, but you’re not sure it’s the right one, add it to your “maybe list,” anyway.

It might grow on you, or it might make you cringe the next time you read it.

Some of the titles I’ve come up with don’t make me cringe until I’m about to share it in a social media poll.

Keep in mind that when you’re making the first (long) list, you’re just collecting ideas.

Some of the title ideas will make you wonder, “What was I thinking?” while a select few will stand out as definitely worth considering.

In any case, none of this is wasted effort.

And a book title generator might get you to your next great book title a lot sooner.

Using a title generator has its perks but also its caveats. Consider the following pros and cons when choosing which tools to use and when. 

  • They’re free and easy to use. 
  • They can get you started brainstorming great titles for books, etc. 
  • They can save you time and get you to a great title sooner. 
  • Many are genre-specific or can generate titles for multiple genres.
  • The generated title suggestions can also work as writing prompts.   

Cons (or caveats): 

  • Titles suggested are often either too general or too specific. 
  • Using a tool available to many others might result in a title others are using. 
  • If you already have some title ideas in mind, a random title generator probably isn’t what you need (but a customizable one might help). 

What Makes a Good Book Title?

There’s just something about a great book title. See it while browsing a bookstore, and you’re likely to pause and look it over.

books on a shelf title generator

Titles like that have the following traits in common. Keep them in mind to make your title irresistible to your ideal reader.  

They stick in your head. Part of you is already hoping when you pick up the book that the blurb on the back cover will seal the deal and compel you to buy it. Days later, if anyone asks you to recall any of the titles you picked up, you’ll probably remember this one. The only hiccup might come if you saw other titles very close to the one you picked up. 

This one is similar to the “easy to remember” but different. You want your title to raise questions in the minds of readers browsing online or in bookstores. It contributes to its memorability but doesn’t guarantee it. The more you provoke something in your reader, though, the harder it will be for them to ignore it. 

You want your title to address a specific and urgent concern in your reader. If it solves a problem your reader has and wants to deal with, your title should capitalize on that. This is especially important for nonfiction titles. But even for fiction, your title should resonate with your ideal reader, appeal to a strong interest, or promise them something they want. 

Just as you don’t like mispronouncing a person’s name, it’s super awkward when someone asks you about the book you’re reading, and you mispronounce the title. Go with something your readers will be able to pronounce without Googling it. Readers will thank you by buying your books and happily telling others about how much they loved it. 

Rules for Good Book Title Ideas

Just as the best titles have certain traits in common, they also follow certain rules. With the traits described above and with due respect for the following rules, your book has its best chance at becoming a bestseller. 

Your title should fit your genre. Skim through popular titles in your chosen genres and note what they have in common to help with this. For example, pick up a cozy mystery, and its title will probably have a pun (unless the author is allergic to them). Fonts aren’t the only way you announce your genre with your book title. 

Even if your book deals with uncomfortable topics, find a way to communicate that topic without using morally objectionable language in your book title.

books with different colored covers title generator

Even if you’re just trying to make your title impossible to ignore, the impression you make will not be a good one (e.g., How Abandoning My Children Set Me Free ). Best not to go there. 

Unless you’re a well-known author, and you know your audience has zero problems with profanity, it’s best to leave explicit language out of your book titles. Plenty of readers will be put off by it, and you don’t want to alienate them just to score some cool points or get a few extra seconds of attention. 

You’ll put a lot of creative energy into choosing your book title, but even then, it’s possible to unwittingly copy someone else’s (great minds and all that). So, do yourself and other brilliant authors a favor and research your chosen title to make sure it isn’t associated with the work of another creator (book, course, website URL, etc.). 

If you’d rather not use a book title generator, there are other ways to create titles all your author friends will wish they’d thought of first (#SideHustle): 

  • Freewrite a list of possible titles based on its primary goals. 
  • Describe your book as you would if someone asked you about it. 
  • Write about what readers will gain by reading your book. 
  • Go dictionary diving or look through a resource related to your book. 
  • Picture the setting for your (fiction) book and write a vivid description. 
  • Write a pretend review for your book, highlighting its key selling points. 
  • Write a Q & A or author interview, and answer your own questions . 

Just getting clear about how your book will benefit its readers can help you create a clear, simple, and elegant title. And with a title like that, your reader is more likely to trust that your book’s contents will follow suit.

List Of Book Title Generator Options

Some of the book title generators listed for each genre will appear in other genre lists because some of them — and some of the categories — overlap.

So, the book names created can suit more than one type of book or story.

Most of these don’t use either custom or suggested values to narrow the search, but some do, and if you’d like a less random approach to brainstorming book titles, click on those options first.

  • Adazing Book Title Generator (multiple custom values)
  • Fantasy Name Generator (two custom values)
  • Reedsy Fantasy Title Generator (random)
  • Random Fantasy Novel Title Generator
  • Random Story Title Generator 2.0
  • Serendipity Fantasy Novel Title Generator (random)
  • UKRifter’s Sci-Fi & Fantasy Book (or Game) Title Generator (random)
  • Cool Generator: Fantasy (random)
  • Reedsy Romance Title Generator (random)
  • Amaze Story Titles (random)
  • Romance Novel Title Generator (random)
  • Cool Generator: Romance (random)
  • UKRifter’s Romantic Fiction Book or Game Title Generator (random)
  • SefChurchill.com Romance Novel Title Generator (random
  • Reedsy Book Title Generator
  • Starman Series Book Title Generator
  • Book Title Generator
  • Cool Generator: Random
  • The Story Shack Book Title Generator
  • Generator Fun Book Title Generator

More Related Articles:

The Definitive Guide To All Parts Of A Book

23 Things to Write About In A Nonfiction Book

First Line Generator: 49 Sentences To Get You Started Writing

Try a story name generator from the following list if you’re looking for something that would suit a work of general or literary fiction , whether it’s a novel , a short story, or something in between. Some of the following also work for genre fiction.

  • Cool Generator (random)
  • Ruggenberg Title Generator (random)
  • Writing Exercises Story Title Generator (random)
  • Reedsy Book Title Generator (random)
  • StoryToolz Half Title Generator (suggested values)
  • Reedsy Sci-Fi Title Generator (random)
  • Pulp Sci-Fi Title-O-Tron (random)
  • Space Adventure Title Generator (random)
  • SciFi Ideas.com SciFi Story Title Generator (random)
  • Generator Land Horror Movie Title Generator (random)
  • Cool Generator: Horror (random)
  • Fantasy Name Generator (two custom values))
  • Reedsy Mystery Title Generator (random)
  • Starman Series Mystery Title Generator (random)
  • Book Title Generator (random)
  • Reedsy Crime Title Generator (random)
  • Tara Sparling’s Crime Thriller Book Title Generator (not random)
  • Portent’s Content Idea Generator (one custom value)
  • Cool Generator: Nonfiction (random)
  • Kopywriting Course Book Title Generator (one custom value)
  • Awesome Titles (one custom value)
  • Sumo Kickass Headline Generator (multiple custom values)
  • Cool Generator: Children (random)
  • Children’s Book Title Generator Pinterest Page (random)

Book titles aren’t the only names that draw readers in; characters need appealing and well-suited names to make them more believable and compelling to the reader.

To that end, it pays to bookmark these book character name generators — if only as a stress reliever when you’re worn thin from your writing for the day.

Most of these are random, but the first offers a selection of values to narrow the search.

  • Fantasy Name Generator (multiple suggested values)
  • Reedsy Character Name Generator (random)
  • Starman Name Generator (random)
  • Seventh Sanctum Fantasy Name Generator (random)
  • Masterpiece Name Generator (random)
  • Behind the Name Random Name Generator (random)

If you’re using a generator that allows you to input custom values, you’ll get farther faster if you know what keywords are vital to your book’s success.

To that end, we recommend checking out PublisherRocket (formerly KDP Rocket) by Kindlepreneur’s Dave Chesson.

It’s the best tool we know of for quickly finding the keywords that will make your book more visible and appealing to your target readers.

Amazon looks for keywords in your book’s title, subtitle, and book description. And if none of them contain the keywords your ideal readers are looking for, your book won’t show up in their search results.

Another excellent tool for testing the popularity of keywords on Amazon is the Keywords Everywhere extension , which shows you search stats not only for the words you type into Amazon’s or Google’s search fields but also the words in the drop-down suggestion menu.

Once you’ve got some promising title ideas, it’s time to find out which of them are the most marketable. In other words, which titles are most likely to catch the eye of your ideal reader and get the visceral “I need that” response you’re hoping for.

Lulu created a free Title Scorer tool that gives your title a grade based on its marketability — or likelihood of succeeding in a crowded book market. It’s well worth a look just to see what grade each of your titles get.

a pile of books book title generator

When you’ve narrowed your options down to a few, and you’re ready to expose your darlings to the scrutiny of others, you could post a poll on social media.

But if you want a more carefully selected group of voters — folks who are more likely to be interested in your book — go with PickFu .

It’s not free, but it’s not a bank-breaker, either. And the results are likely to be more helpful than a random poll on your favorite social media channels.

Ready to generate your own book title?

I hope you bookmarked your favorites and found some intriguing book title ideas.

Writing books is challenging enough without spending weeks agonizing over book titles. And we want your book to make the biggest possible impact.

Your title and cover will be the first thing readers see, so it pays to make sure they’re market-worthy.

Playing with these title generators can also jumpstart your own creative idea machine, helping you add to your list and building your confidence as you get closer to the best possible title for your book.

So, try a few of them today, using keywords you already know or those you can find using Publisher Rocket, and see how many titles you can come up with.

May your creativity and resourcefulness influence everything you do today.

You have a book -- or a great idea for a book -- and you want a title that will immediately grab the attention of your ideal readers and make them want to click on it. But you’ve been racking your brain for hours to think of good titles and you’ve come up with maybe a few. And they’re all missing something. Where can you go for help on how to name a book?

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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]

book titles help

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.

astrological-love-book-cover

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!”

satisfy-book-cover

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.

Made to Stick

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.

The Scribe Crew

Read this next.

How to Choose the Best Book Ghostwriting Package for Your Book

How to Choose the Best Ghostwriting Company for Your Nonfiction Book

How to Choose a Ghostwriter for a Finance Book

  • Idea Generators

Book Title Generator: 1,000+ Book Title Ideas

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.

christmas-book-titles

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:

book-title-ideas-app

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:

story title generator imagine forest

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:

book titles help

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!

book title generator- random book title ideas

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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Blog • Perfecting your Craft , Book Marketing

Posted on Jun 27, 2018

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

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.

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

FREE RESOURCE

FREE RESOURCE

Book Title Checklist

Create a title that stands out — and sells.

Why do book titles matter?

book cover design ideas - one idea

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 motifs  as you plan your novel. 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 your book cover design . 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

how to title a book

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

how to title a book

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).

how to title a book

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

how to title a 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.

Target Audience Facebook: How to title a book

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 title capitalization rules . 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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Home » Blog » Book Title Generator: Best 21 Free Book Name Generators [List]

Book Title Generator: Best 21 Free Book Name Generators [List]

book titles help

TABLE OF CONTENTS

As an author, you should realize that having a suitable title in place for your book is essential to its success. Neglecting to create a good quality title will only serve to limit the potential of the book. Every best-selling book has a strong, well-thought-out title.  Especially if you’re self-publishing, the title is paramount to the success of your potential bestseller.

The book title will contribute to sales. The catchier the title, the more attention it will get, which will result in more purchases. Especially for fiction – knowing how to write good titles will help you learn how to write a novel.

To come up with the best book title ideas possible title, it can be helpful to have options. Thinking of multiple good options alone can be difficult, and this is where a book title generator comes in.

A book title generator will produce several different and often random titles for a given keyword or genre.  This gives the author some ideas of what might be a good fit for a title.

With the right book title generator, putting a fantastic title on your book doesn’t have to be stressful or take many hours.

Benefits of Using A Book Title Generator

Like any book writing software, a book title generator is designed to enhance the process of writing your book. Using a generator for your title will come with several advantages.

It Saves time

Choosing a book title doesn’t have to be stressful or time-consuming anymore.  Assuming you’ve chosen a good book title generator, you will have your title in minutes.

Learning how to write a novel or a book takes enough time. Don’t spend it all on the title.

A Book Title Generator Gives You Multiple Ideas

Most book title generators won’t rest at just one title. Once you plug in the appropriate information, it will give you many to choose from.

If you don’t like any of the given options, you can always change the keywords you used a little bit, and try again. The chances of getting a title you like are high.

They are Genre-Specific

A good book title generator will offer genre-specific results. This is good because the genre can change the tone of a title.

You don’t want to be looking at gruesome, spooky, horror-themed titles when what you’re writing is a romance . Being able to specify genre allows you to narrow the results further, saving you that much more time.

Book Title Generators are Free

Not all writing software is free, so it’s a good idea to take advantage of the ones that don’t cost you anything. Most book title generators will be free to use.

A Book Title Generator is Easy to Use

Especially if you are still learning how to write a book , you don’t want to make your life even more difficult. Book writing software can sometimes be complex, but book title generators are simple and easy.

The only thing you need to do is enter the information it asks for, and that’s it.

The 22 Best Book Name Generators

Like I mentioned before, there are different generators for different genres. Knowing how to write a novel means being able to identify your genre. This will save the frustration of the results being so far off that you can’t even use them.

In order for you to create the best book title possible for your individual book, there are many different generators you can try. They come within the following genres:

  • Horror book title generators
  • Romance book title generators
  • Mystery book title generators
  • Nonfiction book title generators
  • Sci-fi book title generators
  • Fantasy book title generators
  • Children book title generators
  • Comic book title generators
  • General book title generators

Horror Title Generators

Horror is meant to horrify. As a horror writer, there is some part of your mind that is dark and twisted. This is what comes out in your writing, and you like it that way.

You write to scare. You write to excite. Horror writers want to please the adrenaline junkies.

A spooky, goosebump-inducing tale needs an equally terrifying title. Sometimes, these can be hard to come up with. There are two horror specific book title generators that can help you out:

  • Random Story Title Generator 2.0

Seventh Sanctum’s Evil Names  

The random story title generator 2.0.

