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Branded or Descriptive Title for Your Self Published Nonfiction Book? | The Heidi Thorne Show - YouTube
Channel: Heidi Thorne
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Welcome to The Heidi Thorne Show.
I'm your host, Heidi Thorne.
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And in this podcast,
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I share my real-world self publishing
and small business experience with you.
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So let's get started
with today's show. Now,
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recently I was working
with an author on a new
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book,
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and one of the issues
that came up during our
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discussions and my review
was the book title.
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Now the book was on more of
a techie kind of subject.
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And the author had
chosen what I would call
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a more branded title.
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And, you know, as we were working
up to starting the project
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it was kind of difficult to figure
out exactly what this book was about.
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And of course, because I'm, you know,
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I'm familiar with the realm that
he was working in, but I'm not,
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I'm not in it.
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And so it was really kind of
difficult to figure out from the title
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exactly what this was going to
talk about. But then, you know,
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later in the manuscript, as he
was, you know, talking about it,
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he had like an alternate title,
which was extremely descriptive.
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And I said, "That's it!
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That's the title that tells
me exactly what the book is
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all about." And so the,
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the question came up about a branded title
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versus a descriptive title.
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Now this is primarily for
nonfiction. Fiction, you
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can do whatever you want
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because those are flights of
fancy often. And so, you know,
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that's not what we're talking about here.
We're really talking about nonfiction.
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Because when people are
reading nonfiction generally,
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and if they're talking about, you know,
business or any really nonfiction topic,
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they're going there to get
some information or get some
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insight.
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And so they have a very definite
goal for reading the book.
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So that leads us to more of a need for a
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descriptive title.
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Yet we've all encountered books
that in the nonfiction arena
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that have more, what I would call,
branded titles that are iconic.
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And let's review a couple
of them. Rich Dad, Poor Dad,
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Chicken Soup for the Soul,
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7 Habits of Highly Successful Whatever,
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The One Minute Manager
and The E-Myth. You know,
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think about those books. I mean,
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we have those titles stuck in
our head and they're, they're
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branded. They don't really
tell you what's in the book,
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but they're branded. And they
built empires around them.
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And so there is some
validity for creating a more
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branded title. But at the same point,
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it's not real descriptive.
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And so it would be harder
for people to find.
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So with a branded title, you, really,
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really have to do a lot of marketing.
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And even though the brand, the
title, is part of your brand,
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you know, you have to inform people
what this brand is all about.
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And so from a pure budgeting and planning
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perspective a branded title
will take more resources
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and it will take more
time, more than likely,
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to get any traction in the
market. I have had that problem.
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And I had that problem with my
first book because I titled it
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SWAG.
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Now swag is a slang term
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and stands for, you know,
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stuff we all get or souvenirs, wearables,
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and gifts that, you know, there's a
couple of different ways to describe it,
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but generally it means promotional
products. So I thought, "Wow,
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that is going to be the coolest
title." And it has worked
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well for me.
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But I don't think if I
wouldn't have put the
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subtitle about "how to choose and use
promotional products for marketing your
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business," no one would have really
understood it. I mean, would they,
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do they think are, was talking
about swagger or, you know,
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some other kind of topic.
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No one would have even
known what it was about.
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And so, you know, it took
a while for me, too, to
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get some traction in the
market. It's still selling well,
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several years later. Wow.
I think at this point,
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maybe nine years, getting
close to a decade ago.
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So it's done pretty well for
me. But at the same point,
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I had to do a lot more
descriptive work in,
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in terms of my marketing to get,
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get that traction. So
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I think you have to decide, you know,
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what your market really needs. So
with this author I was working with,
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I think the more descriptive
title was the one to
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choose. Of course, you know,
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my authors who work with me
can do whatever they want.
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But you know,
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I really suggested to highly
consider the descriptive
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title because otherwise you probably
wouldn't have known what the book was all
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about. In fact,
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as I was just starting
to work with the author,
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I thought it was a completely
different industry.
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So.
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This, again, goes back to, you
know, things I harp on all the time.
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You have to know your audience and
you have to know what they want,
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and you have to be very realistic and
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understand your market and what
it's going to take to get your
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book to be a success in the market.
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So I hope you found
this helpful as you are
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considering maybe one of your
next nonfiction book projects.
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And if you have found
it helpful, please rate,
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review and subscribe to The Heidi
Thorne Show on Apple Podcasts,
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And please share the podcast or the
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My self published books
are available on Amazon,
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Audible and Apple Books.
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All you have to do is just go to my Heidi
Thorne author page and all the books
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that are available on those
sites are listed there.
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If you'd like to connect with me, my
website is very simply HeidiThorne.com.
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Thank you so much for
listening and for your support.
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I'll look forward to talking with
you again in the next episode.
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And in the meantime, have a great day.
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