This is going to be the easiest blog as well as the one that needs your absolute attention.

Writing the perfect subtitle for your book can seem easy but it can take weeks or months for even professionals to plan out how to write a subtitle for the book title.

Before we move forward with anything else, let us define what is the subtitle.

WHAT IS A BOOK’S SUBTITLE?

For people who are unaware of this term, the closest thing they can guess would be something along the lines of a movie subtitle.

They might think this is the translation part of a book written in a different language.

However, the answer to this is quite simple and you have probably looked that a few dozen subtitles yourself without realising.

The subtitle of the book is the part that comes after the main title.

Here are a few books subtitle examples to help you understand what is a subtitle of a book.

“Healthline: A Guide To Living Well”

“Nicotine: The Deadliest Killer”

“Blissdom: A Guide To Mental Peace”

“Kinshasa Tales: How I Found My Friend In Africa”

We hope these examples have helped you understand what the subtitle of a book means.

It is basically an addition or rather a small description that helps us understand the contents of the book.

If the main title is the hook, then this is a further abbreviation of the hook.

If the title of the book helps you get in then the subtitle of the book helps you stay.

Now that you know what is the subtitle of a book, you might want to know how to write a book’s subtitle or rather how long should the subtitle of a book be.

Let us help you because this is the author’s guide to book subtitles and will be a guide to writing a great book subtitle.

HERE ARE THE TIPS TO WRITING THE BEST BOOK SUBTITLES

ASSISTING THE HOOK

 

This is one of the most important roles that are subtitle of a book must fulfil and that is to help the primary hook or the title.

 

The subtitle should always be an assistant to the title and must explain what the title or even what the book is about.

 

The subtitle is quite important because it literally represents the book for the first time to the reader who is going to buy it from the book store.

 

While you can have the title as discrete and unique as possible, so as to draw people in, the subtitle should not be discrete and should be simple and explain the title like an adjective.

 

You can find a few good examples of book subtitles not from fiction books but rather from non-fiction self-help books as well as marketing books.

 

These books usually serve a more important purpose than pleasure reading and therefore they must be able to explain the contents of the book to the people who are looking.

 

You can also find good subtitle examples from autobiographies of people.

 

CONTEXT

 

One of the most important functions that a subtitle must fulfil is that it should be of the proper context.

 

Without holding on to the proper context, the meaning of the subtitle will fade away and the subtitle will seem redundant.

 

The main purpose of a subtitle is to convey additional information and if that subtitle does not have that information, then there is no point in the subtitle.

 

Therefore, the subtitle must be contextual and must explain the context and the background and anything about the book.

 

Here are a few bad examples of how to not write subtitles.

 

“Transcendence: Transend Today And Now.”

 

If we ask you about the title and the subtitle mentioned above, would you be able to tell what the book is about?

 

Judging from the title and the subtitle the book can be about anything, philosophy, opioids, photo development, time travel, spiritualism or even a manual on elevators.

 

However, the main flaw with this example is that the subtitle does not provide any additional information and what it does is stretches the title.

 

You must try to avoid this kind of subtitles that has no sense of context.

 

TO THE POINT

 

This is one thing you must remember and this is one thing that is followed throughout the world in the global literary community.

 

You are writing a subtitle and not a synopsis.

 

Your subtitle should not exceed a few words.  If the subtitle starts exceeding more than 5 or 6 words then that will no longer remain a subtitle.

 

If that happens and you have no other way to shorten the subtitle then you should put it at the back of your book in the place of ‘about the book’.

 

There is no need for you to mandatorily use a subtitle for the sake of it and you can simply leave the title alone.

 

But if you are deciding to use a subtitle, please try using a short one.

 

KEYWORD

 

We are all in the digital world and we all know how important keywords are.

 

This is even more important if your book will be published in an e-book format.

 

You must always try to include a few important keywords into the subtitle because that will allow it to be more searchable in the online book stores.

 

What having a good keyword does is that it not only makes the algorithms seek out your book whenever someone is searching for a book on a similar topic.

 

But it also allows the potential readers to understand what the book is about.

 

Here is an example to help you understand this.

 

“Mindscape: A Deep Dive Into The Psychology of Mind Readers.”

 

While ‘Mindscape’ alone will not help any reader to understand what the book is about, the words ‘Psychology’ and ‘Mind Readers’ will be more than enough.

 

As you can see in the example above, two words that are keywords in actuality have been placed strategically so that the potential reader can understand what the book is about.

 

This will also help whenever someone will be searing for a book on psychology and mind readers.

 

You must also try doing the same.

 

This was the guide to writing a good book subtitle.  We hope this blog has been helpful to you in determining what kind of subtitle to write for your book.

If you are still finding it hard to find the perfect subtitle then we are here to help you.

We are Orange Publishers, India’s fastest-growing self-publishing book house and we do everything from the publishing to the copyrights as well as the sales and promotion.

You simply have to submit your manuscript to us and we will do everything else for you, from designing the book cover to selecting the font and everything in between.

Which also means we are going to suggest to you a very effective and attractive subtitle.

Come check out our website today.