Titles, like book introductions, are vital parts of your project that should clearly articulate your intervention—and that often go through lots of revision. In this post, I’d like to talk about the iterative process of creating book titles. This post is based on my experience as an editor, and it is informed by my work with colleagues in marketing—especially Kacey Nguyen—and by reading ideas from other professionals who work on titles.

Because book titles will go through revision, I don’t find it necessary that your initial proposal or first manuscript draft have the perfect title. When I first encounter a new submission, I am most concerned that the project has a clear title, not necessarily a catchy one (yet). I represent multiple list areas, so for me it’s helpful when an initial submission’s title clearly articulates where it belongs—which also helps me understand why the author is submitting to Illinois, and to me specifically. If the title is also catchy at this stage, that’s just a bonus! (This perspective is probably different from my colleagues who acquire trade books, where catching an editor’s attention at this stage is also very important.)

One of my favorite titles is Steven C. Beda’s Strong Winds and Widow Makers: Workers, Nature, and Environmental Conflict in Pacific Northwest Timber Country. This manuscript originated with a Gutman Prize-winning dissertation with a different title. If this project came to me as a submission over email, a simple title like the existing subtitle would be fine. I instantly know this is a labor history connected to the environment.

As manuscripts move through the peer review process and into meetings at the press, we consider the title from the earliest stages. Peer reviewers often comment if they think the title is out of sync with the manuscript they’ve read, or if they think it won’t work for the discipline into which the author is writing. Sometimes they offer suggestions, but the feedback that the title isn’t working is the most important feedback at this stage.

When I present a project to my colleagues, the title is always something we discuss, whether the existing title sounds like something we could move forward with, whether we’d like to see other suggestions from the author, or whether we have suggestions that the author could consider. We don’t require a final title at the point of contracting, but these discussions become more important as we move toward publication. I flag these conversations for the author early on, so that the author can consider the title as the manuscript evolves and ask for suggestions or feedback if that is helpful.

From here, the conversations become more individual, but there are some tips I’d like to share on what makes a successful final book title.

Your Book’s Title Is a Marketing Tool

In his essay “You’re the Author Now,” William Sisler writes that the “title is first and foremost a marketing tool,” and he’s not wrong. Your title should be a beacon to the audience you are writing toward, letting them know that this book is for them. This means that it should signal the topic of your book and use the tone and language that is appropriate for that audience. If you aim to reach a general audience, but your book’s title sounds like an academic journal article, the book won’t hit the right market. Along the same lines, if your book could appeal widely to historians of the nineteenth century, but the title frames the book for a narrower subfield, it will be hard to reach the full audience. When in doubt, authors should err on the side of simpler, more straightforward titles that set up their book to be read as widely as possible.

Sometimes when I talk about marketability and titles, authors cringe a little. Especially in scholarly publishing, where the author does a great deal of promotion on their own, it can feel awkward to promote your own work. When so much about scholarly work is about the mission of disseminating knowledge, it seems like the people who need your work should just find it. I wish that was the case, but it just isn’t so! Consider that the Association of University Presses has over 160 member presses worldwide, and this doesn’t count other for-profit publishers that also publish scholarly work. Even narrow fields have a lot of competition for visibility, so it’s important for the title to help a book stand out in its market.

Your Book’s Title Should be Discoverable

Laura Portwood-Stacer writes that the “title of your book also matters for search engine optimization (SEO). You want someone searching on your topic to end up with your book in front of their face.”

Most readers will encounter your book online through searching, so titles need to be visible—ideally as the first search result, and definitely on the first page. This is true for online retailers like Amazon, where we sell most of our books online, but it is also true for libraries. Academic libraries especially rely on discoverability to determine what they will purchase, which in turn will affect how easy it is for other scholars and students to find and cite your work.

One way to make a book more discoverable is to use keywords in titles. If the main topic of your book is the Socialist Party of America, but you don’t use that in your book’s title, then it won’t return as a result when readers search for books on the SPA.

This can be an important consideration when authors want to use terms that they have coined themselves. While a new term could represent an important intervention in the field, it might not make the best title because readers won’t know to search for it. Rather, it might make more sense to use a title that describes the term or intervention, instead of the term itself.

You also want to consider what version of the keywords readers are likely to search. For example, one of our largest lists is labor history, and so we often publish on unions, including the recent book Purple Power: The History and Global Impact of SEIU edited by Luís LM Aguiar and Joseph A. McCartin. The full name of SEIU is the Service Employees International Union; however, most readers will know it primarily by its acronym, so we thought that made more sense for the title. (For what it’s worth, this book is the first result in Amazon when you search “SEIU”, and it is on the first page of results at the UIUC library.)

Often, my colleagues in marketing are really familiar with the keywords that are common in our list areas, because they work with metadata on a regular basis. They are an excellent resource for feedback on this aspect of the title. Authors might also talk with other scholars in their discipline about how they would search for a book on their topic, which could generate ideas for how to frame the title.