This free book title generator is the second edition of it’s kind and it draws from different sources to produce its horror titles. It generates titles that are intended for short stories, but they can be used for anything you want.

The generator gives you five options at a time. If you don’t like any of them, you can simply click again for five more.

This book title generator is committed to giving you titles that are evil and crude, perfect for your horror story.

What’s cool about this one is it gives you the option to select up to three categories. This allows you to customize the theme of your title based on what your book is about. Some of the options include:

  • Attack/combat oriented

And there are many more. This gives you the best chance of coming up with something that works for your specific story.

Romance Title Generators

Romance titles need to be endearing and dramatic. They need to evoke some emotion and let the reader know that love is going to be involved.

If you’re working on a romance and can’t quite nail down that perfect title, these generators might be able to help:

Kitt Net’s Book Title Generator

Romance novel title generator.

This book title generator is fast and easy to use.

It is geared towards romance. As such, they warn you right on the page that the results may be slightly “risque” in nature. Don’t be surprised if this happens – you are writing romance after all!

This is a simple, clean book title generator that focuses on romance.

book title generators

Each click of the button will give you a two-worded title that could fit a romantic story. Click “create romance!” as many times as you want for more titles.

Mystery Book Title Generator

The title of a mystery novel should, logically, have a mysterious tone to it. Mysteries often contain elements of death, secrets, and hidden treasure. It should be something that leaves readers wondering and wanting more.

If you’re having trouble coming up with something suitable, there is one powerful mystery book title generator that is sure to offer some quality assistance:

Starman Series Mystery Title Generator

This book title generator is truly dedicated to helping you create the best mystery novel possible.

The Starman Series generator allows you to choose however many titles you want to be generated. This gives you the incredible potential for variety.

What’s special about this generator is the option to also generate chapter titles. You can check off the option to be given chapter titles, and enter how many you want.

You probably won’t end up using every single chapter title they give you word for word. But, this is a fantastic way to get some creativity flowing and start setting up a structure for your story.

They even give you the option to force what they call a “final victory” chapter in each selection. This means the final chapter title will be descriptive of a resolution or victory within the story.

book title generators

Lastly, they even offer the option to create some fictional book reviews. Of course, you won’t be able to actually use these in your book as they are not real. But, they can offer some additional inspiration for the tone and outline of your story.

Crime Book Title Generator   

A book about crime will contain all kinds of tension. You will have criminal masterminds, murders, robberies, police chases, arrests, prison situations, and much more. These things are thrilling and intense.

It can be difficult to come up with a title that accurately depicts these things in a catchy, memorable way. This is where one particular crime generator will come in handy.

Tara Sparling’s Crime Thriller Book Title Generator

This crime title generator is basic and doesn’t come with endless options, but it can give you a good start.

Each title will begin with “the.” While this may seem uninspired, it is typical for the genre.

Next, there are two lists of words that can be combined with each other to create a crime-themed title.

book title generators

While limited, the words given do create that balance of mystery and tension you want for a crime title.

Non-Fiction Book Title Generators

There are many factions of nonfiction writing. You have your true crime novels, personal memoirs, self-help books, how-to guides, and many others.

Coming up with an appropriate title that isn’t too pushy, sales-y, or long can take some time. There are some book title generators that can help you with this:

  • Portents Content Idea Generator
  • Kopy Writing Kourse Book Name Generator

Awesome Titles

Portents content idea generator   .

This generator is designed to help you create an actionable, effective title for your nonfiction book. It begins by asking you for one keyword to use in the title. There are some guidelines for choosing a good keyword:

  • Don’t use capital letters unless the keyword is a proper noun.
  • Use the singular version of your word.
  • Be prepared to revise the generated title slightly to make it grammatically correct.

Once you enter your keyword, it creates a title with four parts. It gives a short description or idea behind each part so you can understand why those words are being used.

book title generators

After creating a suitable title, the tool also provides some additional resources to get you started with your book:

  • Content strategy exercises
  • A large list of SEO tools

While serious about helping you with your book, this generator has a light and playful feel to it. This relieves some pressure and may be able to put a smile on your face for a moment.

Kopy Writing Kourse Book Title Generator

This easy to use book title generator has a long preset list of titles. These titles are designed for nonfiction writing. This can include books as well as blog posts or even email subject lines.

All you need to do is insert your topic – ideally something between 1-3 words – and it will plug your topic into all listed titles. Scroll through the options and something that works might jump out at you.

If you want to save the options for later, you can download the entire list to your computer.

Another book title generator that will help you will your nonfiction book, this one gives you a huge variety with 700 options for each topic you insert.

Using this one requires only one step. Type in your keyword and click, nothing else to it. The list includes options suitable for book titles as well as headlines and other content ideas.

Fantasy Book Title Generators  

Fantasy is a genre with novels that are often complex and immersive. Entire worlds are created by the author. These made up lands will include elements of magic, epic battles, and supernatural species.

A fantasy novel title needs to be as epic as the content inside. There are several fantasy book title generators that can help you with this:

  • Serendipity Fantasy Novel Generator

Fantasy Name Generator by Rinkworks

  • Fantasy name generator
  • Random fantasy novel title generator

Serendipity Fantasy Novel Generator   

This fantasy title generator is fun and simple. It generates one title at a time, but clicking for another is fast and easy.

It offers a good variety of short and long titles. Some are simple and direct, while others are more complex and mystical. It gives you options at random, but there’s a good chance you’ll eventually get something that suits your story.

This is a title generator that gives you a few options.

You can choose the “simple” method and select the type of name you’d like, and it will spit out some options. The available types include:

  • Serious names
  • Specialized names – Fantasy is on this list.

You also have the option of an “Advanced” interface.

This method comes with some instructions you need to go over before using it. This requires some time and effort, but it may be worth it if you want a specialized title that is suited specifically for your book.

Fantasy Name Generator  

This fantasy title generator is another one that gives you a few customizable options.

First, you can check off the category of name that you want. Some of these options include:

  • Human names
  • Dwarf names
  • Dragon names
  • Fantasy places
  • Demon names
  • Wizard names
  • Fantasy titles
  • And many more

Next, you select if you want a short, medium, or long name. Then you click generate, and it lists some titles based on your selection.

This generator can help you come up with a list of titles, but many of the options can be used to create a place or character name as well. This is helpful as naming things in your fantasy can also be time-consuming.

Random Fantasy Novel Title Generator

This is another generator that is basic but useful.  

book title generators

Each click will generate six different fantasy-themed titles for you. You can keep clicking for endless options.

Sci-Fi Book Title Generators  

Science fiction is an intricate and exciting genre. Robots, aliens, space battles, and advanced technology are usually prominent. An equally exciting and crafty title is required to make your book the best it can be.

There are many title generators with a focus on sci-fi:

  • Pulp Sci-Fi title O-Tron
  • Obscure hub sci-fi title generator
  • Book title creator

Pulp Sci-Fi Title O-Tron

This generator is part of a really cool sci-fi themed website. The generator itself is simple – a single click offers a series of science fiction-inspired titles. Click again to refresh the list.

book title generators

The graphics on the site are super dynamic and there are a bunch of other resources available for science fiction writers.

Obscure Hub Sci-fi Title Generator

Obscure Hub has a number of generators for you to choose from, including one that is specifically for science fiction book titles.

In addition to this, they have a few other generators that might help spark some inspiration in your story:

  • Random insult generator
  • Alien name generator
  • Band name generator
  • Futuristic food generator

This generator will give you three options at once. You can simply click for three more if they don’t suit you.

Children’s Book Title Generator

Children’s book titles need to be a good combination of catchy, interesting, and age-appropriate. It can be hard to find the perfect balance.

Story Title Ideas

This simple generator gives you straightforward and easy to understand titles containing one adjective and one noun.

book title generators

These can be used to title a story, or they may help inspire your next Children’s book idea.

Comic Book Title Generators

Comic books tell a story in a unique way. They combine visual arts with all the elements of storytelling. Even though it is heavy on the illustrations, you still need good characters, a well-developed plot, an interesting setting, etc.

There are many different types of comic books, and each will need to be titled a little differently.

Many comic books contain an element of humor, though this is not true for all. Regardless, you need to come up with a suitable name for the story you are telling.

If you are struggling to find the right fit, there are some generators that specialize in this:

The Ultimate Superhero Name Generator

Ruggenberg title generator.

This is a generator that gives you a superhero name. This can be handy if you are also struggling to come up with a name for your superhero or supervillain.

In addition to the name, it gives a short blurb about the character. It suggets possible superpowers, settings, and enemies.

book title generators

Many comic books are titled after the name of the hero. If you have yet to come up with your protagonist’s name, this generator can be helpful.

This is a basic generator that offers whimsical title options with a fantasy type feel. These can effectively be used for comic book inspiration.

It will give you six titles at one time. A single click will generate six more instantly.

Generalized Book Title Generators

While many book title generators are genre-specific, some are not. Some are basic and provide a title entirely at random. These can be a fun way to think outside the box a little bit.

Or, some of these offer multiple genres to choose from in one place. This is useful for someone who likes to write different styles.

They can also be used for inspiration. Sometimes an idea will come to you based on just a few words.

Story Tools Half Title Generator

The Half Title Generator gets its name because it generates your titles for you in two parts – one half at a time.

It allows you to choose from a list of “beginnings” before moving on to a separate list of “endings”. It then puts the two parts together to create a list of complete titles.

If you don’t like the beginnings or endings they are offering up, you can generate a new list before completing the titles.

The titles themselves are not genre-specific. However, if you know your genre, you can choose words and phrases that you think fit the genre.

This book title generator gives you one list of titles at a time and doesn’t have a specific genre. However, it offers approximately 45 titles per list. Generating a new list is as easy as a simple click. So, if  you don’t like what you’re given, simply choose “more.”

The title options that it gives will vary in tone, theme, and subject matter. This variety makes it a suitable generator for many genres.

Book Title Creator

This book title generator is detailed and versatile. There are several genre options to choose from.

In addition to selecting a genre, they ask for a few more details to help give you the most customized, suitable title possible. These options include:

  • Occupation of the protagonist
  • Important location of the story
  • The main opposition in the story
  • A positive trait of the main character
  • A negative trait of the main character
  • The main character’s goal

book title generators

All the fields are optional, so you can fill in as many or as few of the details as you’d like. The more you give, however, the better the generated title will be.

The only downside to this highly detailed title creation service is their requirement of your email address. This may not be a concern for you, but for some, it may be a turn-off.

How to Get a Book Title Right

Creating a book title that is catchy, interesting, and relevant is the most important thing. However, there are other factors to consider when coming up with the best possible title:

  • Something might sound good to you, but you need to consider the general population as well.
  • If you are publishing as an eBook, keywords will come into play when determining how many people see and search for your book.
  • Doing some research on relevant keywords is crucial before committing to a title.

There are a couple of ways you can do this. One simple method is to do some looking around on Amazon and see what words and themes seem to be most popular.

If you want to take this type of research to the next level, Publisher Rocket has an interesting tool that can give you a lot of insight. This program does a few different things for you as you look to find the best ideas and titles:

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This writing software will help you know how to write a book . Designed for those who are looking to self-publish , it provides valuable insight that will help create the best title possible.

Rocket is available for a one-time purchase of $97. This will give you lifetime access. The program has already helped thousands of writers create better and more profitable book titles.

Use These Book Title Generators for Your Next Masterpiece

Knowing how to write a book is hard. There is no shame in using some of the many free tools and writing software available.

Your book’s title is crucial to its success, especially for a first-time or unknown author. The title, along with the cover, is what will give people a first impression. First impressions matter, a lot.

We’ve created a long list of generators to help you with this most important part of the journey. Wherever you are in the writing process, use these generators to your advantage. Come up with the best title possible, or use them to draw some inspiration.

In addition to these book title generators, you might benefit from utilizing a book writing software that will help you with the actual writing. One amazing option here is Squibler.

Squibler is a modern and easy to understand program that helps you write your book efficiently. It gets you organized and takes care of the details so you can spend all your time writing.

It will help you take that book title and expand it into a winning idea.

Whatever you are looking to do, don’t hesitate. The story you’re trying to tell is important.

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How to Write Book Titles [+ Our Fail-Proof Formula]

POSTED ON Sep 7, 2023

Nicole Ahlering

Written by Nicole Ahlering

So you’ve written a book . Congratulations! The hard part is over, right? 

Sort of. There’s a little more brainstorming to do before you send your book into the wild. Now, you need to figure out how to write a book title that captivates would-be readers and gets them to pick up your book.

Or, maybe you've just decided to write a book and want to start with a book title for inspiration. It's always a good idea to have at least a working title before embarking on your first rough draft.

Keep reading to learn how to write a book title that gets all the right attention – and get your hands on our favorite free tool for generating hundreds of great book titles instantly!

In The Guide About How To Write Book Titles, You'll Learn…

The fail-proof formula for creating book titles .

There’s no one-size-fits-all way on how to title your book . But we do have a formula you can use as an excellent jumping-off point! 

Before we dive into the specifics, bear in mind that the best title for your book is the one that nails your book positioning and, ultimately, gets the most sales. So, if you’ve found a title that deviates from this formula but is skyrocketing sales—that’s totally fine! Let this serve as inspiration rather than a rigid guideline. 

Step 1: Remember your audience 

Chances are you identified your core audience long before you started writing your book. Similarly, keep it in mind as you write your book title and subtitle.

It should appeal to whomever you’re selling to and be appropriate. For example, the process of figuring out how to write a book title for a YA fiction novel would look very different than a steamy fantasy romance read.

Step 2: Determine the key themes and concepts in your book

It’s simple: you need to start by knowing what you’re selling. 

Now, you might not be overtly selling something in your book – especially if it's a fiction novel. But yet you are. It could be an escape from life (fantasy, sci-fi), an ideology or a lesson, a character, a mind-boggling mystery, or a couple of jumpscares.

Make a list of the key themes in your book , what it will teach your readers (or how it will entertain them), the names of key characters, and anything else that feels relevant. 

