How to Name Your Bestseller (Hint, it involves “Girls”)

Despite the old adage, we all know that everyone judges a book by its cover. So why do some books sell while others languish on store shelves or in Amazon fulfilment centers? I submit to you that what moves those glossy tomes is as simple as the few words printed on them.

I’ve used the freely available New York Times Bestsellers API to study the titles of the most popular books of the last 5 years. Having carefully examined the data, I’m ready to share my results with the would-be authors of the world. Below I’ll show you how to title your future best-seller using just a few simple tricks.

Learn What Words Work

Does anyone know the name of the bestseller that has racked up over 100 weeks (over 2 years!) on the NYT fiction best-seller list? Chances are that you’ve seen the book at your local airport kiosk and felt it’s near-perfect title working subtly on your subconscious. I’m of course referring to Paula Hawkins’ “The Girl on the Train”. It turns out that this book uses one of the most powerful words in modern fiction, namely “Girl”. In fact, if we take a list of all the fiction bestsellers of the past year, we find that there is no more popular word. Below is a word cloud created by breaking down the titles of these books. As we can clearly see, some words seem to work like magic to…