Your Book Title Should be Unique

I acquire books in Abraham Lincoln studies, which is a vibrant list at Illinois with an associated series that is churning out great work. So, we have to consider new titles for Lincoln books all the time. It is commonly said that there are more books about Lincoln than any other person except for Jesus Christ, and it certainly feels that way when we’re searching for the right title! The best titles have already been taken, and yet we still want our books to stand out.

Recently we were working on a book about Lincoln’s early life. When we searched Amazon for the author’s suggested title, it returned at least five books with the same wording, including older scholarly works and young adult and children’s books. We knew that, for this book to find its readers, it would need a different title.

Authors should search their proposed titles on sites like Amazon or WorldCat to see if they have been used before. In some cases, if the title has been used once for a book that is older or for a much different audience than the author’s book, it might be okay to keep the title. But if the title has been used a lot, then it would be best to revise it.

Dissertation-to-Book Projects

Finding a unique title is especially important for dissertation-to-book projects. Years ago, it wasn’t unusual to use the same title for a dissertation and the resulting book manuscript. However, markets and publishing have changed so much since then. First, dissertations need to be significantly revised for publication in today’s market. Retitling a manuscript is one way that the author can show how much they’ve revised the manuscript from its origins as a dissertation and that the two works are meaningfully different.

Second, libraries’ budgets are not what they used to be, and they are purchasing fewer books. One way they cut back on purchases is not buying revised dissertations. It’s really easy to tell which book projects began as dissertations when the titles match! This also means that publishers may be wary about investing in a manuscript that has the same title as a dissertation, especially when the dissertation is widely available, because it could generate fewer sales and citations.

Finally, titling your book the same as your dissertation can have professional consequences. Scholars have told me that tenure and promotion committees may be skeptical about a book project that has the same title as a dissertation, and they may not want to “count” it. This is especially important considering the job market for scholars. Based on these factors, we’ve begun asking all authors of revised dissertation projects to retitle their manuscripts.

If you haven’t finished your dissertation yet, use a straightforward, serviceable title, because that is all the committee needs. Save the best, most creative title for the book manuscript. The same goes for journal articles. If you are writing and publishing articles, and you anticipate building on your work for a book, save the best title for the manuscript.  

Your Book’s Title Should be Clear

This might seem like it goes without saying, but I see a lot of titles that are not doing themselves any favors in this department. While I wrote above that titles should be unique, they can’t be so unique as to miss their audience.

As Laura Portwood-Stacer writes in The Book Proposal Book, it is best to avoid titles that are so specific that only a small part of your audience will understand them. This applies to specific cultural references, quotations, or specialized vocabulary. These titles can seem fun and quirky, but if they don’t appeal to a wide audience, then they will work against the book rather than for it. This is especially true for books that aim to reach a crossover or trade audience. For these books, you want to use more basic, straightforward language than academic jargon, because people outside that discipline may be interested in the topic if the title offers a clear approach (and, of course, if the content lives up to this promise). For example, I acquire in several fields, like labor studies and religious studies, where books could be of interest to both humanists and social scientists because they incorporate both historical methods and ethnography, for example. However, scholars are less likely to be interested in a book if the title flags that it is only for anthropologists.

The same can be true of quotations, which I see a lot. Quotations can make great titles if they clearly communicate the topic of the book in a way that will reach its broad audience. One of my all-time favorite titles is from Jessica Wilkerson’s book, To Live Here, You Have to Fight: How Women Led Appalachian Movements for Social Justice. The main title is from a quotation in the text, and the subtitle clarifies who is fighting for what, and where.

However, I often see two problems with these titles: quotations that are too specific and quotations that are too general. The first problem is much like the jargon problem from above: the quotation is so specific to something inside the book that no one who hasn’t already read it will understand. This can turn off a prospective reader. The second problem is when the quotation feels like it could apply to many books. This will make it more difficult for the book to stand out.

One of the best ways to work on clarity is to workshop titles with your editor or with colleagues. If you choose colleagues, aim to get feedback from people who work in the area(s) your book is targeting, but who haven’t already read your book. This can help you test whether your book’s title and content align, or whether you need to make an adjustment.

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The suggestions above will help you understand the purposes of your book’s title and how to start crafting a title that is effective for your manuscript. To really nail a title, though, I’d like to offer a few more specific tips.

Your Book’s Title Should be Efficient

Katelyn E. Knox and Allison Van Deventer have supplemented their super useful book The Dissertation-to-Book Workbook with online content. On their website, they have one of the most nitty gritty breakdowns of titles I’ve ever seen: Academic Book Titles: How to Title Your Monograph, based on 188 Titles. In this post, they dissect 188 published titles to find out how they work. They found that most of these academic book titles have between 9-12 words, which means they need to convey their topic efficiently.

I tested my titles from last season against what Knox and Van Deventer found. Of the sixteen titles I published in my areas last season, six of those book titles had fewer than nine words, and only two titles were longer. Both of those longer titles were thirteen words.

