Here's the thing about titles. You would think they're the most precious of all the words you could write, but they're not. They're marketing, the same way a cover is marketing. A title that isn't marketing is a missed opportunity to attract more readers. Don't get sentimental about picking a title. Look at this way: you've written tens of thousands of words for your novel, why not dedicate two or three more to making sure readers actually read those thousands of words?

With that in mind, let's explore what makes for an effective title...

🗸 Does the title match the content?

If you read a book about armored knights pillaging villages called Chasing Daisy, you'd probably be a little confused. Likewise, if you read a book called Blades of Dawn and it was about the protagonist finding his lost love, Daisy, you'd be equally lost. Make sure your title and its subject matter line up!

🗸 Is there an element of mystery to it?

There's two basic tasks for a title to accomplish:

#1. Tell the reader what the novel is about.

#2. Make readers want to pick up the novel.

It's easy for writers to do #1, hard for writers to accomplish #2, and rare that writers come up with a title that does both. But if you can do it, it'll make your reader go, Wow! Most writers can handle number one just fine on their own. Let's instead look at how to accomplish #2.

The same technique to gauge curiosity for covers can be used for titles, too. Ask yourself: What kind of questions does my title make the reader ask? Are they strong, compelling questions, or are they weak, so-so questions?

To get a firmer sense of compelling questions, think of some of those best-sellers you might hate, but which sell millions of copies. What questions do they make you ask? The Da Vinci Code. What does a centuries-old artist have to do with a code? And what does the secret message say? The President Is Missing by James Patterson. Um, why is the president missing and who took him? The Prisoner of Azkaban. Who is this prisoner? What is Azkaban? And what does that have to do with Harry Potter? The Lightning Thief. How does one steal lightning, exactly, and what would one do with it?

🗸 Does it use a strong keyword in the title?

Here's a fun game: Pick a word out of your title. Then, plop it into Wattpad's search bar. Scroll down the list. Are the other books similar to your own? I'll bet, if you wrote a high fantasy novel and your word is Blade, you'll get a lot of other high fantasy titles. Put in 'heart' and see all the romance titles?

Using common search terms in your title is one of the most powerful ways of getting your book to show up when someone uses that term. Sure, it results in a lot of cliché titles, like City of Love, but it will get you results. Do you really want to argue with that?

🗸 Is it short and sweet?

There's a reason why long titles are so rare in publishing. And no, it's not just because they take up space. They also take up reading comprehension time, which is very, very important as to whether we pay attention or not. The more adjectives and adverbs we have modifying our title, the longer it takes to comprehend it: The Cute Boy Next Door's Reading Partner Is In Love With Me takes much longer to understand than My Reading Partner Is In Love With Me. If your title has a lot of modifiers or complex words, try stripping them out. Your readers will thank you.

🗸 Is it clear and direct?

Some might think Surrender is as direct a title as it gets, but it's not. It's short, but not clear. To test this, try punching in Surrender in the search bar. Notice how you get a mix of everything from werewolves to romance to fanfiction? It's because Surrender could mean anything. It could be surrendering yourself to someone's love, or their will. Or a war-time surrender.

I see a lot of titles that are vague like this. You'll want a title that tells the reader what this is about.