This information should guide the creation of your title. 

Step 3: Brainstorm keywords and key phrases 

It’s important to include the terms your readers are searching for when writing your book description . However, the rules don't necessarily apply when thinking about how to write book titles. 

Once you have your list from step one prepared, distill it into a handful of keywords and phrases that reflect what your book is about and the purpose it serves. 

Writing a self-help book? Examples might be Transform Your Life with Meditation or Use Timeblocking to Unlock Your Full Potential .

Compare those more descriptive self-help titles with a few of the memoir examples we've compiled, like Walden or My Mother's Daughter .

Step 4: Incorporate emotion and intrigue 

At the end of the day, humans are emotional beings. So, if you want to sell your book, you’ve got to appeal to their feelings. 

Use the keywords and concepts you ideated in steps one and two to help you identify what your book will make your readers feel. Is it relief? Stress-reduction? Inspiration? Make note of it. 

Step 4: Start brainstorming 

Just as the first draft of your book was messy, your book title brainstorming process will be, too. That’s okay! The point is to get your ideas on paper (or screen). Using the keywords, emotions, and concepts you’ve identified in the above steps, start listing potential titles. 

Focus on creating something that’s as concise as possible while still grabbing your reader’s attention. There aren't too many rules for learning how to write book titles, but if you’re writing a genre that tends to have a specific title structure, you might use that for reference.

For example, many cozy mysteries use a “[noun] and [noun]” approach, like Biscuits and Blackmail.

Step 5: Test your book title and ask for feedback

Once you’ve narrowed your brainstormed ideas down to about ten potential book titles, it’s time to start getting feedback. 

Ask as many people as you can not only their thoughts on your titles but also what they assume the book is about. You want to understand what they think they’ll get out of it based on the name. 

Be sure to ask if there’s anything they find confusing, offensive, or otherwise off-putting about the book titles you've written too. 

Step 6: Make sure your chosen title is unique

Once you’ve narrowed down your best titles based on feedback, it’s time to start searching. 

Review booksellers, blog posts, articles, and more to ensure your book title (or something very similar) isn’t already being used by another author. If it’s not, you’re good to go! 

How to Write Book Titles for Amazon

Nearly all of the authors we work with choose to self-publish on Amazon . And for good reason. Amazon sells millions of books each year. But to be a part of the top authors on the platform, it’s vital to learn how to write book titles that make yours stand out. 

Following our formula above, start by being descriptive. Your readers should have a good idea of what they’ll get out of your book just from reading the title. If they have to guess at the book genre or subject matter, your title isn’t ready yet. 

You may also want to highlight your book’s USP or unique selling point. If it’s a self-help book , what is it teaching folks how to do? If it’s fictional, why is it more compelling than the other novels on Amazon? Let us know in the title. 

Next, think about keywords people who are looking for your book might search for. If they’d like to learn how to become a better leader as an introvert, words like “leader” and “introvert” should be in your title. 

Finally, you get bonus points for creating a sense of intrigue and evoking strong emotion in the reader—that’s how you get them to click “buy!” 

As a reminder, before listing your book on Amazon, do a search to make sure there isn’t a book already selling with a similar name. 

How to Write a Book Title for a Book Review 

If you’re writing for a book review, start by listing the book’s full title and the author’s name. While you want to keep the title of the book concise, it can be helpful to add a very brief blurb with some context about the book. 

An example might be: Review: ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald – A Glimpse Into Roaring Twenties Society or and example from our own blog, I’m Glad My Mom Died: A Review of the Unflinching Jennette McCurdy Memoir

How to Write a Book Title for Your Author Website 

Much like writing a book title for Amazon, you want the book title you write for your author website to be engaging and give readers an idea of what the book is about. 

Even though you aren't competing against millions of other book titles on your own website, you still want to ensure your book title is reflective of your author brand and the image you want to convey. Make sure you know who your target audience is, and write a book title that appeals to what they’re looking for. 

If you thought you could get away with skipping keywords in your title here, you’d be mistaken. This is an excellent opportunity to leverage search engine optimization, which means getting more eyes on your book. 

So think about what your (potential) readers might be searching for—a solution for procrastination? A fluffy romance novel where nothing bad happens?—and make sure you’re using those keywords in your title. 

A quick note here: Once you experiment with how to write book titles for your genre and settle on one for your book, that title will stay the same everywhere. You don't want to confuse readers by using one book title on your Amazon listing and another slightly different one on your website. We're just giving you ideas of the different places you'll be using your book title and different things to keep in mind for each.

How to Use a Book Title Generator 

Need a little more assistance learning and practicing how to write book titles? We’re here to help. As leaders in the self-publishing world, we've coached thousands of people through the process of writing and publishing books that become bestsellers.

And we know a thing or two about a good title. We've also got the inside scoop on how to subtitle a book people will actually buy.

To make this process that much easier for you, we've created a completely free book title generator that helps you come up with a working title for your work. Whether you're writing fiction, nonfiction, or children's books, it will use specific prompts to generate a title that is unique and interesting.

Book Title Generator

Don't like it?

What’s a working title, you ask? It’s a “placeholder” or draft of your book title. It's subject to change (and often will), but it helps you zero in on the key points you want in your final book title. For many, it's also the inspiration for beginning their draft. Having a book title at the top of your page feels like progress – and it is!

While it may not be the exact title that goes out on your published book, it’s an excellent jumping-off point to assist you in the brainstorming, book outlining , writing, and editing processes. 

To use the book title generator, you simply input the genre of your book and a description of what it’s about. The more details, the better. The generator will do the rest! 

If you're working on an autobiography, fantasy, or horror book and find yourself in need of extra inspiration for the ideal title, we've got you covered with these tailored tips:

  • 50 Eye-Catching Autobiography Titles
  • Fantasy Book Name Generator: 100s of Title Ideas
  • Create Terrifying Titles: Free Horror Book Title Generator

Some folks find brainstorming and thinking about how to title their book to be great fun. Others think it’s daunting. 

Wherever you land on the spectrum, know that you have a lot of help available as you find a title that helps your book sell. If you find you need more guidance, schedule a book consultation today . We can’t wait to meet you! 

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Beyond the Chapter

How to Write an Attention-Grabbing Book Title

book title ideas that stand out from the bookshelves

Written by Eira Edwards

15 january 2023.

This post may include affiliate links. That means we may earn a commission if you buy through recommended links. See our full disclaimer policy . 

Writing a book is a huge accomplishment, and it deserves a great title. In fact, a catchy and memorable book title is essential if you want your book to be noticed.

In this article, I’ll share tips and tricks for crafting a book title that stands out from the shelf.

What’s the perfect book title?

Along with your cover and blurb, the title is going to help sell your book. But how do you know if you’ve chosen the perfect name for your work?

A book title should grab readers’ attention and make them want to read more. It should be unique and memorable but not too long or overly complex.

Your book title should hint at the book’s subject matter, style and tone. It should also give the reader some context or clue about the genre of your story. There are plenty of things to consider.

Let’s dive into book titles and why they’re important.

Why is your book title important?

The book title is the first thing that people see and the first thing that they judge. So, it’s no surprise that a book title can make or break a book’s success.

There are thousands of books out there, and you want yours to jump out from the rest. That’s why a unique title can help your book get noticed and attract more readers.

Writing an attention-grabbing book title

Choosing a book title can be a daunting task—but it doesn’t have to be. Here are some tips for creating an attention-grabbing book title:

  • Ideation — take some time to sit down and compile possible book titles. Write down any ideas that come to mind, even the ‘weird’ ones.
  • Research — explore other books in your genre to get an idea of what book titles are popular. This can also give you some inspiration for your own book title.
  • Keep it simple — keep your book title short and punchy. Long titles can be hard to remember and may not fit on the book’s cover.
  • Use alliteration — alliteration is a great way to make a book title stand out. (Alliteration is when two or more words begin with the same letter or sound e.g. Peter Pan , Gone Girl  and The Lies of Locke Lamora .)
  • Use puns — puns are a fun and creative way to make your book title stand out. They are ideal for books with a humorous tone e.g. Equal Rites  and Fool Moon .
  • Be creative — don’t be afraid to get creative with your book title. Think outside of the box and be open to trying new things.
  • Pique the reader’s interest — raise a question that intrigues them just enough that they’ll pick up your book (think The School for Good and Evil , The Pyramids of London  and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs ).

Common mistakes to avoid when creating a book title

Not every title you come up with will be winners. Here are some common mistakes to avoid:

  • Too many words — try to keep your book title to a few words.
  • A contrived pun — puns have a place, but don’t overdo it. A confusing pun can be hard to understand and will put off readers.
  • Trendy words — avoid popular modern words or phrases that might quickly become outdated.
  • Don’t be too vague — your book title should give the reader some context. Don’t be too vague or use obscure words. This might not attract readers as you’d hoped.
  • Don’t use cliches — avoid using cliches that have been done to death. 

Using book title generators

There are plenty of book title generators available online that can help you come up with the perfect book title. Interested in trying one out? Then take a look at this book title generator by Reedsy.

Generally, a book title generator is easy to use. They can provide book title ideas almost instantly. All you have to do is enter a few keywords that describe your book, and the generator will do the rest. Result!

Using a book title generator is a great way to get some inspiration for your book title. However, these handy tools are just a starting point. You should still take the time to research and compile book title ideas. That way, you can craft a unique title that’s relevant to your work.

Examples of book titles

Now that we’ve gone over some tips for creating a book title, let’s look at some of my favourites:

  • And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  • Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
  • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

They’ve grabbed your attention, right?

These book titles have something in common: they’re unique and they grab your attention. They even reflect the content of the book.

Craft a book that stands out from the shelf

I hope you’ve enjoyed these top tips for choosing the best name for your story. Remember, you should make sure that it’s unique and relevant, catchy and memorable.

Beyond the book title, you also need a book that shines. Well, I’ve got you covered. With editorial services like proofreading and copy-editing, you can get help in sharpening your writing. Find out more over on the Writing Hub . 

Eira Edwards profile photo

Written By Eira Edwards

Eira is a writer and editor from the South of England with over five years of experience as a Content Manager, helping clients perfect their copy.

She has a degree in English Literature and Language, which she loves putting to work by working closely with fiction authors.

When she’s not working on manuscripts, you can find her in the woods with her partner and dog, or curling up with a good book.

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Home » Writing » How to come up with a good book title: 14 tips

book titles help

3. Create something original and intriguing

A good book title needs to be as original as possible. Your book’s title must compete with hundreds, if not thousands, of other similar novels. You want a title that will stand out from the crowd, so you may have to think outside the box and get more creative than currently published authors. Don’t be afraid to try a title in the form of a question, a command, or even a list.

Think of your book title as an invitation: it should provide the reader with a hint of what can be expected from your story without giving too much away. Leaving something to the imagination is what will motivate people to buy your book. A good title along with great illustrations and book cover art can sell a browsing buyer in a bookstore.

Book title ideas

Even though you know the best attributes, coming up with a title is still difficult Your book title should convey ideas from the book but stay catchy so that readers remember it. Take, for instance, a book about cooking and recipes. It’s likely that the book title “How to Cook” is taken and doesn’t grab readers.

A few alternative ideas could be:

  • Cooking Made Easy
  • The Best Way to Cook Like a Chef
  • 5 Steps to Amazing Food
  • Chef Advice 101
  • The Perfect Chef: Easy Recipes for Delicious Food

The above titles are just book title ideas and examples, but they encapsulate a good working title. These titles are short and concise, but they also convey the concept and content within the book. They are memorable, and they are easy to read for the average reader.

4. Appeal to your target audience

Always keep your audience in mind. You are writing for a specific group. For example, writing a science fiction story will appeal to a different group than a romance novel. If your story is an international thriller or takes place in another country, play around with some non-English titles. For non-fiction stories, your book title should describe the content without sounding too sensational.

5. Note down ideas as you write

Some writers get hung up on the idea that they need to come up with the perfect book title before they start to write their book. That is absolutely not the case (in fact, many great books may never have been written if authors were limited to that line of thinking). Many editors suggest writing the title last so that authors don’t feel that they need to stick to a specific storyline. They suggest that writing the story first provides authors with more freedom to take the story in any direction, and then the title can be written to wrap up the content in a few concise words.

You will find that as you dig in and start writing your story, ideas for titles will naturally come to you. Keep a running list as you go. Don’t feel like you have to edit yourself either. Write everything down, even the titles that may feel ridiculous at the time. You never know what will stick.

6. Give your book a thorough read

Once your book is finished, give it a thorough read and think about what it is trying to say. Take notes as you go in case you come across a descriptive phrase, image, or piece of dialogue that perfectly captures the theme of the book.

Then brainstorm book titles that are related to its core message. Consider what inspired you to write the book, the emotions that you felt during the writing process and how you felt after reading it. Is it a story of triumph, mystery, joy, fear, or love? Think about the key takeaways a reader will have and try to find a title that matches the overall mood.

7. Recruit friends for brainstorming sessions

We all have that friend who is incredibly creative and good with words. Recruit them for a brainstorming session. You may want to have them read a few chapters of your book first or summarize the story and characters to give them some context. Then sit down and have some fun coming up with different book titles. You’ll be surprised how far you will get when someone else helps with the process.

8. Browse similar genres

Poetry books are typically going to have different kinds of titles than autobiographies or other works of nonfiction, browse book titles in similar genres to gain inspiration and ideas. Notice if there are particular trends or styles that authors follow in naming their books. Think about what appeals to you in certain titles, and brainstorm ideas for your book with similar characteristics.

You can also do an internet search for “best-selling mystery novels” or “nonfiction best-sellers” and see if these popular books have something in common. Remember, you don’t want to copy an existing title, but something could spark an idea that leads to you creating your own.

9. Read it out loud

When you have your list narrowed down to your top book title contenders, read each one out loud to see how it sounds. Is it easy to pronounce? Does it have a good flow? If it doesn’t seem to flow or roll off the tongue, then it probably isn’t the best title on your list.