I would probably stop short of giving a specific word count for titles, because each book is different. However, I do think that most books should be able to effectively communicate their point in about twelve words or fewer. (Wilkerson’s title that I mentioned above is 15 words, which only proves the exception to any possible rule!)

If your title is a lot longer than 12 words, I would consider what you are trying to do. Are you trying to include all the relevant keywords? That probably won’t be possible, so scale it back to what will be most useful to your core audience and what they might be most likely to search for if they want a book on your topic. You could plan to articulate other important ideas in the cover copy. Are you using lots of adverbs or adjectives? Like writing, a lot of times these words add to the length without adding a lot to the meaning, so test whether you really need them by taking them out.

Title efficiency is also important when it comes to book covers, as it is difficult to design an effective cover when the book title has 20 words. By crafting a more efficient title, you open up the cover design possibilities.

Your Book’s Title Needs a Subtitle

Knox and Van Deventer cite this as the first lesson in their blog post, and Laura Portwood-Stacer writes about the importance of descriptive subtitles too. In my experience, this is true more often than not.

There are some titles that are so authoritative that they don’t need subtitles: for example, books like The Oxford Handbook of Disability History edited by Michael Rembis, Catherine J. Kudlick, and Kim Nielsen, or other such handbooks and guides. I’ve also published a few books recently that did not use subtitles, including Hidden Histories of Unauthorized Migrations from Europe to the United States edited by Danielle Battisti and S. Deborah Kang. We considered several approaches for this title, but ultimately we felt the longer main title was strong enough to stand on its own.

However, most monographs and edited collections will benefit from a subtitle that helps explain or builds on the main title. This is especially true when the main title is unique or catchy, and the subtitle offers further context.

For example, last season I published a book on the American Humanist Association, a group that was founded to share religious humanist ideas. The final title for this book is Religion After the Gods: Edwin H. Wilson and the American Humanist Association. The main title grabs the reader—how could there be religion after God or gods? The subtitle explains that the book is talking about the American Humanist Association and Wilson’s role in building it.

Your Book’s Subtitle Should Convey its Argument

This tip is easier said than done. When you have to convey so many keywords and ideas in 12 words, it may seem impossible to also convey the perspective or argument that the book takes. However, I find that these are some of the strongest titles, and writers like Portwood-Stacer agree. In The Book Proposal Book, Portwood-Stacer takes her own monograph title, which was already published, and imagines what it could have done if she considered the argument. It moves from a book about radical activism and lifestyle politics to a book arguing that lifestyles negatively affect the success of radical activism.

One of the ways that Portwood-Stacer achieves a title like this is by using “How” to start the subtitle. I’ve seen good luck with this construction too. One of the titles on my list that I think best exemplifies adding the argument to a title is The Pandemic and the Working Class: How US Labor Navigated COVID-19 edited by Nick Juravich and Steve Striffler. From the main title alone, the prospective reader will understand the topic of this book, but not how the two terms are related to one another. The subtitle indicates that the book is making an argument about how multiple aspects of the US labor force navigated the acute months of the pandemic. The cover copy builds on this by outlining the sectors that the book discusses and placing an emphasis on workers’ experiences. Wilkerson also uses this construction in the title I mentioned above, which reveals an argument about how women led social justice movements in Appalachia.

The “How” construction won’t work for everyone, and we wouldn’t want every book to have a template subtitle. There are other ways to convey argument. As Portwood-Stacer writes, “Try putting some verbs in there and see what happens.” Juravich and Striffler include “navigated” in their subtitle, and Wilkerson included “led,” showing that verbs can really help strengthen a title.

You can also take this a step further, as Portwood-Stacer mentions, and use the same technique for your chapter titles. This will help drive the book forward, from the main title to the chapter titles, and reveal how the argument develops. This, in turn, makes the entire book clearer and more accessible for the reader.

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Titles evolve in the same way that manuscripts do, over rounds of writing and review and revision. What served the original draft may not work for the final manuscript, even if that original title is catchy, articulate, or meaningful. If I leave authors with anything, I’d tell them to keep an open mind as titles develop. Speak up if title suggestions don’t work for your book, but consider revising titles to be more effective, even if you’ve been wedded to an idea for years. The press has every reason to arrive at a title that is best for your book, and we have lots of experience that we’d like to share to help get there.

Recommended Resources for Titles

Katelyn E. Knox and Allison Van Deventer, “Academic Book Titles: How to Title Your Monograph, based on 188 Titles,” https://dissertationtobook.com/titles/.

Laura Portwood-Stacer, The Book Proposal Book, especially chapter 8. Princeton University Press, 2021.

Laura Portwood-Stacer, Make Your Manuscript Work, especially chapter 6. Princeton University Press, 2025.

William Sisler, “You’re the Author Now.” In Revising Your Dissertation: Advice from Leading Editors, 2nd ed., edited by Beth Luey. University of California Press, 2008. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt13x1g8x.5. P. 10.

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