The Importance of Titles

I’ve been observing the importance of titles lately. I think this applies for any sort of writing, not just books. For instance, blogs. For a new blog, without a faithful following, post titles are everything. I’ve noticed some interesting trends in the hits on my blog. There have been five or six hits on most of my posts, with the exception of my review of Rampant by Diana Peterfreund, which was titled Killer Unicorns and Awesome Girls. This post got thirty-three hits. Now, either people often do internet searches of things involving killer unicorns, or people often do internet searches of Rampant. Or perhaps they do searches of both. But, in any case, I personally believe that the majority of the post’s popularity came from its title.
And I can speak for myself when I say that the title of a book is a large factor of whether or not I choose to read it. I think that there is a fine line between a vague, iconic sort of title being enticing and mysterious and being something very gimmicky. It’s a difficult thing to describe, but it’s just the way that I percieve things. I also think the other type, the literal or more lengthy titles should be used sparingly and carefully. So, let us call the first type iconic and the second literal, for the sake of clarity.
Shall we examine some examples? Oh, yes, we shall, indeed.
Let’s begin with some literal titles:
What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

I think this title works. Having read the book, I think it very much represents what the story is, and it makes me want to read the book. You read it, and you say to yourself, “What did she see, and how did she lie?”. And then you pick up the book and read it to find out.
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Again, a good title. It hints to the content without giving anything away. You can look at the cover and say, “Who is the great and terrible beauty? What makes her great and terrible?” And once more, you find yourself leaving the bookstore with pockets much lighter than they were when you went in. So, you can recognize a theme: A good title makes you ask questions. It makes you curious to see what the book is about.
The same should happen with an iconic title.
The Luxe by Anna Godberson

In this case, the title vouches for what you see on the cover. The titles tells you that there will be a luxurious factor in the book, and the cover shows a girl in a very luxurious-looking dress. So you already trust the book. You can see that the title does not lie. And your interest is sparked. And you want to know what is so luxurious. Thus, again, you read.
Wings by Aprilynne Pike

We must also trust this book. The title says that there will be wings, and on the cover, we see wings. And you wonder, “who has wings? Why are wings important in this book?”. If the title is good, you will be curious about it. And by the end of the book, you should be able to see how the title is connected to the actual book.
Let us test this out. Take the title of this post: The Importance of Titles. It is a literal title. When you read it, you will probably wonder, “What is so important about titles?”. And then (hopefully), you will read the article to find out. And by this point, you will have realized that the title is relevant to the text. I shall watch and see how many hits this post gets, to see how effective the title was, and let you know.