Having a hard time letting go of a title even though it’s a mouthful? See if you can shorten the phrase, or keep one or two keywords and combine them in a different way. Creating a strong title often involves trial and error, so play around until it feels right to you.

10. Try out some book title generators tools

When you’re feeling stuck, sometimes it can help to get outside your head and let a book title generator do the work for you. Think of it like doing a short exercise that instantly shakes things up and helps break you out of your writing habits. Don’t be surprised if some of the options fall flat, sound nonsensical, or are just plain unappealing. The goal is simply to give you wide range of options and potentially spark new inspiration.

Here are some of the top book title generators, by genre:

Nonfiction:  Self-Publishing ,  Portent ,  Copywriting Course

Fiction:  Writing Exercises ,  Story Toolz ,  Adazing

Science Fiction & Fantasy:  Fantasy Literature ,  Pulp Sci-Fi Title-o-Tron ,  UK Rifter

11. Identify the problem your book will solve

Many readers like to know what they’re getting into when they pick up a new book. That’s especially going to be true if it falls into a nonfiction category that is primarily educational or instructional, like self-help, personal finance, home improvement, cooking and nutrition, or hobbies and crafts. The title of your book should clearly state what skill you are teaching or how it can help the reader solve a particular problem. The more straightforward the name, the more likely it is that your ideal readers will find it.

12. Include your subject in the title

This is probably a no-brainer for nonfiction books, how-to guides, and biographies but it’s still worth mentioning. If you’re writing a book on knitting techniques, be sure the word “knit” or “knitting” appear in the title. In some cases, it may help to add a subtitle. That can give you a bit more flexibility, so the full name can be clever and catchy, while still including essential keywords and descriptive terms: Smart Stitch: A Beginner’s Guide to Knitting.

13. Check for copyright, trademarks, and popularity

Before you use any images or content from others, check for any copyrights or trademarks. There is a fine line between “fair use” and copyright infringement, so you should ensure that you have permission to use anyone else’s content, images, or videos. It’s a common misconception that anything published on the internet can be used, but much of what is published on the internet is copyrighted. Any logos could be trademarked, which could land you into legal issues.

14. Include keywords for search engines for non-fiction books

Search engines answer queries for users, and non-fiction books often discuss topics of interest. These topics could be anything of interest to a general audience or very niche content. If you decide to self-publish or market your book, you should choose a title that has keywords in it. The title should still make sense and be memorable without being too sensational, but it should match keywords search engine users would enter to find information about the book’s topic.

Google isn’t the only target search engine. Many of your potential sales will come from Amazon. Amazon hosts its own search engine where readers enter keywords to find non-fiction books of interest. Keywords used specifically for Amazon search results are also a useful marketing strategy.

Popularity is important for book sales. If no one is searching for your book’s topic, then it’s unlikely that you will get any readers. You need a title that people want to read. It doesn’t need to be the most popular topic, but it must have an audience looking for more information. Your book must satisfy a popular search to ensure future book sales. So, do a little research on Google and Amazon to see what is ranking to get ideas for your own book title.

Ready to get started on your book? Trade Books are a flexible, affordable format, and are perfect for novels, memoirs, and poetry books. Learn more about trade books today!

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How to Write a Book Title: Practical Tips for Authors

  • on Aug 07, 2023
  • in Writing Tips
  • Last update: August 7th, 2023

Even though we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, we surely can judge it by its title. That’s why you have to pour a lot of thought into the name of your book. Because if the title of your book isn’t well chosen, no one will look twice at your content no matter how profound it is!

That’s why in this article, we will cover everything you need to know about how to write a book title. There is so much to unpack and a lot to consider, so bookmark this article and come back to it whenever you need a refresher.

how to write a book title

Why Are Book Titles So Important?

As a reader, you may often skim the titles of the books at your local library without picking any of them. Other times, you may find the perfect read instantly. In both cases, the names of the books play a vital role in determining how likely you are to pick up a certain book. 

To paint a better picture, here are the reasons why you should give more thought to your book title: 

  • Books with great titles sell more. That’s because a great title hooks the readers, draws them in, and convinces them to flip through the pages. This first pull is so important that it’s made authors go to great lengths to rewrite the titles of their books , even after publishing! Your book title is the first impression your book makes, so it has to be impactful.
  • You will feel more confident about your book if it has a great title. It’s probably not a great feeling for authors when people look at them strangely when they mention the name of their books. 
  • Your title can make it easier to reach your target audience. For example, you can usually tell from the title alone whether a book is a sci-fi or a contemporary romance, or if the book promises a better diet or a crash course on college-level astrophysics.

What Makes a Good Book Title?

Before we get started, we wanted to answer one question: should you start thinking of a book title before you write? The answer is that usually, you don’t need to, but it can help you focus on the main themes of your book as the title usually describes them or refers to them in some way. Just keep in mind that the first title you come up with is usually not the final one.

With that out of the way, the first step in coming up with a good title for your book is to consider what truly makes it memorable. There are many things to consider, like originality and relevance. As you think about your book title, think about the following points:

1. Is your title relevant to your book?

The title must reflect what your book is about, or else it becomes misleading. As an example, let’s say you have a murder mystery where the protagonist is related to the victim and the story follows their grief-filled journey. In this case, it’s not wise to name your book “Killer’s Instinct” because that implies the story is about the antagonist.

A more relevant title can be “A Smear of Blood,” which implies a tragic event that led to blood being spilled but leaves enough mystery for the reader to get curious. The word “Smear,” which means marking something carelessly with a thick or greasy substance, works better than, say, “Drop” in implying a struggle or intentional harm to someone in the book.

As a quick cheat sheet of sorts, here is a list of questions you can ask yourself while choosing a title for your book:

  • What is the main idea of my book? What am I really writing about?
  • Who am I writing this book for? How old are they? What interests them, and what do they avoid doing?
  • Which character is the protagonist? Is the story focused on them or the plot events that happen to them?
  • Is there a major theme in my book? If so, what is it and what mood does it set for my book?
  • How is the conflict resolved in my book, if at all?
  • What do other authors’ titles in this genre look like? Is there a common way to write them?

2. Is your title unique?

You don’t want to name your book Pride and Prejudice or The Da Vinci Code , even if you cannot copyright book names and those titles are just perfect for your story. It works the same for non-fiction books, albeit to a slightly lesser degree because of the overlap that happens when you write about subjects like keto diets or DIY furniture.

3. Does your book title draw others’ attention?

Great titles grab readers’ attention for many reasons:

  • Strong wording: Phrases like “smear of blood” make readers feel suspenseful or nervous but curious to find out more.
  • Wordplay: Using puns and alliteration can grab the reader’s attention quite effectively, on the condition that it’s done with precision.
  • Literary sense of perspective: This title implies an opinion on the event that occurred. In our example, “smear of blood”, using “a” instead of “the” can imply that that smear could be one of many. As we discussed before, “smear” implies that something unusual happened, which is better than using words like “drop” or “pool” while giving just enough away for the reader to stop and wonder what happened.

4. Do the words you use come off as offensive?

There is a fine line between strong titles and outright offensive ones. While the balance is delicate, keeping updated with different cultures and beliefs is a good way of making sure that your book title does not offend your potential readers.

5. How long is your book title?

This point is more targeted at non-fiction books that can have very long titles at times. Try to keep in mind that the longer your title, the more likely readers will just skip your book and look at the next one. The average for fiction books is 2–3 words, while non-fiction books tend to have 5 words in their titles and 3–9 words in their subtitle (which is the phrase that follows the title to give more meaning or explanation/context).

books title in a library

How to Write a Showstopping Book Title

Coming up with the best title for your book depends on a lot of factors as we have seen. You may have noticed the distinction between fiction and non-fiction books, too. While there aren’t many differences between the two genres, book titles can look drastically different depending on which one it belongs to. So, let’s take a look at how to handle titles for each of them.

We’ll tackle fiction first because most authors tend to struggle more with fiction book titles than non-fiction ones. To make your brainstorming process easier, we will go over specific points:

  • Shorter vs. longer titles: Some authors prefer shorter, more punchy novel titles and go for one or two words maximum (filler words like “the” are included). Examples include Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. On the other hand, others like using longer titles for more creative freedom or to provide more context, especially with sequels in a franchise. What you choose will mostly depend on your personal preferences. Examples include A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin and Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score.
  • Using character names in your title: Sometimes you create a name for your character that’s so memorable you want to make it the star of the book cover. While it can be exciting to do so, make sure your book actually focuses on that character and their journey. If you name your book “Lana’s Key” and the book doesn’t mention Lana or her key beyond two or three chapters, your book is not really about Lana’s key and your readers will feel misled.
  • Adding powerful, meaningful words that induce emotions: This is a good way to make sure that the readers stop to look at your book and find out more. Using strong adjectives and verbs is usually advisable in your writing, and book titles are no different. For example, what’s the difference between “Pain” and “Agony”? One simply means the feeling of being physically or emotionally hurt, and the other implies a stronger, more gut-wrenching feeling of pain, which makes “agony” a much better fit.
  • Having layered or double meanings to your title: This is a classic trick used by many authors and loved by most readers. When your title has two or more meanings, often one concrete and the other abstract, it can intrigue your potential readers and help turn your book into a memory that stays in their minds for a long time afterward. A well-known example of this is Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier, which refers to the actual fossils the protagonist studies as well as the sexist, condescending male scientists she works with.
  • Sentences vs phrases: Once again, this argument depends on your own preferences. Titles like I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith and Time of the Eagle by Sherryl Jordan both work well for their respective audiences. The only recommendation we have on this topic is to choose a grammatical structure that flows well with your book. Genres like adventure and fantasy can benefit from poetic or exciting phrases for their titles, while mystery, paranormal, and horror may do well with complete sentences.

Non-Fiction

Non-fiction books tend to have straightforward, informative titles with creative twists to capture readers’ attention. As a result, some authors add a subtitle to improve the clarity of the title of their books.

Many of the things that apply to fiction book titles also apply here, but there are other things to keep in mind, such as:

  • Presenting a solution to your readers’ problem: Most non-fiction books present a solution to a problem the readers have, whether it’s a cookbook aimed at beginners learning to cook or an anatomy textbook for med school students. Explaining the solution your book offers is a great way to hook the reader and draw them in. Examples include Astrophysics For People In A Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson and Write Better, Faster: How To Triple Your Writing Speed and Write More Every Day by Monica Leonelle.
  • Clarity: While your title can be creative and dramatic, it still has to be clear enough for your readers to understand what the book is about right away. Look for a combination of uniqueness, clarity, and intrigue that promises useful information and will convince readers to pick up your book. Many authors, however, tend to favor a longer and clearer subtitle over the strict word count of the title as it allows them to add more punch to the main title. Examples include The 4–Hour Workweek: Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss and Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Christopher Voss and Tahl Raz.
  • Making your book title marketable: One of the most important factors that you want to achieve with your book is higher sales, so ensuring that your book title appeals to your target audience is key. To market your book to certain readers, make sure to educate yourself on their average age, career choices, life habits, and the problems they’re most likely looking to solve. You can also make use of the keywords your target audience uses to search for books like yours.  Some great examples include Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat, which targets cooks who want to master their craft, and The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative by Florence Williams, which targets health-conscious people who want to incorporate nature into their lifestyle.

picking book titles

Should You Use a Book Title Generator? (Book Title Generators Pros and Cons)

A book title generator is an online tool that generates random book titles based on your chosen genre and keyword. While they sound basic, these generators can be very helpful when brainstorming title ideas for your book, no matter its genre or the story you’re telling. However, some people may be skeptical about them, and they have good reason to be; book title generators are not meant to fix all of the problems that come with picking a great title.

Why Use Book Title Generators

When you’ve exhausted all your creativity writing your book, sometimes thinking of an attention-grabbing and creative title can be daunting. This is where book title generators come in, as using them:

  • Saves you time and energy: We all know how tiring an author’s creative process can be. By using a book title generator, you waste less time thinking and more time choosing alternatives or tweaking good results.
  • Gives you results you may not have considered: Depending on the generator you choose, you can find titles that you may not usually think of, especially if you’re writing in a genre you’re not used to.
  • Is free: None of the generators we have tried charge anything! On the contrary, they are an excellent way to help authors free of charge while also inviting them to explore the websites that host them.

Why Avoid Using Book Title Generators

Like any tool on the internet, book title generators come with trade-offs. Additionally, not all of them are created equal, and some will give you better results than others. Here are some points you may want to consider before using one:

  • Results can be repetitive: Book title generators use a database of keywords to give you a book title. These keywords can be different variations of the same thing, so the results you get can seem repetitive or unoriginal.
  • They can rely heavily on famous book titles: Another reason you might want to be careful with these generators is their reliance on words that are used often in famous book titles or straight-up variations of those titles. Therefore, you should look up any titles you are thinking of using, even if you made adjustments to them, to make sure that they are original enough.
  • Keywords can be limited and non-inclusive: Sadly, if you write about niche topics or talk about uncommon themes or cultures in your work, most book title generators will hinder your thought process rather than supplement it. The keywords used in these generators tend to be more well-known concepts or oriented around popular books.

A List of Great Book Title Generators

The good news about book title generators is that it’s easier than ever to find what you’re looking for, whether you’re writing a horror story or a guide to parenting. To save you precious time, we have compiled a list of the best generators for both fiction and non-fiction books below:

  • Reedsy’s Book Title Generator
  • Fantasy Name Generator’s Book Title Generator
  • Imagine Forest’s Book Title Generator
  • Sefchurchill Romance Novel Title Generator
  • Pulp Sci-Fi Title-O-Tron

Non-fiction:

  • Adazing Book Title Creator
  • Copywriting Course Book Title Generator
  • StoryToolz Half-Title Generator

books on a desk

Final Thoughts

Coming up with a title for your book doesn’t have to be difficult; the hard part is using a clear theme in your book that you can focus on in your title. So don’t worry if it’s hard to think of the perfect title right away. Once you have a great book with a gripping story, or unique insights on a common problem, you already have the main substance of your title. And while coming up with a title that is worthy of your book can be tough, it’s so rewarding by the end of it!

