How to choose a title for your nonfiction book

A short, catchy title is great if you happen to come up with one, but it’s more important to speak directly to the problem your readers are having and the promise your book makes to them.

Clarifying your book’s target reader and promise will make it easier to write, easier to find beta readers, and easier to sell once it’s published.

(If you’re not sure how to do this, start by focusing on a problem.)

Another tip for the brainstorming process: Look through the books in your library and make a note of the titles you like best. You might find there’s a particular structure that appeals to you.

For example, lots of useful book titles are short, declarative sentences: Serve to Sell, Think in 4D, and of course Write Useful Books.

Others are a single word: Threats, Unblock, Hooked, and Indistractible.

Once you’ve got a preferred structure and a clear reader promise, coming up with a working title, subtitle, and cover should be much simpler. And once you’ve got those, you only need to write a couple chapters before you start collecting feedback.