6 Key Characteristics of Effective Book Titles - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

6 Key Characteristics of Effective Book Titles - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Titles are more than just the words that appear on the front cover of your book; effective book titles not only sell more books, they can launch a follow-up series of books while creating a memorable personal brand for the authors products services   for years to come. A few weeks ago, I discussed how power of Sarah Susankas Not So Big brand. This week, Id like to explore some of the key characteristics that contribute to brand-building book titles. 6 key characteristics of effective nonfiction book titles Although there is no single formula to effective nonfiction book titles, the following 6 key characteristics show up over and over again: Promise. Effective book titles are those that promise readers an obvious benefit. In todays culture of less, nonfiction books have to compete for scarce resources, i.e., less time to read, less money to spend, etc. My first best-selling book, Looking Good in Print: A Guide to Basic Design for Desktop Publishing, was an immediate a lasting success. Its benefit was obvious, after all, Who wants to look like a fool in print? Competing titles, like Graphic Design for the Electronic Age, didnt offer readers as obvious a benefit, and its sales suffered. Identification. Few books will ever appeal to everyone. In every field, there are different expectations and different experience levels. Looking Good in Print targeted newcomers to design, secretaries and administrative assistance who were increasingly given newsletter and brochure production responsibility, even though they did not have any previous design experience. By adding a single word, Basic, to Looking Goods subtitle was enough to build a strong emotional resonance with newcomers to design without talking down to them. Today, newcomers turn to the for Dummies or Complete Idiots Guide to series titles. Transparency. Brand-building books often have deceptively simple titles. The best titles have no creativity to them, for example, Jill Konraths perennially popular Selling to Big Companies or C.J. Haydens Get Clients Now! These titles contain common, everyday terms that express the promise without using jargon, fancy or technical terms. My target market was newcomers to design, who were interested in keeping their jobor moving up to greater responsibilities, rather than Design Breakthroughs or Cutting Edge Design. They described their goals as looking good in print and, today, many would still use the term searching for help online. Metaphor. Metaphor takes transparency to the next level. Metaphors instantly explain and position a book title by referencing popular and cultural terms. Perhaps the best example is Jay Conrad Levinsons Guerrilla Marketing Series, although Garr Reynolds Presentation Zen runs a close second. The power of metaphor is not only that they make titles easier to understand, they also make the titles easier to remember. Brevity. Effective titles are often short and transparent, but are backed-up with longer subtitles that explain and provide important detail. For example, Carl Sewall and Paul B. Browns Customers for Life: How to Turn that One-Time Buyer into a Lifetime Buyer or Bob Burgs Endless Referrals: Network Your Everyday Contacts Into Sales. The titles are short, so they can set in a large type size where theyll attract attention to the subtitle which completes the sales job. Specificity. Numbers add credibility and urgency to book titles. Numbers can promise readers faster achievement of their goals, i.e., Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days. Numbers add credibility to goals, i.e., 21 Pounds in 21 Days. Numbers also simplify complex tasks by breaking goal achievement into a series of steps, i.e., Marcia Yudkins 6 Steps to Free Publicity. How to evaluate your proposed books title Evaluate your proposed books title in terms of the above characteristics. Ask yourself questions like these: Promise. Does my proposed book title offer readers an obvious and desired promise, or benefit? Identification. Have I targeted the title to my most desired reader segment, instead of trying to appeal to everyone? Transparency. Is the titles promise expressed using the same everyday language my intended readers use? Metaphor. Have I used the story-telling power of a metaphor to instantly communicate my books promise or position it relative to the competition? Brevity. Did I use the power of metaphor to bring my books proposed title to life and make it more memorable? Specificity. Have I reinforced the promise of my books title with numbers and specifics that add credibility and promise fast results? Improve your ability to choose an effective title for your book The best way to improve your ability to come up with the perfect title, the one that creates a personal brand for yourself and brands a line of follow-up products and services, is to train yourself to analyze the titles of books in your field as well as outside your field. Create a list of the top titles in your field, and analyze them in terms of the above 6 questions. Rate their performance, and score the titles. Dont just analyze the titles of books in your field, occasionally visit a different field, and apply the 6 questions to those books, too. The more you examine the titles of existing books, the easier it will be for you to come up with the perfect title for your books. In fact, I invite you to share your thoughts about the effectiveness of the titles of currently-popular books in your field. Using the comments area, below, list a few of the titles in your field and analyze each of them in terms of the above 6 key characteristics. Author: Roger C. Parker is a “32 Million Dollar Author,” book coach, and online writing resource. His 38 books have sold 1.9 million copies in 35 languages around the world. Roger has interviewed hundreds of successfully branded nonfiction authors and shares what he’s learned at Published Profitable and his daily writing tips blog.