UFO Lands in First Baptist Parking Lot
Jan 23rd, 2008 by gibsondirect
I must admit, I struggle with headlines.
…Get too creative and you risk becoming silly and may lose credibility.
…Get too conservative and you go unnoticed.
From my marketing experience, I know that headlines can be one of the more important parts of any text. It often makes the difference between being read and not being read. But for me, after working on a text, I have a tendency to slap 5-minutes of thought into a headline and move on. But I know better.
Great headlines take time.
Here’s a quiz. If you know the author, pretend you don’t. Now, which of these book titles might temp you to take a closer look?
Here I am… Send Aaron
The Cross of Christ
Messy Spirituality
A Better Hope
On the Edge of Adventure
If you answered one, you’re probably working at this too hard. If you answered three, you’ve got talent. If you answered all five, you’re a hopeless bookoholic.
Creating great headlines takes time, at least it does for me. I found there are no short cuts. I’m not always consistent about doing this, but here’s a routine I go through for titles: First, I tell myself that it’s worth the time to create a good title. In other words, I need to slow down and make sure I do the best I can.
Once I get that settled, I start writing down every title that comes to mind. Sometimes, I come up with a title on the first pass. But more often, I lay the list aside and come back to it later. It helps to give it space. Usually by the second round, I create something that I feel good about. But, I try not to stop there. I put it aside again, and if I still feel good about it after a short time, it then becomes an official title. If not, I keep working on it.
Is it worth it? I believe it is, but you’ll need to be the one to answer that one for yourself.
Well, your headline worked to bring me over from Goodword. But I’m still looking for the aliens!
Are those really book titles? I must admit that none of them grabbed me. Finding a title was one of the most painful parts of my book process. Partly because the author has to negotiate. I suppose like all writing, finding a title becomes a partnership of sorts.
Finding a title for a book, a poem, or an article always feels like I’m naming my next kid. My wife and I talked about names for months–and we didn’t have to worry about our kid dying a slow death in remainders if people didn’t resonate with the name we chose.
A question about the five titles. Is #3 successful because it sold more copies?
I’m not sure of the exact number, but it sold a lot. This is a Mike Yaconelli book published by Zondervan. At the time it was published, it probably spoke more to the mid-age/ baby boomer crowd. But, it has a good message for all Christians.