How to create a winning title?

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Talia

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Does anyone know of any websites or articles that give advice on choosing catchy titles for books? I think I've seen something about good words to choose but I have to admit that I'm not great at choosing book titles

thanks :)
 

alleycat

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I've seen some research done on movie titles but I don't know that I've seen anything about book titles except some vague recommendations. I seem to remember an article in either The Writer or Writer's Digest recently about titles.

Why don't you post a brief synopsis in another thread and ask for suggestions. People have done that before with varying success.

ac
 

Talia

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awww that is a cute avatar

thanks for the suggestions i may try that. i have a working title but i don't know if it resonates with enough people sooooo hard!
 

Sassenach

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You could try scanning bookstore shelves and seeing which titles grab your interest.

On the other hand, almost all titles are changed before publication, so it's not an area that's worth expending a greta deal of effort on.
 

Talia

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thanks Nancy. i should have known there would be something right here at absolute write. i'll be adding it to my faves too
 

MOON GODDESS

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Book Titles

A good, catchy title always makes me want to pick up a book.
I've seen this kind of information in various writing/publishing books, though I'm not sure which ones at this point. It might have been "The Everything" (get published) series or a 1990's book about "What the publishing industry won't tell you, and as someone mentioned, I think WD had an article on this topic.
Anyway, when I published my history-related book, I was told to keep the title "short," that even 5 words was too much, but that was probably for that publisher/genre, since we all know there are longer titles out there.
 

Talia

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i think i read that 12 words is the magic number. hard to know but a good title does make a difference think chicken soup for the soul...

i might run a poll on my current favourite titles but still working thru them

thanks for your comments
 
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