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Tips for Choosing a Great Book Title

How do you come up with a winning book title?

It’s not easy. But every book needs a title, so eventually, you will need to create one. This guide can help you come up with a great title for your book.

One day soon, your book title will be among all of the greats like Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World , Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men , Gabriel García Márquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera , and John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars . Are you ready? Let’s get to it.

Why Should You Spend Time Creating a Great Book Title?

Your book title isn’t just an afterthought. It’s one of the most important elements of your writing because it serves as one of your top marketing tools.

Many authors overlook the significance of a well-named book. However, your book’s name can either attract or repel your potential audience. Just like we judge books by their covers, we also judge books by their titles.

A title can both entice and intrigue a person to at least pick up a book or click on the cover. The book blurb will persuade someone to read (or not read) your book but it’s the title, in partnership with your book’s cover, that will initially attract the reader.

Your book title can impart attitude, emotion, sentiment, and mystery. It gives the reader a hint of what’s to come. It’s the essence of your novel. It’s the key takeaway that you want your readers to remember about your book.

You want to strike a good first impression, and your title is your opportunity to do so.

Choose a Great Book Title

The Characteristics of a Great Book Title

Let’s review a few of the top characteristics of a successful book title.

Attention Grabbing

Book titles should stand out on a bookshelf or stop a would-be reader while they're scrolling.

Keep in mind that the modern reader is distracted by so many different titles. Your book has to jump out from the rest and become a must-read-now pick. Your title will help with that.

To grab attention, your book title can be controversial, contradictory, poetic, or simple. But it cannot be like every other book title. It needs to be different to grab the audience’s attention.

Plus, to get published the traditional way, you’ll need to convince an agent and eventually a publisher to work with you. Aim for an intriguing book title that grabs their attention as well.

Easy to Understand

Make the book title easy to understand. For example, don’t choose an obscure or uncommon word if a simpler word will do. Keep the title informative, pointing to a deeper meaning or theme in your book. It can even act as a guide to help your reader understand the bigger theme(s) of your story while reading.

Easy to Remember

Some people won’t buy upon first discovering your book. They may mull it over before purchasing. Choosing a memorable title ensures that they won’t forget about your book when they finally decide to buy it.

Having a memorable book title is also important if you want your readers to tell others about your book. The last thing you want is for a reader to forget the title of your book when recommending it to others. Believe me, it happens. This is why you need a memorable title that simply sticks in your reader’s mind.

Tips for Creating the Perfect Book Title

Here’s how to come up with a solid title for your book.

Make it Unique

It's increasingly difficult to find a unique book title. As a rule of thumb, if the book was written within the last 100 years, don’t duplicate the title. And don’t even come close. A sneaky rearranging of words can actually lose you potential sales as the prospective reader may not realize your book is different from the other similar-sounding title. Examples of what not to do when titling your book: Pride in Prejudice or The Grapes From Wrath.

Fit Your Chosen Genre

Always consider your genre when coming up with a title. Send a message to your prospective reader that this is the type of book they'll love because it fits into what they expect.

Keep it Simple

There's nothing wrong with using simple language. In fact, keeping your title as simple as possible is a good practice. You can convey a lot by pairing down your message with a handful of words. Or even just one word. Consider choosing a title that’s whittled down to one word, like one of these examples:

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Beloved by Toni Morrison

It by Stephen King

Kindred by Octavia Butler

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Night by Elie Wiesel

Get Inspired By Literature

The good news is, like the above authors, you don't have to come up with a title all by yourself. You can lean on the beautiful words of other writers to help you convey the perfect sentiment for your book. Consider literature that’s made an impression on you or even inspired your writing.

So many beloved titles play on familiar works from the past. Here are examples from the Bible:

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner

A Time to Kill by John Grisham

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

And here are more examples from poetry:

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe quotes “ The Second Coming ,” a poem written by William Butler Yeats

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou quotes “ Sympathy,” a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy quotes “ Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard ,” a poem by Thomas Gray

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold quotes from “ I Knew a Woman ,” a poem by Theodore Roethke

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers quotes “The Lonely Hunter,” a poem by William Sharp

You can also choose a quote from your book, like the following titles:

I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Set the Stage for Sequels

If you plan to write a series, choose a title that you can reuse throughout the rest of the series. Great examples include J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, and Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy ( The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo , The Girl Who Played With Fire , and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest ).

Be Provocative

Choose a title that makes the reader ponder, “What is this book about?” The title should provide a sense of curiosity. The goal is to make the reader ask deeper questions, such as:

What does it mean to kill a mockingbird? And who kills the mockingbird? And why do they kill a mockingbird?

For whom does the bell toll? Why is the bell ringing in the first place?

What is a game of thrones? Why are there multiple thrones? Why is it a game?

Why is there a lord of the rings? Who is the lord of the rings? Why are the rings important?

If your book title doesn’t leave your prospective reader curious, it’s not doing its job.

Choose a Great Book Title

Survey Your Audience

Create a list of potential book titles and then ask others to weigh in. Don’t be afraid to get friends and family involved in this question. It’s easier for people to make a judgment on a short title than to provide feedback on a long novel.

If you already have a fanbase, this is a great way to generate excitement for your upcoming book. Ask them to vote on their favorite titles. Provide an “other” option to find out if none of your proposed titles resonate with your audience.

Don't Be Afraid to Axe Your Current Title

You’ve heard of kill your darlings before? That refers to the process of killing off even your most-beloved characters. Well, that extends to titles, too. Don’t be afraid to get rid of a title that doesn’t work. This is especially true if you’ve surveyed others and found that most people don’t like the title. Remember to treat your title as an important marketing decision.

To give you courage, here’s a look at the original names of some of the greatest titles (and novels) of all time:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was originally named “First Impressions”

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was originally named “Trimalchio in West Egg”

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy was originally named “All's Well That Ends Well”

The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien was originally named “The War of the Ring”

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers was originally named “The Mute”

Try a Book Title Generator

Finally, consider using a book generator. While it’s often a crapshoot, you may get lucky and find inspirational raw materials. Here are two book title generators to check out:

Adazing's Book Title Creator

The Story Shack's Book Title Generator

How Do You Know You've Chosen the Perfect Title?

Before you go, let's do a quick analysis of some best-selling books . What’s the first word(s) that pops into your mind? I’ll start.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens - Country life, philosophical, little things, and small details, where do crawdads sing? Can crawdads sing?

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover - A defiant stance against some oppression or violence, what ends with us? Who is “us,” anyway?

All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers with Alex Kiester - Instant suspicion, people putting on a front, why are they so defensive? Where is here?

The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid - Toxic romance, life lessons, why does she have seven husbands? Is she still married?

The takeaway? All of these titles are vibrant, descriptive, and memorable. They give something away about the story but they also open the door for questions. When choosing your title, be sure that it provokes more questions than it answers, at least at first.

Over to You

What is your favorite book title and why? Share with us in the comments below.

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Home / Book Writing / How to Find a Book Title by Plot: 5 Crucial Book Search Techniques

How to Find a Book Title by Plot: 5 Crucial Book Search Techniques

Everyone knows the inhuman torture of having a melody stuck in their head while the song's title is just out of reach, hiding from the light of the conscious mind.

But even worse is when you're trying to remember the title of a book, but your brain is being particularly uncooperative. You've already asked a couple of family members and friends, and tried a Google search, but….nothing.

Well don't worry. I've got you covered in this article.

  • Take a Moment to Remember
  • Try One of These Sites
  • Put Out a Call on Social Media
  • Ask Your Local Librarian or Book Store Employee
  • Sleep On It

Table of contents

  • 1. Take a Moment to Remember
  • Google Books
  • Amazon's Advanced Book Search
  • Library of Congress
  • Social Media Groups
  • 4. Ask Your Local Librarian or Book Store Employee
  • 5. Sleep On It
  • Did it Work?

(If you're an author trying to find good book title ideas for your own novel, check out these book title generators .)

The brain works in mysterious ways. For some reason, sitting down in front of a blank Google search bar is not all that conducive to remembering. That blank bar seems to reach out and blank your mind when you don't know exactly what words to use for your search.

(At least that's what happens to me. I could be weird.)

This is why it's important to put the phone down or step away from the computer. Instead, grab a pen and a pad of paper, and take a moment to remember. Write down anything you can recall about the book, even if it seems like nonsense to you. Handwriting seems to help the synapses fire like good synapses should.

Think about (and write down) any of the following you can remember:

  • Genre – Get as specific as you can – Post-Apocalyptic Zombie Romance, Female Protagonist Spy Thriller Set During the Cold War, Spiritual Self-Help Transcendental Meditation, etc.
  • Plot Details – No matter how hazy. Anything you can remember about the plot can help. Did the first chapter hook you? If so, what do you remember about it?
  • Character Names/Descriptions – Again, anything you can remember will help. Even if you think you're misremembering, write it down. Not just the main character(s), but any secondary characters.
  • Standalone or Part of a Book Series – This can help narrow your search even further.
  • Time of Publication – Try to remember when you read it or heard about it. Was it a new book at the time? Or had it been around for a while?
  • Author Details – If you knew the author's name, you could easily find the book. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to brainstorm. Sometimes the winds of a brainstorm will clear away cobwebs covering important details. Maybe you remember it was the author's debut novel and that his or her name was hard to pronounce. Use these details to refine your search!
  • Book Cover – Any details you can remember about the cover can help you in the steps below.
  • Random Details – Anything else you can remember can aid you in your search. Whether it be a joke, quote, monologue, memorable plot twist, or even a feeling you had when you read the book, write it down.

Now that you have at least a vague description, you can turn to some handy websites that will likely help you find the book title.

2. Try One of These Sites

When a simple Google search isn't enough, try one of the sites below. Chances are, one of them will lead you to your answer.

Yes, trusty old Google has a search tool just for books! You can go as broad or targeted as you like. Obviously, the more specific you get, the fewer results you'll have to comb through. You can also try the Google Books Advanced Search if you're not having any luck with the regular.

Why not go to Amazon, the original online bookstore? The advanced search asks for things like title, author, and publisher, but you can also search using keywords, age range, publication date, and subject.

Need Help with Your Keywords?

Take my full featured video course on how to select the best keywords and categories for your book.

If you're not familiar, BookBub is a great search engine for books. (If you're a writer, it's also a powerful book marketing platform to help you reach potential readers.)

From nonfiction to historical fiction and everything in between, they are in the business of books. You can refine your search using category tags, which you can pull from your book summary or vague description.

(Read my BookBub review here !)

Search through the largest online library in the world by visiting the Library of Congress Website and using the Advanced Search feature . Narrow your search by using keywords you pull from any story beats you remember and choosing categories like “children's book,” “graphic novel,” or “young adult.

The Amazon-owned GoodReads is a good place to search for books in general.

But specifically, the group, What's the Name of That Book? is dedicated to helping people find book titles based on things like the book's plot, narrative type, genre, or synopsis.

You'll need to have a GoodReads account to post in the group, if you don't already (it's free).

Sometimes what stays with us the longest is the feel of a book. This is why WhichBook is a great search site, as it lets you browse books by mood and emotion. You can also search by character and plot as well.

There's a subreddit for everything. So you may not be surprised to learn there's one dedicated to helping readers remember book titles called Tip of My Tongue . Post what you can remember about the book, even if it's a vague description, and wait to see if anyone recognizes it.

Reddit and Quora are similar in that you can post a question about a book and get answers from book lovers. Include genre, a book description (if you can), and anything else you can remember. Chances are someone will know the novel you're talking about.

3. Put Out a Call on Social Media

If you have no luck with the websites above, you can turn to social media. Since your friends likely have similar tastes, you may be able to find the book's title simply by posting on Facebook or Twitter about it. Use hashtags to help people locate your post.

A good one is #findthisbook. Or you can find social media groups of readers and ask them.

Facebook is a great place to find a book club or ten that can help you find the novel title you're looking for. The group Help Name That Book has (at the time of this writing) over 20,000 members. It's a good place to start.

Finally, if you're having absolutely no luck, try asking a librarian. It's likely your local librarian is an avid reader, plus he or she works around books all day. The same goes for book store employees or owners. You can also use the Library of Congress's “ Ask a Librarian ” feature to send an email to a librarian who will get back to you with (hopefully) the right answer!

Sometimes the brain is stubborn. When you really want to remember something, your mind gets all bottled up.

When this happens, it's best to just let it go and think about something else for a while. Sleep on it and then try again the next day. Or the next week. It'll come to you!

Finding a book with limited information can be tough. However, there are a ton of tools to help you search.

Just keep in mind that, if none of the tools are working for you, it's possible you're misremembering some crucial detail. I often muddle two or three different books in my mind, especially if it has been many years since I read them and they were in the same genre.

When this happens, the best thing to do is narrow your search to one or two details you're absolutely certain about, and start looking for the book again.

And to prevent it from happening in the future, use a book review site like GoodReads to create a reading list of all the books you've read for future reference. 

Dave Chesson

When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.

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In business for over a decade – know that you’re choosing a partner who’ll be around for years to come., book title 101: how to choose a title that will sell, turgay birand.

November 29, 2016

book titles help

  • Don’t spend too much time on it
  • Trust your gut
  • The title isn’t very important

How To Choose A Book Title That Will Sell

book title

1. Give Yourself Options

2. google your book titles, 3. consider a subtitle, 4. make sure your book title matches your story, 5. don’t spoil your book's plot, 6. test your top book titles with family and friends.

book title

7. Choose Your Final Book Title

How to self-publish and sell your ebook, oct 24, 2023, pros and cons of ebook drm, benefits of drm encryption, oct 23, 2023, securely sell ebooks online, sign up for a free 14-day trial to join editionguard and start selling your ebooks online., the ultimate guide to self publishing.

Learn how to successfully self publish your books online.

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eBook Piracy & What You Can Do About It

A must-know guide on how to protect your ebook from unauthorized distribution online.

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How To Name Your Novel With Surveys: Using Feedback To Find The Perfect Title For Your Book

book titles help

Coming up with an effective title for a book is one of the most difficult avenues of the literary creation process. Utilizing Helpfull’s surveying capabilities, authors can receive immediate, considered feedback on their title ideas.

