Bestselling book titles don’t arise out of thin air.
Sure, you can jot down ideas or create a book title that simply states what your book is about.
But there is so much more you can do to take your title to the next level.
Coming up with an epic book title can be frustrating.
It’s equal parts art and science, and can really test your limits.
So how do you find a creative title that not only conveys what your book is about, but also drives sales?
The old-fashioned method of just coming up with brilliant ideas on our own isn’t reliable.
Luckily, there are a number of tools to assist you throughout this intensely creative process.
Essential Components of a Title
Before I share the tools that will give your creative juices a fillip and increase your conversion rate, it is important to understand the elements of a bestselling title.
Most successful book titles employ some, if not all, of the following characteristics:
- The title is intriguing, and lingers in the reader’s mind
- It speaks to your reader’s needs
- It makes a big promise the reader is desperately searching for
- It can fulfill the reader’s ego and make them feel or look a certain way while reading it
- It uses power words that compel the reader to pick it up
Applying these core principles will take your book title from bland and boring, to enticing and successful.
Take a look at these two bestselling books that embody the five ideas above in both their title and subtitle.
- The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo
- The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life by Timothy Ferriss
The above books could have easily been titled “How to Clean Up your Room” or “The Best Cook Book.”.
Pretty boring, right?
But these authors found colorful and vibrant phrases that make even the most dedicated clutterbugs and fast food fans among us reach for these books.
But how does one take a title like “Tidying Up Your House” and convert it to “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing?”
How do I take my bland title and create something that drives potential customers to commit to buying my book?
I’ll let you into a little secret.
There is a tool most authors overlook that does exactly that.
Blog Title Generators
Blog title generators and analyzer tools were created for the sole purpose of helping writers craft epic blog post titles that convince their target market to click and read their content.
Sort of what we want our customers to do with our books, right?
These generators inject power words and creative phrases that have been proven to increase click-through rates.
Plainly put, they are full of creative ideas that have been tried and tested by some of the best marketers out there.
Now there are major differences between a post and a book.
However, these Blog Title Generators are free tools that will not only help you come up with interesting titles, but will also show you some useful conversion tactics.
Here are 6 tools—4 to help you become more creative and 2 to help check your results—that will help you craft a compelling creative title that will help your book become a bestseller:
Four Tools to Get Your Creative Title
1. Title Generator by TweakYourBiz
This tool allows you to input a potential book title and receive a set of over 50 different headlines that are in typical blog post formats.
This won’t necessarily give you a winning title, but it will give you an extensive list of inspiring options to sort through.
2. Portent’s Content Idea Generator
This idea generator is unique.
You input the subject of your book, and you’ll receive a headline with the purpose of each word broken down.
Don’t like the headline you got?
Simply click refresh and you’ll receive an almost infinite pool of headlines to choose from.
3. Blog Topic Generator by HubSpot
This tool is from the powerhouse marketing team, HubSpot.
You input three different topics related to your book and you’ll receive five different headlines to work with.
4. Link Bait Title Generator
This title generator uses highly-clickable blog post formats and incorporates the subject of your choosing.
Thus, giving you a list of titles that might not be book worthy, but will definitely get you thinking and moving in a different direction.
Two Tools to Help Grade Your Potential Bestselling Book Titles
Once you’ve compiled your list of potentially hundreds of headline ideas, you can move onto the next part of the filtering process.
Giving them a letter grade.
1. Advanced Marketing Institute’s Headline Analyzer
Take your best headlines and run them through this tool.
For each headline you input you’ll receive an EMV percentage. The higher the percentage, the better the emotional resonance of your headline.
2. CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
If you want to run your headlines through another tool, give this one a go. These results will give you an overall grade, score, and analysis of word types and structure.
Once again, the grade matters.
The better your grade, the better your headline, the better the conversion.
Where to Go From Here
When it comes to selling books, your title can move mountains.
Give the tools above a go and start testing. The more headlines you can generate, and the more creative connections you can make, the more epic your book title will be.
Use the tools above to create an incredible book title, then share your favorite in the comments below!
