Extraneous information in book titles: Yea or Nay? #WriterWednesday #BookMarketing

First of all, what the heck do I mean with extraneous information in a book title? How can there be extraneous information? It’s a title! Actually, there can be more information than necessary in a book title. I’m referring here to the current trend to add a description of the novel after the title itself. Not to be confused with the series name, the descriptor is more general and often refers to a sub-genre or popular trope. How do you identify this extraneous information? Amazon puts the name of the series into parentheses after the title, but extraneous information is usually found after a colon in the name itself.

Here are some examples:

The list could go on forever.

I recently listened to a podcast that recommended authors use this approach to creating a title as a type of marketing. I’m not a fan for several reasons. First and foremost, when you peruse the top lists of a genre, the entire title does not appear either on a desktop or the mobile app. (So, sue me! I like to troll the top 100 lists to find novels to read.) What’s the point if it’s not immediately seen? As a reader, I find it a bit off-putting as well (this is my polite way of saying I think it looks tacky). Do you think I can’t figure out what your novel is about? But the biggest problem I have with this approach is that the extraneous information always refers to some type of hot-for-now trope.

There is absolutely, positively nothing wrong with writing guilty pleasure novels in hip and happening genres. I will even admit to reading some of them. And if that’s how you want to market your books by adding as extraneous information ‘a stepbrother romance’, go for it! But look at the definition above: ‘common or overused theme.’ My husband claims there are no new ideas. I admit (when he’s not around), he’s right about that. Still, I don’t want my novels to seem common or use an overused theme. (They probably do, but I can pretend, can’t I?)

What about you? Do you use extra information in your book title? Why? Why not?