Apart from actually drafting the novel itself, coming up with an effective book title is one of the most difficult avenues of the literary creation process.

A title is more than a name. Aside from being used to identify your work, there are many facets in which a title can either help or hinder the success of your next novel.

The title of your book helps sell it to your potential readers; it’s the first thing they’ll notice on the cover, and it’s the phrase they’ll be repeating when they go to recommend your work to their friends. It can get your reader's eyes on your work, become an integral part of your brand, and will be featured in your author bio throughout all your future endeavors.

With how much importance the title of a book carries, it's vital you make sure to choose a great title for your book - one that is original, captivating, and audience-tested.

Would 'To Kill A Mockingbird" have sold as well as it did if it was instead named "How I Killed A Bird"?

Drafting a book title is not a solitary activity. It can’t be done quickly, or carelessly. Corporations wouldn’t spend millions of dollars in market research every year just to workshop product names if it wasn’t a vital part of the marketing initiative. The best way to ensure that your book title is to follow the lead of industry giants - test your product in front of an audience of consumers. After testing your title, you’re going to want to workshop it - and then test it again. And then test it some more.

Utilizing Helpfull’s surveying capabilities, aspiring authors and seasoned literary veterans alike can receive immediate, considered feedback on their title ideas.

Before we explore what you need to know about how consumer feedback can transform your title ideas, let’s explore:

The Qualities Of A Successful Novel Title

A quality, effective book title does not pop up overnight. Seasoned veterans of the literary field will tell you how they’ve often work-shopped hundreds, if not thousands of working title ideas - just for one novel. When drafting ideas for titling your next work, it’s very important to keep an open mind. Don’t grow too attached to your title, because the title isn’t for you - it’s to sell the book to your audience.

After analyzing the qualities shared by titles of best-selling book series, we’ve come up with a short-list of tips you want to make sure you consider during your book title creation process:

  • Your book title can’t already be popular. It begs the question if this even needs to be said, but you’re going to want to steer clear of taking names from already established franchises or novella.
  • Your book title must be attention-grabbing. The worst thing a title can be (other than stolen, or offensive) is unmemorable .
  • You must be able to pronounce the book title properly. Avoid made-up words, or naming your novel after characters with hard-to-pronounce names.
  • Your book's title should be easy to pronounce. Aside from just being pronounceable, your title should avoid being excessively wordy or overly complex. As a general rule, keep it to five words or less.
  • Your book title should pique the interest of your audience. Your title doesn’t necessarily have to pertain to the contents of your book, or pull directly from the source material - it should captivate the reader’s attention, and compel them to want to buy it.

In order to explore these concepts further, we asked the Helpfull community to help us workshop some example titles for our upcoming fantasy/adventure novel, a la Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. Keeping our five handy tips in mind, we set out to follow through the entire title development process - from first working title drafts, to a final published title.

Survey #1 - Initial Book Title Concepts

Being that our theoretical novel is a fantasy/adventure novel, we wanted to draw upon inspiration from existing properties in the genre when developing our first batch of names..

After throwing dozens of book title ideas at the wall, we culled what we’d created down into just six title choices. For our first batch of testing, we asked an audience of one hundred pollsters to give us their opinions on the following titles:

  • The Cracked Crown
  • A Kingdom Besieged
  • Catalyst: Rise from Ashes
  • The Last Mage
  • The Golden Blade
  • The Hope of a Doomed Kingdom

Tips for choosing the best name for novel

After just twenty minutes, we’d received one hundred new comments into our first batch of book titles. The titles that received the highest amount of votes were: A Kingdom Besieged (22), The Last Mage (19), and Catalyst: Rise from Ashes (18). As well as voting for their favorite title choice, our Helpfull pollsters provided us with their unique insights as to why they felt their chosen title was - or wasn’t - effective.

Helpfull pollsters feedback for Title Concepts ideas

The Helpfull community responded well to unique and powerful words, namely “Kingdom”, “Mage”, and “Ashes”. They liked the titles they felt offered the best balance between mystery, intrigue, and action. They decidedly did not like titles they felt were too generic.

With these new considerations in mind, we set to work developing our next batch of story title ideas. With the help of community feedback, a good title is just within our reach.

Survey #2 - Narrowing & Refining Title Concepts

After sitting on and mulling over the one-hundred comments we’d received on our first batch of book title ideas, we sought a different approach to creating our second batch of story titles. We wanted to make sure to include the titles that played with the elements that our prior audience was most receptive to: words like “kingdom” and “mage”, and creating a title that toed the line between mysterious and grandiose. We came up with another six good title ideas to workshop in another survey:

  • The Lost Kingdom
  • The Kingdom’s Last Mage
  • The Mage’s Martyrdom
  • Smoldering Ashes: A Kingdom Under Siege

We wanted to keep the two highest-performing book titles from our last set in order to form a baseline for our results. Are we moving forward in a better direction with these new titles, or was this a step back? After a half-hour, we’d received our answer.

image for Refining Title Concepts

Our initial winner - “The Lost Kingdom” - took second place in this audience poll, falling behind an expansion of the same concept. “Smoldering Ashes: A Kingdom Under Siege” performed stronger than any previous title, and received heaps of praise from our latest batch of Helpfull community members.

Helpfull pollster comments for title concept

For this iteration, the comments given to us were especially evocative. The community was extremely willing to give their measured opinions on: what made each book title effective, what they envisioned the novel to be about, and even advice on what we could fix in the future.

One particular Helpfull pollster left us with some fantastic advice in regards to our utilization of the words “Smouldering Ash”. They inferred that we elicit a stronger emotional response from the audience when we instead use contrasting descriptors to invoke curiosity in the reader’s mind. This advice fell in line with other tips we’d found given by authors during our title-research process; it’s an idea that we explore thoroughly in our third and final set of book titles.

panelist positive feedback on title-research process

Survey #3 - Finding The Right Title For Your Books

Now that we know we’re on the right track with how we’ve refined our book title thus far, it’s time to put our nose to the grindstone to really make our last batch of titles stand out..

We want to narrow the scope of our title creation, so that we could develop a set of ideas that all played off of shared concepts. We’ve got the main premise of our title down pat; it’s the minor design decisions we want to consider now. Tweaking the words and phrases we use can have a major impact on the development of our perfect title. As such, the final list of titles we developed are as follows:

  • Frozen Ashes: A Kingdom Under Siege
  • Frozen Ashes: The Last Mage
  • Smouldering Ice: A Kingdom Under Siege
  • Smouldering Ice: The Last Mage
  • The Kingdom of Frigid Ash

These titles may seem redundant, but as they say - the devil is in the details.

Audience selection for finding the right title for Books

We wanted to test this last batch of ideas in front of a wider audience, to see just how our final concepts stack up against each other.

With names that are so very similar, having a larger audience gives us an opportunity to make smaller, more minute changes - and measure just how much those changes matter. We decided to go with an audience of 200 - double that of what our audiences were in prior surveys.

Audience survey on title change

Ultimately, a winner was chosen from our five remaining titles. The consensus was clear: “Frozen Ashes” sounds much cooler than “Smouldering Ice”. Containing elements from four different initial concepts, the title Frozen Ashes: A Kingdom Under Siege was decidedly the most popular of the titles we’d shopped thus far.

audience comments on title ideas survey

With the level of consideration and thought poured into each of the two-hundred comments we’d received on our last batch of titles, we could easily continue refining our title ideas through continued surveys.

Odds are you’ll never find the perfect title for your novel; yet, with every survey we conducted, and every new set of title iterations that followed, we were left feeling more confident and proud of what we had been able to create. That confidence only comes from having had now 400 Helpfull pollsters weighing in and critiquing our title ideas; without them, we’d still be stuck thinking “The Golden Blade” was a “good enough” title idea.

Develop Your Titles with Helpfull Feedback

Titles development with Helpfull Feedback

When work-shopping book titles, getting outside feedback and critique is absolutely crucial in ensuring the final product is going to sell . Getting unbiased consumer critique is the best practice for work-shopping your title designs; with Helpfull, getting that considered feedback has never been easier. There is no better audience to test your ideas for than an audience of real consumers - consumers who very well look to purchase your novel in the future.

An intuitive user-interface, coupled with the ability to gather hundreds of consumer responses in just minutes, are just a few of the features that make Helpfull the ultimate tool for any artist, designer, or marketer.

Sign up with Helpfull today - start getting feedback on your designs in just minutes!

Types of feedback.

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Choosing our target audience demographics is an integral component of the surveying process. Learn how to calculate perfect size for your survey audience.

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A poll consists of only one question; surveys are made up of multiple questions. Learn the differences and how each tool is used for information gathering.

book titles help

Whenever you’re looking to send out a survey email, it’s important to get it right. Here are the 10 best tips for creating effective survey emails.

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Likert scale surveys are a reliable way to collect valuable customer data. Learn how we can use the scale to generate feedback for our business insights.

book titles help

To get the most out of your marketing, target your efforts at defined market segments. Online surveys help to identify how to meet your consumer’s needs.

book titles help

Quick or instant surveys are research tools used to gain immediate feedback on questions or designs. Learn what instant surveying can do for your business.

Helpfull is the easiest way to get feedback from thousands of people in minutes. Whether you're comparing images, text or surveys; our pool of qualified testers give you their real detailed opinion to help you make better decisions and be more informed.

We Got This Covered

How to find a book title by plot or description: Best websites and search tips

I f you’re a committed book lover, there will never be a shortage of titles to pick up and options to choose from. You might even wistfully wish you had some sort of Library of Babel , the sort Jorge Luis Borges wrote about, wherein you could have all the time in the world to read all the books you want. How many hundreds, even thousands of years would that take? Unfortunately, we humans don’t live that long so we might need to narrow our wish lists to a more realistic number.

There might not be a Babel Library in real life, but there are ways – mainly thanks to the internet – to discover the next best book in your TBR list, or to get your hands on the literary work you’re thinking of, using only a few keywords.

Here are a few handy-dandy ways and useful tips to find the next book you want to read.

Good ol’ Google: Google Search and Google Books

Let’s start off with what is likely the most obvious one: Google . Chances are you might’ve tried to do a regular Google search to find the book that’s on your mind. Other search engines could also yield good results but Google is hands down the most popular. You probably don’t need us to tell you to “Google it,” as that would be most people’s first advice. But it is true that with Google and other search engines, you could get to the book you’re envisioning in your mind’s eye with only a few words or a vague description. However, if a regular search does not give you what you’re looking for, this is where you could try Google Books.

First, it’s worth noting that you have a classic version of Google Books and a new one . Probably try the newer version first but do think of trying out the classic one in case you can’t find what you’re looking for. With this tool, you can search for titles, authors, keywords, key phrases, character names, or ISBN (International Standard Book Number). If the regular search does not give you what you have in mind, you can try out the Advanced Book Search .

If you manage to find that one book, you might be able to either read it in its entirety if it’s free of charge, or you might be able to Preview it to make sure you’ve got the right match and later buy it in print or digital depending on the available versions. You are also able to search for a specific edition of a book or for any edition if you don’t have a preference.

Netizens got your back: Reddit and chat forums

There is a proverb in my native tongue that can translate to: “Whoever has a mouth can get to Rome.” As someone with a poor sense of direction, I have no qualms about stopping the car and asking a passerby for help. Most people will want to assist you if they can. Reddit can be a great place to turn to if you can only vaguely remember the plot of a book.

In terms of subreddits that are specifically dedicated to helping people find what they’re looking for, first, you have r/tipofmytongue. By posting here, you can ask over 2 million “sleuths” for help in getting to the title of that one thing you’re searching for, be it a book, a movie, a TV series, a game, a song, a website, pretty much anything that you cannot remember the title of. For a book-specific subreddit, although it has fewer members than the other two, r/whatsthatbook is the one you want. Just like r/tipofmytongue, the posts on this subreddit are either marked “Unsolved” or “Solved” depending on whether the query has or hasn’t been answered yet.

You could also turn to Quora, but first, make sure no one has asked about the same book as you, as chances are, someone else may have already presented the same query. Another option, GoodReads’ “What’s the Name of That Book???” forum, allows you to connect with fellow bibliophiles who can lend you an extra neuron in the task of identifying that one title you’re unable to put your finger on. As long as you have a GoodReads account, which is free to create, you can make a post.

In whichever case, describe the book as well as you can, keeping in mind to be as objective, clear, and to the point as possible, as it will help others help you.

Librarians know best: Ask a Librarian

University graduates have these resources more readily available as perks for being alumni, but you do not necessarily have to be a student or an academic to get access. If you are, though, I highly recommend going to a university and/or any public library within your area and leaving aside any shyness to request the help of its librarian. See whether the main libraries in your country have any sort of online query system in place.

Set the mood: WhichBook are you looking for?

Rather than going by a flimsy idea of what the book is about, the website WhichBook can help you find the right match for you by selecting and specifying the kind of mood or feeling you want the literary work to evoke. For instance, you can opt for something more funny or more serious, happy or sad, expected or unpredictable, gentle or violent…

In addition to its most special feature of establishing the mood you are looking for, WhichBook allows you to narrow down your search by picking the location where your book is set on the World Map. First, you’ll pick the continent, then specify which country. If your book is set in a fictional location instead of a real one, you can select the “Imaginary” button in the bottom left corner.

You can also go about your search by focusing on the characters, and selecting which race, age, sexuality, and gender they are.

While it may not be the best tool to find that one title that’s been lodged in a dark, remote cavity of your unconscious, WhichBooks can definitely be useful to search for books that best appeal to your interests.

Cat’s got your book? WorldCat and Internet Archive

If you’re a researcher or academic – and even if you are not – there are some websites that should constantly be on your radar. WorldCat is one of them. It takes about two minutes to set up your profile and from there you’ll be connected to thousands of libraries from across the globe to help you find the one title that’s on your mind or peruse the catalogs until you find reading materials that suit your needs. As it says on the website itself: “WorldCat.org is just the starting point—libraries are your destination.” If a basic search does not land you anywhere, an advanced search might help you get somewhere. By selecting the “Open Access” option, you’ll refine your search so it only presents you with titles you can get your hands on without having to log in or pay for.

