Will Your Title Sell Books?
If you write a book or ebook and people don’t “get it”, you aren’t going to sell books. So, if I’m working with a client, or I see a post where someone is asking for feedback on their title, and I don’t get it. I ask them, “What is your book about?” And they usually go into a detailed explanation about what their book is about.
But, when people go to Amazon looking for a book on your topic, you aren’t there to give them the Cliff Notes. It has to make sense. So, if I have to ask and it’s not clear right off the bat-without any explanation- you have a problem.
Case Study:
An author shared a title he wrote in a Facebook group. I had no idea what it was about and neither did anyone else. I asked him to explain and he did. Then, people started responding in the comments cracking up because of what they thought it had meant, and everyone had a different take but nobody got it right.
Because I am his target market, I was able to tell him exactly how to fix it. But, he refused to hear what I was saying. He thought that once he had a visual representation of his title (i.e. book cover) it would work. (In the music business, we call it “fixing it in the mix”. And sometimes it works, but sometimes, it just can’t be fixed that way.; the mistake is there and it isn’t going way!) It’s the same with a title, sometimes it’s too confusing or obtuse and can’t be fixed with a graphic. Plus, a title SHOULD be able to stand on its own WITHOUT a visual presentation, and when it is clear, it will. When it isn’t, it’s a crap shoot.
And after putting all that effort into a writing a book, why risk it?
And yet many authors do. Why? Because they came up with that title, they know what it means (since they wrote it), they like it or perhaps they just want to be right, and now they are sticking to it!
So even when their market gives them feedback that it’s not working, and there is a much better title that is crystal clear, they forge ahead with their original idea.
This is one of the big mistakes people make writing books. If you want to write books that sell, you have to take your ego out of the equation, listen to your audience, and be willing to go back to the drawing board to find a title you like that resonates with your audience.