011 - Defining Your Book's Title, Subtitle, and Tagline
Perhaps you have an idea for a book but you’re at a loss for a title. Perhaps you have a strong title but no clue if your material is strong enough to support it. Either way, you likely have some ideas around a title. Sometimes choosing the subtitle and tagline get lost until you’re far into the book or done with the entire manuscript. You may need your editors help to flush these elements out, but let’s take a stab at it here and see what we can come up with.
As I state in my book (Let’s Get Your Book Published), Research at Thomas Nelson indicates that consumers first look at the book’s:
- Title
- Cover
- Back cover
- Flaps on the jacket
- Table of contents
- First few paragraphs of the book’s content
- Price
So it’s easy to see why strong titling (and design for that matter) is crucial from the outset.
TITLE DEVELOPMENT
Sometimes you have to write the entire book before you can give it a name or title. Maybe you can’t...