Another “Open Access” resource is the Internet Archive. Having its origins in the 1990s, with digitization starting to take place in the early 2000s, the Archive is not only a great place to find books but millions of other materials across different media. Titles which have been published prior to 1927 are free to download, other books may be free to borrow for an hour or longer, something you can repeat for as long as you need to so as to extract what you need out of said book. On the one hand, for more modern books you can try seeing whether Open Library has them available to borrow. On the other hand, The Wayback Machine can help you find specific information by allowing access to billions of websites that may no longer be actively available for viewing.

Unfortunately, the Internet Archive has recently been the target of a lawsuit filed by the massive publishing companies Hachette, HarperCollins, Wiley, and Penguin Random House. Revealed back in March 2023, the court ruled against the online library, a decision the Archive is appealing.

After the disappointing conclusion, Brewster Kahle, the library’s founder, made a statement posted to the site’s blog on Aug. 11: “Libraries are under attack at unprecedented scale today, from book bans to defunding to overzealous lawsuits like the one brought against our library. These efforts are cutting off the public’s access to truth at a key time in our democracy. We must have strong libraries, which is why we are appealing this decision.”

The Internet Archive is committed to continuing to fight the good fight. If you want to join it, you can sign the Battle for Libraries petition . You could also chip in with a donation to help the extensive online library stay afloat during this difficult, and uncertain time.

When truth isn’t enough, turn to fiction: FictionDB

The previous entry focused on resources that are more catered to those involved in academic research, whereas this one might be the perfect search tool for fiction nerds. FictionDB’s basic search is similar to other websites, but it’s an advanced search engine that makes use of a wide variety of metadata that is truly its crown jewel.

Scrolling down beneath the regular search boxes and criteria will allow you to peruse a spectacular array of options and thematic specificities which are divided into seven major sections. With this tool, you may very well find the particular fiction book that’s been on your mind or one that’s similar enough to nevertheless pique your interest.

The Power of AI (has its benefits)

While the wonders of AI technology may have made life more difficult for certain professionals – within the artistic and creative industries, for instance – we must admit, even if begrudgingly, that it does have its advantages. Chances are you did not need us to tell you that ChatGPT is a mostly effective and uncomplicated tool to assist you in arriving at the book-related answers you’re seeking.

However, it would be playing the part of the purposefully ignorant to neglect to mention the fact that this AI chatbot exists and that it often yields accurate results. Not always, though, as one can tell from viral incidents like that of a lawyer who, back in June of 2023 , messed up in spectacular fashion by bringing to court a ChatGPT-fabricated list of “bogus” cases.

Among the many things it can do, ChatGPT can help you find a specific book in question, as seen in the example above wherein I’ve searched for my least favorite classic – let it be known that “a bit of” is an understatement in this case – and it can also generate a list of suggestions based on a description you formulate. You can specify, for example, the genre, tropes, motifs, writing style, or character types. Although you might not get the correct answer straight away, – instead of “Robinson Crusoe,” I got “Life of Pi” on the first try –  with enough adjusting, it’s highly probable you’ll end up with the right, curated result.

Hopefully, this list gives you a solid starting point to find that one title you may not have been able to put your finger on until now. Or, perhaps it will help you add great new options to your TBR list. Whatever the case may be, happy readings!

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6 Self-Help Books That Therapists Read Themselves

Experts recommend these contemplative texts and workbooks to help shift your perspective.

An illustration of a person holding a paddle and standing on a book that is a raft on a dark blue river with large rocks that must be steered around.

By Carolyn Todd

Of the thousands of self-help books on the market, which ones are truly helpful? “It’s uncommon to find a self-help book that feels different,” said Vienna Pharaon, a marriage and family therapist in New York City.

But genuinely useful titles abound. The best of the genre invite reflection or offer practical tools to promote emotional, psychological or spiritual well-being. And there are some that therapists personally turn to or suggest to their patients.

“Almost every therapist I know has a whole list of self-help books to recommend,” said Daniel Tomasulo, a counseling psychologist and the academic director of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute at Teachers College, Columbia University.

When sorting through the self-help stacks, who better to help than mental health professionals? We asked seven to share their picks.

1. The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World , by the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu with Douglas Abrams

How do we experience joy in the face of personal and collective suffering? The Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu spent five days reflecting on their own lives to answer that question, and they compiled their stories and guidance in this 2016 book.

“The Book of Joy” is an opportunity to learn from two spiritual leaders in an intimate, accessible way, said Sona Dimidjian, director of the Renée Crown Wellness Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Through their dialogue, which is punctuated with laughter and tears, the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu teach readers how to cultivate joy and work through difficulties like illness and despair. Dr. Dimidjian recommends the book to “anyone who is feeling overwhelmed by the realities of our world and daily life today,” she said.

2. The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living , by Russ Harris

This book, first published in 2007, teaches you to accept your negative thoughts and feelings as they arise, instead of resisting or being consumed by them — a refreshing approach known as acceptance and commitment therapy.

Diana Garcia, a South Florida-based therapist, says this easy-to-read primer made her “first fall in love” with ACT. She has clients use the book as a supplement to their sessions and recommends it to friends who are feeling stuck. It teaches you how to keep taking actions that move you in a positive direction regardless of how you’re feeling, she explained.

3. Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion , by Gregory Boyle

Gregory Boyle is a Jesuit priest who founded Homeboy Industries, a rehabilitation and re-entry program for former gang members. His 2011 book is a collection of real, raw stories about people he worked with and the lessons we can all draw from their experiences.

“Each chapter reads like a Sunday sermon to be savored and meditated upon,” said Jacob Ham, director of the Center for Child Trauma and Resilience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. While faith is woven throughout the book, Dr. Ham recommends the title to anyone who feels “that their traumas and all the ways they’ve coped with them have left them broken and unredeemable.”

4. The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity , by Julia Cameron

This 1992 workbook from Julia Cameron, a teacher and author, is a 12-week guide to recovering your sense of childlike creativity. And it’s not just for artists and writers, said Britt Frank, a trauma specialist in Kansas.

“Of all of the books I have ever used with clients, this one has the most staying power,” she said. “Because everyone is creative, and creativity is medicine.”

For years, Ms. Frank has returned to the book’s tools — like the “morning pages,” a stream-of-consciousness journaling practice. And she uses “The Artist’s Way” when treating clients with issues like depression and addiction. But skimmers beware, Ms. Frank cautioned: “It’s not a book you read. It’s a book you work.”

5. Homecoming: Healing Trauma to Reclaim Your Authentic Self , by Thema Bryant

Thema Bryant is a trauma therapist, ordained minister and professor who offers a “distinctive lens on health, hope and healing trauma,” said Ayanna Abrams, a psychologist in Atlanta.

Drawing on her clinical work, spirituality and personal recovery from trauma, Dr. Bryant shares stories, reflections and exercises in this 2022 title. She helps people believe in their capacity to heal, Dr. Abrams explained. Dr. Bryant also avoids the “gimmicky, bypassing or vague” language that so many self-help books lean on, she added.

6. The Power of Character Strengths: Appreciate and Ignite Your Positive Personality , by Ryan M. Niemiec and Robert E. McGrath

This 2019 guide helps people recognize, honor and nurture their brightest qualities, Dr. Tomasulo said. The idea of cultivating your “character strengths” comes from positive psychology, which centers on promoting well-being, he explained. “It’s about moving from focusing on ‘what’s wrong’ to ‘what’s strong.’”

People who lean into their character strengths tend to be happier , Dr. Tomasulo said. This book, he explained, is a good pick for “people who are doing OK, but want to have more joy and well-being in their life.”

Carolyn Todd is a freelance health journalist who covers wellness, mental well-being and diabetes.

How to Be Happy

Happiness can predict health and longevity, but it doesn’t just happen to you..

Small changes in your behavior and surroundings can set you on course for happiness.  Here ’s how .

Our seven-day Happiness Challenge  will help you focus on a crucial element of living a good life — your relationships .

Finland has been ranked the happiest country on earth for six consecutive years. What’s the secret? The answer is complicated .

Cultivating a sense of wonder can be a salve  for a turbulent mind. Here is how to make it part of your everyday life .

It can seem impossible to be optimistic about the future. But these questions  will help you understand what all optimists have in common.

Exercise, even in small doses, can improve your mood. Try our eight-minute routine  that's based on movements researchers say are inspired by joy.

book titles help

Create a form in Word that users can complete or print

In Word, you can create a form that others can fill out and save or print.  To do this, you will start with baseline content in a document, potentially via a form template.  Then you can add content controls for elements such as check boxes, text boxes, date pickers, and drop-down lists. Optionally, these content controls can be linked to database information.  Following are the recommended action steps in sequence.  

Show the Developer tab

In Word, be sure you have the Developer tab displayed in the ribbon.  (See how here:  Show the developer tab .)

Open a template or a blank document on which to base the form

You can start with a template or just start from scratch with a blank document.

Start with a form template

Go to File > New .

In the  Search for online templates  field, type  Forms or the kind of form you want. Then press Enter .

In the displayed results, right-click any item, then select  Create. 

Start with a blank document 

Select Blank document .

Add content to the form

Go to the  Developer  tab Controls section where you can choose controls to add to your document or form. Hover over any icon therein to see what control type it represents. The various control types are described below. You can set properties on a control once it has been inserted.

To delete a content control, right-click it, then select Remove content control  in the pop-up menu. 

Note:  You can print a form that was created via content controls. However, the boxes around the content controls will not print.

Insert a text control

The rich text content control enables users to format text (e.g., bold, italic) and type multiple paragraphs. To limit these capabilities, use the plain text content control . 

Click or tap where you want to insert the control.

Rich text control button

To learn about setting specific properties on these controls, see Set or change properties for content controls .

Insert a picture control

A picture control is most often used for templates, but you can also add a picture control to a form.

Picture control button

Insert a building block control

Use a building block control  when you want users to choose a specific block of text. These are helpful when you need to add different boilerplate text depending on the document's specific purpose. You can create rich text content controls for each version of the boilerplate text, and then use a building block control as the container for the rich text content controls.

building block gallery control

Select Developer and content controls for the building block.

Developer tab showing content controls

Insert a combo box or a drop-down list

In a combo box, users can select from a list of choices that you provide or they can type in their own information. In a drop-down list, users can only select from the list of choices.

combo box button

Select the content control, and then select Properties .

To create a list of choices, select Add under Drop-Down List Properties .

Type a choice in Display Name , such as Yes , No , or Maybe .

Repeat this step until all of the choices are in the drop-down list.

Fill in any other properties that you want.

Note:  If you select the Contents cannot be edited check box, users won’t be able to click a choice.

Insert a date picker

Click or tap where you want to insert the date picker control.

Date picker button

Insert a check box

Click or tap where you want to insert the check box control.

Check box button

Use the legacy form controls

Legacy form controls are for compatibility with older versions of Word and consist of legacy form and Active X controls.

Click or tap where you want to insert a legacy control.

Legacy control button

Select the Legacy Form control or Active X Control that you want to include.

Set or change properties for content controls

Each content control has properties that you can set or change. For example, the Date Picker control offers options for the format you want to use to display the date.

Select the content control that you want to change.

Go to Developer > Properties .

Controls Properties  button

Change the properties that you want.

Add protection to a form

If you want to limit how much others can edit or format a form, use the Restrict Editing command:

Open the form that you want to lock or protect.

Select Developer > Restrict Editing .

Restrict editing button

After selecting restrictions, select Yes, Start Enforcing Protection .

Restrict editing panel

Advanced Tip:

If you want to protect only parts of the document, separate the document into sections and only protect the sections you want.

To do this, choose Select Sections in the Restrict Editing panel. For more info on sections, see Insert a section break .

Sections selector on Resrict sections panel

If the developer tab isn't displayed in the ribbon, see Show the Developer tab .

Open a template or use a blank document

To create a form in Word that others can fill out, start with a template or document and add content controls. Content controls include things like check boxes, text boxes, and drop-down lists. If you’re familiar with databases, these content controls can even be linked to data.

Go to File > New from Template .

New from template option

In Search, type form .

Double-click the template you want to use.

Select File > Save As , and pick a location to save the form.

In Save As , type a file name and then select Save .

Start with a blank document

Go to File > New Document .

New document option

Go to File > Save As .

Go to Developer , and then choose the controls that you want to add to the document or form. To remove a content control, select the control and press Delete. You can set Options on controls once inserted. From Options, you can add entry and exit macros to run when users interact with the controls, as well as list items for combo boxes, .

Adding content controls to your form

In the document, click or tap where you want to add a content control.

On Developer , select Text Box , Check Box , or Combo Box .

Developer tab with content controls

To set specific properties for the control, select Options , and set .

Repeat steps 1 through 3 for each control that you want to add.

Set options

Options let you set common settings, as well as control specific settings. Select a control and then select Options to set up or make changes.

Set common properties.

Select Macro to Run on lets you choose a recorded or custom macro to run on Entry or Exit from the field.

Bookmark Set a unique name or bookmark for each control.

Calculate on exit This forces Word to run or refresh any calculations, such as total price when the user exits the field.

Add Help Text Give hints or instructions for each field.

OK Saves settings and exits the panel.

Cancel Forgets changes and exits the panel.

Set specific properties for a Text box

Type Select form Regular text, Number, Date, Current Date, Current Time, or Calculation.

Default text sets optional instructional text that's displayed in the text box before the user types in the field. Set Text box enabled to allow the user to enter text into the field.

Maximum length sets the length of text that a user can enter. The default is Unlimited .

Text format can set whether text automatically formats to Uppercase , Lowercase , First capital, or Title case .

Text box enabled Lets the user enter text into a field. If there is default text, user text replaces it.

Set specific properties for a Check box .

Default Value Choose between Not checked or checked as default.

Checkbox size Set a size Exactly or Auto to change size as needed.

Check box enabled Lets the user check or clear the text box.

