{"id":8431,"date":"2020-03-04T07:35:06","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T12:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8431"},"modified":"2020-03-04T07:35:06","modified_gmt":"2020-03-04T12:35:06","slug":"will-people-pick-up-my-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8431","title":{"rendered":"Will People Pick Up My Book?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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We writers are ever in search of a\nsearch of a formula that will make our books leap into prospective readers\u2019\nhands, rather than languish untouched on the long, slow slide to the remainder\nbin. If only readers gave it a chance, they\u2019d love it! Right? Would some of the\nmagic leap out when they picked it up?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch book store patrons browse the\ntables a while and the old saying, \u201cyou can\u2019t judge a book by its cover\u201d appears\ndefinitely wrong. Certain books attract. And they aren\u2019t necessarily books with\na lot of publicity or a best-selling author\u2019s name. Something about them draws\npeople in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quite a bit has been written about the importance of\ncover art<\/a> and how it\u2019s not something amateurs\ncan attempt at home. We\u2019ve all seen the covers of self-pubbed books that look\nlike misguided collage projects or more likely ones that are just . . . not . .\n. right. While we recognize covers we like from\nan artistic perspective<\/a>, does the art lead to\nfurther perusal of the book and\u2014ahem\u2014buying it? Publishers assume so. (Here\u2019s Tim\nKreider\u2019s<\/a> amusing take on the author-publisher\ndynamic in book cover design from the New Yorker<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two recent blog posts talk about another\nimportant aspect of your book\u2019s exterior\u2014the very first words of yours that\nreaders will see: your book\u2019s title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Writer Unboxed, Nancy\nJohnson<\/a> riffs entertainingly on this subject.\nIn coming up for a title for her own debut book, she heard the advice to \u201ckeep\nit short.\u201d One-word titles can convey a lot; Michelle Obama\u2019s Becoming<\/em>\nis a perfect summation of her best-seller. Ditto Tara Westover\u2019s Educated<\/em>,\nwhich, in addition, vividly illustrates the importance of the interplay of\ntitle and art. What at first looks like a pencil-shaving is a lone girl\nstanding on a mountain, the heroine of the piece.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Short, punchy titles are presumably easy\nto remember. Tell that to Delia Owens. One of Johnson\u2019s favorite titles is Zora\nNeale Hurston\u2019s Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick<\/em>.\nUnforgettable. And, much better than a too-short title that doesn\u2019t convey any\nextra substrate of meaning. Look up some one-word titles (Guardian, Broken,\nAlien<\/em>) on Amazon and see how many competitors there are. As a result, what\nJohnson concludes about title length is, like so many other rules for writers,\u201cit\ndepends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you know, titles of creative works can\u2019t be copyrighted, so it can be hard to come up with something unique. Appropriating The Talented Mr. Ripley<\/em> would raise eyebrows. If several other books already share your planned title, you want to think about the company you\u2019ll be keeping (and how far down your book may appear in Amazon\u2019s listing of similar titles). Unwary buyers will be annoyed if they intend to order your romantic suspense and get a slasher story instead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomorrow: A study of the link between title and sales. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We writers are ever in search of a search of a formula that will make our books leap into prospective readers\u2019 hands, rather than languish untouched on the long, slow slide to the remainder bin. If only readers gave it … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Will People Pick Up My Book? - You get only one first impression, and the title of your book are your first words readers will see. Don\u2019t fret about length; think about content and the company your title will keep. ","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[62,174,64,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-authors","category-first-draft-blog","category-promotion","category-publishing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Educated.jpg?fit=228%2C346&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2bZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8432,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8431\/revisions\/8432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}