A chapter title like “Women and Smoking: It is Getting to Be a Habit,” sounds a lot more enticing and accessible. Obscure chapter titles are another no-no. For instance, in a book on bullying, what would the chapter title “The Understanding” convey to you? Can you tell what the subject of the chapter will be? Probably not. But what if it was titled “The Intimidating Power of Fear: The Secret Understanding?”
Might you then guess that part of the bullying phenomenon rested on one or both parties understanding the intimidating power of fear? Using overly cute titles when writing about serious issues can give readers the impression your work is lightweight or trivial. For example, in a serious book about battered women, a chapter title like “Love May Be Blind, but Self-Preservation Keeps its Eyes Wide Open” might convey the idea that the book was a glib, superficial work.
Something more along the lines of “Self-defense in Advance: The Six Signs of a Batterer” could suit your book better. What makes a good chapter title? In essence, it is an exciting phrase that encapsulates in an interesting way the theme of your chapter. A title like “A Weighty Subject” for a chapter on obesity, for instance. Or an exciting promise, like “Putting Made Easy” for a book on golf. Or dramatic wording, like “Playing Beyond Your Limits” for a book on tennis.
Then use the checklist below to troubleshoot your titles like a professional. It is adapted from my paperback book, Writing Successful How-To/Self-Help Books. Score one point for every “yes” you can give to the following questions about any prospective title you devise.
* Is it specific? (Does it say, “Make Money From Home” when you mean “In The Home Mail-order Business”?)
* Is your title arresting. attention-getting? (Does it say something flat and boring like, “The Encyclopedia of Sex,” or catchy and exciting, like “Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex”?)
* Is it upbeat and positive? (Does it dwell on the negative or neutral, like “Being Lonely and Ignored,” or does it emphasize the positive, like “Winning Friends and Influencing People”?)
* Does it offer the reader benefits? (Does it simply say “A Financial Guide to the Coming Recession,” instead of promising to teach them “How to Make $1,000,000 per Year”?)
* Will readers know what you you are talking about? (Does it capture the problem in obscure terms like “Codependency and Intimacy: A Female Perspective” or in language anyone could recognize like “Women Who Love Too Much”?)
* Is it short? (Will it be easy to say? Remember, only two of the titles in this chapter were longer than six or seven words and they were easy to say.)