Set specific properties for a Combo box

Drop-down item Type in strings for the list box items. Press + or Enter to add an item to the list.

Items in drop-down list Shows your current list. Select an item and use the up or down arrows to change the order, Press - to remove a selected item.

Drop-down enabled Lets the user open the combo box and make selections.

Protect the form

Go to Developer > Protect Form .

Protect form button on the Developer tab

Note:  To unprotect the form and continue editing, select Protect Form again.

Save and close the form.

Test the form (optional)

If you want, you can test the form before you distribute it.

Protect the form.

Reopen the form, fill it out as the user would, and then save a copy.

Creating fillable forms isn’t available in Word for the web.

You can create the form with the desktop version of Word with the instructions in Create a fillable form .

When you save the document and reopen it in Word for the web, you’ll see the changes you made.

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Elon Musk offered to help Twitter engineers reinstate Donald Trump's account after they struggled with glitches, book says

  • Twitter engineers faced technical challenges when reinstating Donald Trump's Twitter account.
  • Engineers struggled to find enough capacity to revive the account, Zoë Schiffer wrote in her new book.
  • The situation got so bad that Musk offered to lend a hand, Schiffer wrote in "Extremely Hardcore."

Insider Today

Elon Musk reinstated Donald Trump' s Twitter account in late 2022 — but reviving the account was far from simple, according to a new book.

Engineers struggled to find the capacity to rebuild the account's social graph, a task requiring millions of pieces of data to be activated and updated, Zoë Schiffer wrote in "Extremely Hardcore."

The team's first attempt at reinstating the account failed, resulting in a series of urgent Slack messages in the minutes after Trump's account was supposed to go live, according to the book.

Engineers faced further issues with the "follow" button on Trump's account and the follower count when they managed to get it up and running, she wrote.

The issues were so significant that Musk , who was then CEO of Twitter , personally offered to lend a hand, Schiffer said in the book.

In a message passed on to engineers by former head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, Musk said: "Anything we need from Elon to help here? If not that is ok but wanted to confirm."

Representatives for X did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.

Donald Trump, who has 87 million followers on X, was banned from the platform following the January 6 riots in Washington DC in 2021. Musk had previously called Twitter's decision to ban the former US President a "grave mistake."

A self-proclaimed "free speech absolutist," Musk polled users about whether to restore Trump's account — with 51% of respondents voting "yes."

Trump has tweeted just once since his account was restored, choosing to post the mug shot taken in a Georgia court in late August last year. He prefers to post on his own platform called Truth Social, even though has has just 6.6 million followers there.

Musk also reinstated several other banned accounts under a "general amnesty" announced in November 2022.

book titles help

Watch: OPINION: Media activist shares how Musk could change Twitter

book titles help

  • Main content

Remember when Dunkin’ Donuts took away the donuts part? The company retained the orange and pink typography but downplayed the influence of rotund pastries. Then they got Ben Affleck on board with his many coffees, and, well, new concept blessed.

It is my theory that Florida’s top Republican lawmakers are baking up a Dunkin’-level public relations rebrand of the state’s tiresome anti-woke education policies. Elections around the country have shown voters are weary of fighting culture wars . As Florida school board races heat up , expect to see more conservative candidates balking at the suggestion that state overreach ever sowed confusion.

Evidence packet: In a news conference Thursday , Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called out “bad actors” using book challenges for political gain — pause to absorb the painful irony, please. He blamed outliers and school leaders for taking book reviews too far. He said he’d direct the Florida Department of Education to hold educators accountable and support fining Floridians who file frivolous complaints.

“Let’s not let people try and hijack the process,” he said. “We don’t have time for your political agenda.”

This sentence would make perfect sense if the stream of hot Dunkin’ medium roast wasn’t coming from the man stirring the pot.

For years as he ramped up his failed run for president, DeSantis positioned parental rights as a touchstone political platform. He signed the legislation that paved the way for easier book objections in schools, sending school district lawyers into a tizzy and members of Moms for Liberty into school board meetings to read aloud from books they found heinous.

To comply, educators began reviewing books en masse, not because it was a fulfilling use of their time or because they wanted to become political activists, but because they felt they had to. A new, mandated training told them to “err on the side of caution” or possibly catch a third-degree felony charge .

A quick review of Florida’s great shame: At least 1,400 titles were pulled from public school shelves temporarily or permanently in the span of a year, according to PEN America. That’s the most of any state. The epidemic touched everything from the works of Toni Morrison to William Shakespeare. A disproportionate number of removed books dealt with violence, abuse, sexual assault, characters of color, transgender characters, racial themes and LGBTQ+ identities.

I’d say we hit a low point when one Florida district pulled the dictionary for review . Woof. DeSantis is correct that certain residents have filed far too many challenges; hundreds of book complaints have come from just two people who believe schools are indoctrinating students in progressive ways. A new proposal moving through the Legislature would fine residents $100 per book challenge after they fail five times. You know, like a deranged game of “The Price is Right.”

One avid book challenger, Clay County’s Bruce Friedman, spoke to the Tampa Bay Times on Thursday . “They think the fee will stop me,” he said. “That’s funny.” What will stop him, he said, were … clearer definitions and guidelines.

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What a strange brew we find ourselves in. This prolific book challenger is, in a way, asking for the same things as the advocacy groups trying to stop book bans: clarity. Specifics are desperately needed so educators can do their jobs, not get labeled abusers and operatives for trying to follow a laughably broad law. If more direction comes out of this mess in a way that helps teachers, that will be a positive result.

To be clear, school districts simply must move away from hypervigilant censorship and focus on the less flashy business on their plates . If book banning goes out of style, it’s only a good thing.

But remember — and I’m sorry to keep bringing Dunkin’ into this, because they haven’t done anything wrong, as far as I know — the donuts are still in the store. In their ongoing efforts to flip school boards, fully entrenched radical candidates may follow the governor’s lead and rebrand themselves as more laid-back and palatable. It’s up to voters to recall the original brand.

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Stephanie Hayes is a columnist offering her thoughts on current events, life and culture. She can be reached at [email protected].

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IMAGES

  1. Find ways to create a perfect book title

    book titles help

  2. How to Create Brilliant Book Titles (With Examples)

    book titles help

  3. How to Title a Book in 4 Simple Steps (With Free Checklist!)

    book titles help

  4. Book Title Generator: 160+ Book Title Ideas 📚

    book titles help

  5. How to Create Brilliant Book Titles (With Examples)

    book titles help

  6. How To Write Good Book Titles

    book titles help

VIDEO

  1. I need good titles help

  2. Volume I, Chapter I: Claiming your book titles

  3. Anxiety is on my Christmas wish list!

  4. Russian Realities and Problems:Lectures delivered at Cambridge in August 1916 by Various

  5. How to find books for free reddit?

COMMENTS

  1. Book Title Generator • The Ultimate Bank of 10,000 Titles

    We got you. Here are 8 ways to come up with book title ideas. 1. Start free writing to find keywords. 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. 2. Experiment with word patterns.

  2. AI Book Title Generator

    A strong title can help build buzz and anticipation for a book before it's even released. Social media is a particularly powerful way to promote your book title, as it allows you to reach a large audience quickly and easily. In addition to being memorable and attention-grabbing, a good book title should also be unique.

  3. Book Title Generator

    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.

  4. Book Title Generator

    It will create a working title that sets the stage for your book, with the ability to instantly come up with 1000s of variations to choose from. Simply follow the prompts on the tool and click "Generate" to get your title and subtitle ideas. Use it as many times as you need to come up with new combinations and get the creative juices flowing.

  5. Book Title Generator (Free tools to help choose a bestselling title)

    It's the best tool we know of for quickly finding the keywords that will make your book more visible and appealing to your target readers. Amazon looks for keywords in your book's title, subtitle, and book description. And if none of them contain the keywords your ideal readers are looking for, your book won't show up in their search results.

  6. How To Write The Perfect Book Title [Examples Included]

    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.

  7. Book Title Generator: 1,000+ Book Title Ideas

    Use our book title generator to generate unique and fun book titles for your stories. Plus see our mega list of over 160 random book titles. ... 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 ...

  8. How to Title a Book in 4 Simple Steps (With Free Checklist!)

    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 motifs as you plan your novel. 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.

  9. Book Title Generators: Tools for Coming Up With New Title Ideas

    17. Story Toolz Half Title Generator. Story Toolz Half Title Generator is a free website that contains tools for authors. It offers a half title generator, random conflicts, and story idea generator. It generates a title for mystery and sci-fi genre. 18. Book Title Generator.

  10. Book Title Generator: Best 21 Free Book Name Generators [List]

    This generator is designed to help you create an actionable, effective title for your nonfiction book. It begins by asking you for one keyword to use in the title. There are some guidelines for choosing a good keyword: Don't use capital letters unless the keyword is a proper noun. Use the singular version of your word.

  11. Crafting Book Title Ideas in 2024: Free Tools & Trade Secrets

    Tip #2: Understand your story's core theme. Really, understanding your story's core theme should be a no-brainer for any author. You'd think it's obvious, but you'd be surprised how many authors neglect to reflect their core theme in their book, not to mention their book title. Firstly, you should have an idea of what your theme is.

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

    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.

  13. How to Write Book Titles [+ Our Fail-Proof Formula]

    Step 3: Brainstorm keywords and key phrases. It's important to include the terms your readers are searching for when writing your book description. However, the rules don't necessarily apply when thinking about how to write book titles. Once you have your list from step one prepared, distill it into a handful of keywords and phrases that ...

  14. How to Write an Attention-Grabbing Book Title

    There are thousands of books out there, and you want yours to jump out from the rest. That's why a unique title can help your book get noticed and attract more readers. Writing an attention-grabbing book title. Choosing a book title can be a daunting task—but it doesn't have to be. Here are some tips for creating an attention-grabbing ...

  15. How to Come Up with a Good Book Title

    Here are 14 tips to help you generate new book title ideas. Pay special attention to the first five¬, since these are key characteristics of a good book title. Then work your work down the list to get your creativity flowing. 1. Keep it concise. Keep your book title as concise as possible. A good rule of thumb is to keep your title between 3-5 ...

  16. Book Title Ideas in 12 Steps: Generate Better Selling Titles

    #1 - Make it Genre-Specific. Your novel title should use language that resonates with both your book genre and target audience. Genre expectations are real and important, and it's why some book titles that do well in one genre would be awful for another.. For example, a romantic book can call for dreamy language whereas an action book can warrant strong and powerful words.

  17. How to Choose a Bestselling Book Title for Fiction or Nonfiction

    Here's the basic process we go through when choosing a book title. 1. Do Book Market Research. Find the top comparable book titles in your market. Create a list of their book titles and subtitles, and take careful note of: The words and phrases they use in their book titles and subtitles; The words and phrases used in their book descriptions

  18. How to Write a Book Title: Practical Tips for Authors

    What you choose will mostly depend on your personal preferences. Examples include A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin and Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score. Using character names in your title: Sometimes you create a name for your character that's so memorable you want to make it the star of the book cover.

  19. How to Choose a Great Book Title

    Easy to Understand. Make the book title easy to understand. For example, don't choose an obscure or uncommon word if a simpler word will do. Keep the title informative, pointing to a deeper meaning or theme in your book. It can even act as a guide to help your reader understand the bigger theme (s) of your story while reading.

  20. Best Self-Help Book Titles—and Title Ideas, from a Book Coach

    Self-Help Book Title and Subtitle Strategies. Your best bet is to use a witty, attention-grabbing title with a subtitle that tells your reader what the book has to offer the reader—a transformation, benefit, or system that solves a problem or provides a solution.. The purpose of the general title is to grab the reader's interest and give them an at-a-glance idea of what your book is about.

  21. How to Find a Book Title by Plot: 5 Crucial Book Search Techniques

    3. Put Out a Call on Social Media. If you have no luck with the websites above, you can turn to social media. Since your friends likely have similar tastes, you may be able to find the book's title simply by posting on Facebook or Twitter about it. Use hashtags to help people locate your post.

  22. Book Title 101: How To Choose A Title That Will Sell

    2. Google Your Book Titles. The next step will be to Google your titles. While you can't trademark a specific title, it is better to have an original title if possible. A simple Google search will help you identify titles on your list that are already being used.

  23. Helpfull

    The Last Mage. The Golden Blade. The Hope of a Doomed Kingdom. After just twenty minutes, we'd received one hundred new comments into our first batch of book titles. The titles that received the highest amount of votes were: A Kingdom Besieged (22), The Last Mage (19), and Catalyst: Rise from Ashes (18).

  24. How to find a book title by plot or description: Best websites and

    By posting here, you can ask over 2 million "sleuths" for help in getting to the title of that one thing you're searching for, be it a book, a movie, a TV series, a game, a song, a website ...

  25. 6 Self-Help Books That Therapists Read Themselves

    "It's uncommon to find a self-help book that feels different," said Vienna Pharaon, a marriage and family therapist in New York City. But genuinely useful titles abound.

  26. Create a form in Word that users can complete or print

    Add Help Text Give hints or instructions for each field. OK Saves settings and exits the panel. Cancel Forgets changes and exits the panel. ... First capital, or Title case. Text box enabled Lets the user enter text into a field. If there is default text, user text replaces it. Set specific properties for a Check box.

  27. Libraries are on the front lines of America's problems

    Public libraries have morphed into all-purpose community centers amid soaring demand for social services. Libraries are enjoying a renaissance in usage.They're also battling book bans and bearing the brunt of a host of societal issues — from caring for unhoused people and migrants to distributing COVID tests and Narcan for drug overdoses.; Why it matters: The result is frazzled staff and ...

  28. Musk Offered to Help Engineers Reinstate Trump's Twitter Account: Book

    Elon Musk reinstated Donald Trump's Twitter account in late 2022 — but reviving the account was far from simple, according to a new book. Engineers struggled to find the capacity to rebuild the ...

  29. Ron DeSantis wants to rebrand the book banning mess he created

    Help Chat. Go to the e-Newspaper ... At least 1,400 titles were pulled from public school shelves temporarily or permanently in the span of a year, according to PEN America. That's the most of ...