Finding the Right Title

It seems as though some writers are natural titlers. Some even have the title before the story.

Not me. I struggle.

Titles need to reflect the essence of the story – to fit the form and to appeal to a wide audience. They need to be unique, but not so odd that they become hard to remember. Although homophones can be clever, the spelling issue can make it hard for readers to find your book. The right title will intrigue a wide audience.

Now you can also throw into the agony of decision a new procrastination tool!

Lulu.com – the self-publisher – has a Titlescorer feature. Here you can type in your prospective title, answer a few questions and in a few seconds receive a rating: a percentage odds of that title becoming a best seller. No pressure with that expectation!

From Lulu:

The Lulu Titlescorer has been developed exclusively for Lulu by statisticians who studied the titles of 50 years’ worth of top bestsellers and identified which title attributes separated the bestsellers from the rest.

We commissioned a research team to analyse the title of every novel to have topped the hardback fiction section of the New York Times Bestseller List during the half-century from 1955 to 2004 and then compare them with the titles of a control group of less successful novels by the same authors.

The team, lead by British statistician Dr. Atai Winkler, then used the data gathered from a total of some 700 titles to create this “Lulu Titlescorer” a program able to predict the chances that any given title would produce a New York Times No. 1 bestseller.

Just don’t call me late for dinner.

Sarah Wones Tomp

WRITING ON THE SIDEWALK