Snow Leopard

Engineering A BestSelling Book Checklist

Law #5: Use The Subtitle To Put “The Right Words In The Right Mouths”

Formula: Word Image

Formula: Main Title Is A Transformation/Outcome

Formula: Main Title Is The Golden Rule Inside The Book

When coming up with a title for your own book, use this simple framework: take the book’s big idea and reduce it down to a single word or phrase. Then choose a synonym—something that means the same thing, but is a little different. (The magic line you are trying to walk here is using new Languaging that instantly sounds familiar.)

Formula: Main Title Is A Synonym For The Book’s Big Idea

Here are a few formulas we spotted from our analysis that you can use as templates when coming up with a title for your own book.

Law #4: Languaging In The Main Title By a wide margin, the vast majority of best-selling books use Non-Obvious, more “sticky” (sometimes veering into the territory of “clever”) main titles, followed by extremely Obvious, straightforward “How To” subtitles.