How To Choose a Book Title That Sells!

Today The Write Way Café welcomes author Bill Brier, who has some great suggestions for finding the best title.

1. Make a list of possible titles. Be sure to throw in a screwy one. Like, say, The Killer Who Hated Soup. For example:
1.  A KILLING IN DEFIANCE
2.  OOPS, WRONG VICTIM
3.  EXCUSE ME, I HAVE TO KILL A GUY
4.  DEATH COMES TO DEFIANCE
5.  FIND THE BABY, FIND THE RING
6.  THE KILLER WHO HATED SOUP
7.  THE PARTY CRASHER
8.  DEATH BY TINSNIPS

2. Take copies of your list to a busy bookstore. Approach customers and tell them you’re a mystery writer (or whatever). Ask if they’d take a few seconds to help you choose a title for your upcoming book. Hand them the list and a pencil.

Ask them to put an F by their first choice and an S by their second choice. When they’ve finished, ask them to put a W by their worst choice. Don’t overload them with three questions at once.

At some point, you’ll be asked to leave the store. But that’s fine. You’ll continue your survey outside on the sidewalk. Eventually, a security guard will come along and wag his finger at you. But that’s fine, too. By that time you should have a large enough sample to do your arithmetic.

To determine the winner, assign two points for each first choice, one point for each second choice, and minus one point for each worst choice.

For example, title one might net a plus 52, title two 46, title three 61, etc. The Killer Who Hated Soup outranked second place by a large number. It goes to show…you can’t beat market research!



The Internet? Never heard of it. Smart phones? Who you kiddin’? We’re talkin’ 1956.

Energetic and eager to make his mark on what Time magazine called the next great boom town, Bucky Ontario leaves his Louisiana home and hops a bus to Defiance, Oklahoma, a town not particularly averse to murders, just the embarrassment of them. While helping his friend, Kindra search for a ring that once belonged to her dead mother, Bucky is told: “Find the baby, find the ring.”

Amazon     Barnes and Noble

About Bill: 
     Bill grew up in California and went to Hollywood High School, then served as an Air Force combat cameraman. After hiring on at Disney Studios as a film loader, he soon advanced and moved on to other film studios. He earned a master’s degree in psychology. A big help when working with Trumpish Hollywood producers.
     During his more than twenty- five years in the movie business as a cameraman, film editor, and general manager, Bill worked on everything from the hilarious, The Love Bug, to the creepy, The Exorcist, to the far out, Star Trek and Battle Star Galactica.
     Eight years ago, Bill switched from reading scripts to writing mysteries and driving racecars. After completing three award- winning novels, he signed with Black Opal Books. His first novel, The Devil Orders Takeout, is a standalone thriller about a devoted father and husband who makes a deal with a real- life devil to protect his golf- prodigy son after his wife and older son are killed in a mysterious accident — and pays hell for it.
    Bill’s second novel, The Killer Who Hated Soup, is Book One in the 1950s The Killer Who mystery series, and is available NOW! Book Two of the mystery series, The Killer Who Wasn’t There, is scheduled for release February 24, 2018!
     Bill writes everyday and golfs infrequently (that damn right knee!). His five children and eight grandchildren keep him busy going to birthday parties, and he never misses a one!
     The Brier Patch is Bill’s wildly entertaining blog about his shameless early days in Hollywood. It’s here on his website, along with a contest linked to The Killer Who Hated Soup, which will award the grand prizewinner $1,000.
     Bill is a member of Mystery Writers of America.

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