Got your title done yet? Are you super attached to it? I've outlined below a process for non-fiction titles. Novelists, best of luck to ya. Intrigue is probably your best strategy. Everyone else get out a piece of paper and a pen to answer the following questions.

Who is your book for? If you are writing a book that you would classify as being for everyone or a very diverse audience, see if you can narrow down to who will get the most impact from it. The more specific you can get here, the more you'll be able to speak to the right type of person through your marketing. By getting it into the hands of the people that will benefit the most, you'll get better reviews, which equal better sales... If you are writing to appeal to everyone, you will wind up as the unhappy medium, a bland watered down message that appeals to no one.

What are the benefits they will get from your book? List everything you intend for them to get. Make as bold of claims as you can back up. Get it all out. Note: This should put you on the edge of your comfort zone, and I want you to push to back this claim up in your book. This is one of those things where God needs to help you.

Now, looking back at who your book is for, which of those benefits are going to be the most likely to get their attention? People are more oriented to get rid of a current problem than to invest in something that will improve their lives down the road. The latter comes across as a good idea, the former seems like a necessity.

Most non-fiction books need to have a clear benefit in the title, a concrete promise. Read this book and _______ will happen. This type of book usually gets a subtitle as well, which gives you even more opportunity to communicate what they will gain from your book. Having a subtitle means if you want to be a bit creative and fun, you can do that with your title, because you have subtitle to explain what it's really about. Even if you get it across in your title, I recommend you take advantage of the sub to really sell it.

What are your audience's biggest pain points that you can solve? Those are things you need to convey in your title and subtitle. Go look at the non-fiction books you bought. Not the things you downloaded because they were free and you never took the time to read. The things you actually put money and time toward because you believed in the promise. Study the composition of those titles.

Now, brainstorm your massive list of potential titles. Don't censor, just write. Write lots of variations, play with wording, they need not be massively different each title. Don't hesitate to go big and bold. You'll need to be very bold and very specific with lots of punch. Don't let any of your words be abstract or vague. Get a volume of options going and then narrow it down to three. I'd like to see your list. Maybe I or others here can add some tweaks.

At this point, and not before, you should google your potential titles and see if it's out there. Titles cannot be copyrighted, yet you do need to avoid marketplace confusion. This is another case for the subtitle. My book is certainly not the only Flower Power book out there.

The final three... This is where you actually begin your marketing without it coming across as marketing. When I do new product launches, I involve my audience as much as possible in the creation process. For your purposes, this looks posting to your social media outlets that you are writing this book, what it's about, and that you need their help deciding on a title. "Please vote for one of these three." Or "Please tell me which one you like and why."

What this does, is it announces your book, gets them to stop for a minute and think about it, they give of themselves so they feel like they have had a small part in it, especially if you name it what they wanted. You'll get to conversationally post now and then about how it's coming. You'll do this again with the cover art. None of this will come across salesy, even though it's a very effective way to get attention.

The side benefit is that it's out there, and it's getting real. You will get very uncomfortable when people keep asking you about it and you haven't written anything beyond a title. You'll have to follow through.

Speaking of following through... Are you writing everyday? How's that going? Staying on track?

Let's talk keywords as well. While the above exercise will be the best way to work on a title, being cognizant of keywords in your title will help your book get found. If you have a large following and can sell books because your name is on the cover great. For everybody else, we need to recognize that Amazon is it's own search engine, and it feeds into Google as well. Amazon's search algorithm gives the most weight to the title, then the sub-title and after that, the description. If you can work what words or phrases people are naturally searching for that need to read your book into the title, so much the better.

Titles with Impact

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