How to Use Subtitles for Targeted Book Marketing

by Dana Lynn Smith

Adding subtitles to books is an effective way to appeal to potential customers and increase the odds of a book being found online. Subtitles are useful for both fiction and nonfiction and they can even be added to books that are already published.

Nonfiction Subtitles

Nonfiction books often have a short, catchy main title, followed by a longer, more descriptive subtitle. The subtitle is a good place to clarify the benefits of the book, identify the target audience, and include keywords that people might search for online. Here are some sample subtitles:

• 15 Ways Young Adults Can Build Good Credit
• The Easy Way for New Mothers to Lose Weight
• A 10 Step Plan for First Time Entrepreneurs

Novel Subtitles

Subtitles can also be effective in promoting novels. They are especially useful in clarifying the genre or storyline, identifying the target audience, and in denoting series books. Here are some fiction subtitle examples:

• A Gripping Tale of Romantic Suspense
• Detective McKee Mystery #3
• A Dark Urban Fantasy
• A Mystery for Cat Lovers

Adding Subtitles to Existing Books

If your book has already been published, it's not too late to add a subtitle. It's easy to add a subtitle to your own website and marketing materials. Depending on how and where the book was published, you may also be able to add a subtitle to the book and revise your cover artwork to include the subtitle.

Amazon frowns on authors making up subtitles packed with keywords for the sole purpose of influencing search results, so make sure your subtitle is a legitimate, meaningful descriptor for the book.

For self-published ebooks, you can change the title on Amazon's KPD publishing site. For self-published printed books, look into adding a subtitle through your Amazon Author Central page or through your CreateSpace account, if you published there.

The subtitle is supposed to appear on the book cover, although it may not make economic sense to pay a cover designer to revise your cover. If you do revise the cover, you can upload new cover artwork through CreateSpace or KDP, if you published there.