Cool autobiography title ideas

How to come up with book title ideas

Need an original book title, and fast? We got you. Here are 8 ways to come up with book title ideas. 

1. Start free writing to find keywords

Write absolutely anything that comes into your head: words, phrases, names, places, adjectives — the works. You’ll be surprised how much workable content comes out from such a strange exercise.

2. Experiment with word patterns

Obviously, we’re not advocating plagiarism, but try playing around with formats like:

“The _____ of _______”

or

“______ and the _____”

These will work for certain genres, though they are by no means the only patterns you can play around with. Have you noticed how many blockbuster thrillers these days feature the word “woman” or “ girl” somewhere in the title?

3. Draw inspiration from your characters 

If your central character has a quirky name or a title (like Doctor or Detective) you can definitely incorporate this into your book title. Just look at Jane Eyre, Percy Jackson, or Harry Potter, for instance — working with one or more or your characters’ names is a surefire way to get some title ideas down. Equally, you can add a little detail, like Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure, to add a little color to a name and make it title-worthy.

4. Keep your setting in mind

Is your book set somewhere particularly interesting or significant? Even if your title isn’t just where the action takes place (like Middlemarch by George Eliot), it’s something to have in the back of your mind. You can include other details, like The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum or Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay, to give your readers a sense of action and character, as well as setting (which tend to be linked).

5. Look for book title ideas in famous phrases 

Think Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird here — this is a central symbol and significant piece of dialogue in the novel. It’s enigmatic (what does it even mean? Is it a warning

Good memoir titles should entice or intrigue the reader, evoke a sense or spirit of the book, and give readers a hint as to the tone of the story they’re going to read. A good memoir title can help sell a book, a bad one can sink it.

So how do you come up with a good memoir title for your book?

Good memoir titles come in many shapes and sizes

From snappy single-word memoir titles, to fragments of phrases, and snippets of conversation, there is no one-size-fits-all. There are occasional trends towards certain types of title – single-word titles (Becoming, Arranged, Ghosted, Educated) have been big, but the autobiography and memoir market has space for all kinds of titles. So don’t worry about trying to fit your title into a particular style.

To help you think up the best and most appropriate title for your memoir, here are some good memoir titles, grouped into types, drawn from books published in the last few years.

Single word memoir titles

There’s a trend for single word memoir titles, like Educated (Tara Westover), Toast (Nigel Slater), Redeemable (Erwin Jones), Stumped (Richard Harrison) and the most famous one-word memoir title of recent times, Becoming by Michelle Obama.

If you’re considering single word memoir titles, consider using active verbs like fighting, running, winning to give that sense of action and forward motion.

The ‘I told you I could eat a frog’ type memoir titles

Fragments of speech drawn from your manuscript can make for interesting titles.

One of my favourite examples of this approach is No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy (Mark Hodkinson). It’s a very elegant example of how a few carefully chosen words can really sum up the ethos, feel, and intentions of a whole book.

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson is the question her mother asked her when she learnt that her daughter was a lesbian. Again, that one line of speech sums up so much about

November 21, 2020 (last modified January 21, 2025 at 04:24 pm)

Sometimes the inspiration you need is in a book title. If you’re struggling to come up with a solid story idea, then this book title generator is for you! With thousands of unique book title ideas, you’re sure to find the inspiration you need for your next story. Feel free to edit and re-adjust these book titles to suit your own story.

Keep on reading this post for tips on creating your own book title and our free book title generator printable. You might also like our daily book title challenge, where you are given a new book title each day to write about.

Other Book Title Generators

Tips For Creating a Good Book Title

What makes a good book title? A good book title summarises your story without giving too much away. It is enticing, exciting and mysterious. Here are some tips for creating an awesome book title for your story:

• Think about the genre: If you’re writing a horror book, then you’ll need a scary or dark book title to suit your story. If you’re writing a children’s story, make sure you think about words that your target readers will understand. Keep your genre in mind when coming up with book titles. And keep your audience in mind! 
• Make a list of descriptive words: What is your story about? Who is the main character? What objects are used throughout? Where is your story set? These are all things you might want to think about when making a list of words that describe your story. This list will come in handy when writing your own book title.
• Leave the book title until the end: It is easier to come up with a good book title when your story is written. The more familiar you are with your story, the easier it is to summarise it in a few words. 
• Review your book title: If you have written your book title before writing the story, then reviewing it at the end is important. You might want to double-check

You’ve written your life story. 

You’ve laid your heart bare before the world

So, what’s the best title for your one-of-a-kind masterpiece?

“____________: An Autobiography”?

Nooo!

Seriously, unless you’re a household name, using “autobiography” as part of your title might not work in your favor, but not to worry. You don’t have to be famous to write an autobiography, but you do need a title that will grab a buyer’s attention, so they know your book is worth a second look.

The purpose of this article is to break down what makes a standout autobiography title and the process for creating your own. 

The secret sauce for writing an amazing book title

The process of creating an autobiography book title that gets noticed starts with a marketer’s mindset.

Yes, it all boils down to strategic book positioning in the marketplace. Creativity is a big part of it, but that’s a small part of the bigger picture. After all, if your book doesn’t get in front of the people who would be most likely to read it, you can’t change lives with the content inside!

Unlike fiction books or other types of nonfiction books (e.g. business books or textbooks) where there’s a specific category or genre expectation, autobiographies play by their own set of rules—the more creative the better. 

How to think like a marketer when creating your title

If you are self-publishing your book, then you’re probably already aware that marketing is a key component of your book’s success, but what is marketing exactly? 

The American Marketing Association defines marketing as

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. 

When marketing your book, knowing how to write a good book title matters, because, alo