UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion

Whilst looking through a bookshop the other day, I noticed that more and more books have the title of the book bigger than the author’s name.
Are people starting to be more interested in titles than actual author’s names? We have seen an explosion of book series over the last ten years. Do you actually need your name to sell a book or is it about the title these days.

Celebrity sells, whether this is a well known author or someone famous for something else. Publishers know that sticking a big name on the cover, such as JK Rowling or Stephen King, will draw in the punters.

To be fair, it has been like this for some time. Hollywood has been marketing its films by the name of the stars since Charlie Chaplin. And I bet that Elizabethan theatre-goers would queue up to see the latest Shakespeare play, regardless of what it was called.

I don't think anything has changed. The reason "Big name" authors are called big name authors is because their name on the cover is more prominent than the title (obvious when you think about it).

And really that only happens when readers are looking for books by you, rather than the next in the jumping up and down series. It's celebrity, that's all.

A strong, relevant title is essential. I've sold a bunch of short stories to anthologies and magazines, and I know that on at least a couple of occasions, it's been the title that's helped me stand out from the rest of the slushpile. Throwing Up With the Joneses was the five word moment of pub inspiration that turned me into a published writer. It certainly didn't have much to do with the 3,000 words about serial killer neighbours that went underneath the title.

Meanwhile, my pantomime comedy horror tale was rejected under the bizarre deadline-induced title of Full Pastry Jacket (I remember it was supposed to be funny, but I don't get it either). It was then accepted by the same publisher with just a couple of small revisions and the much better title of Pantocrime.

Titles have been crucial to everything I've ever achieved with my writing, whereas I don't always even use my real name. I used a pseudonym for over 1,200 web articles between 2009 and 2012, and didn't want my name on the cover at all for my Casanova translation (in the end it had to go on there in order to satisfy the various places it was uploaded).

In other words, unless you're Casanova, the title's probably more important :)

Whereas, when I buy a book, it is because I recognise the author's name more than anything else - unless it is a specific recommendation of someone unknown to me by someone say in this group or elsewhere on blogs and so on.

I'm fairly genre agnostic, so that doesn't matter much to me.

I only read blurbs to check if it is, say, a book in a series, short stories or something like that.

I don't pay much attention to covers either unless they are particularly poor, although a cover featuring a TV adaptation or film still will put me off to some degree - although on a Kindle it makes little difference.

Finally, title - that is only there to check it is not something I've already read. Although, it does annoy me when the US and British titles aren't the same, especially when it comes to trying to find the book on Goodreads.