Use Chapter Titles as a Marketing Tool for Long Fiction

When you page through the opening pages of a novel, either online or in a real bookstore, you see the usual front matter: title page, copyright page, dedication, maybe some maps or charts. Sometimes, there’s an opening illustration. There may also be a list of other titles by Author, helpfully supplied by Publisher.

The purpose of this section is to inform Reader the basic facts about what he’s reading, who wrote it, and where the book came from. Informative, but it doesn’t do much to entice the Reader into wanting to read more.

There are sections of the book which fulfill that function, such as the title, the cover art, the back-jacket copy, and the book description.

There is also one more page which can do that. A page that is often ignored. This page can be your ally, luring the Reader into wanting to pay for the privilege of diving into your story right now.

This page is your table of contents.

Nonfiction always has chapter titles in its table of contents. Its function is informative, directing the reader to the section they need to read first.

Fiction has had a long and problematic relationship with chapter titles. Very old novels usually have titles for their chapters. They can be quite detailed, almost index-like in their complexity. Many modern novels don’t supply a table of contents at all, despite the fact that the book is divided up into chapters. The idea is that paper books don’t need them since Reader should start on page 1 and keep reading in he encounters “The End.”

Ebooks, unlike paper books, require a table of contents. Reader can’t just flip through a digital file. The table of contents lets Reader go directly to a specific chapter.

So here you have this valuable real estate, one that you must have for your ebook and what do I see most often?

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Even duller, you don’t even get the words, but:

1

2

3

4.

It’s functional, easy to do, and does the required job.

And it does absolutely nothing to draw in Reader.

How much more exciting it would be for Reader to browse the book, having been drawn in by your potent title, dramatic cover, vivid synopsis, and then open the book to see this:

1. Pauline discovers a body

2. Pauline is disinherited

3. Pauline meets a mysterious stranger

4. Pauline’s virtue is menaced by a cad

5. Pauline flees in the dead of night

And so on, until you reach the final chapter:

40. Pauline is triumphant

Or, you can devise a simpler set of chapter titles:

1. The body

2. Disinherited

3. The mysterious stranger

4. Menaced

5. Escape

And so on, until you reach the final chapter:

40: Triumph, or Virtue Rewarded

Which table of contents is most interesting to Reader? It won’t be the metronome of “chapter one, chapter two, chapter three ……”

Which table of contents will encourage Reader to open up her wallet, purchase your book, and then spend hours with your story? It will be the one that guarantees a good read.

Handling Divisions

In addition, your table of contents can help explain how your book is divided up. Does your book change time periods dramatically, moving from the past to the future and back again? Your table of contents can clarify that movement, making it easier for Reader to keep track of the narrative.

For example:

Part One: Scotland 2019

1. Pauline enters the circle of menhirs

2. Pauline performs the ritual

3. Pauline is interrupted by the laird, Jamie

And so on, until we reach

Part Two: Scotland 1019

10. Pauline is tried as a witch

11. The laird meets his double, Fergus

And so on, until we reach

Part Three: Scotland 1519

21. Pauline saves one laird, sacrificing the other

And so on, until we reach

Part Four: Scotland 1019 B.C.

26. Pauline is captured by druids

And so on, until we reach

Part Five: Scotland 2019

35: Pauline’s time machine malfunctions

And so on, until at last we reach

Part Six: Scotland 3019

40: Pauline, Jamie, and Fergus, reunited at last

Locations and settings

Thus, we see:

Part One: Manhattan

1. Pauline discovers the body

2. Pauline flees into the night

And so on, until we reach

Part Two: The holler in West Virginia

12. Pauline is kidnapped

13. Pauline meets a dangerous man

And so on, until we reach

Part Three: The Florida Gulf Coast

21. Pauline almost drowns in the hurricane

And then after much trauma

Part Four: Hollywood

31. Pauline and the casting couch

And then back to

Part Five: Manhattan

39. Pauline faces the court

40. Pauline’s decision

You can just as easily show how Pauline is zipping across the galaxy in her two-person space ship and the planets she visits.

If your book is in parts, whereby each part is narrated by a different character, your table of contents can make that clear.

Part One: Pauline

1. Pauline’s dreadful discovery

2. Pauline, accused

And so on, until we reach

Part Two: Harrison

5. Is she guilty?

6. If she is, she’s still damn hot

And so on, until we reach

Part Three: Pauline

11. Pauline vamps the prosecutor

12. Pauline finds evidence

And so on, until we reach

Part Four: Harrison

21. The evidence is damning

22. Her web of lies

And so on, until we reach

Part Five: Pauline

30. Pauline’s arrest

31. Pauline in prison

And so on, until we reach

Part Six: Harrison

35. Desperate measures

36. Disbarred

And so on, until at last

Part Seven: Reunited

40. Pauline and Harrison, or Virtue Triumphant

In every case, exciting chapter titles gives Reader far more reasons to pick up your book over someone else’s.

You can play with your chapter titles. They form a poem if read aloud. They can reveal the story from start to finish. Conversely, they can conceal what actually happens by focusing on a minor, but still interesting, event in the chapter. They can bring out other characters in the novel, letting Reader know that Pauline is accompanied by her sister, Penelope, also prone to peril.

The choice is yours.

The only disadvantage is that it takes time to write good chapter titles. As you write and rewrite, make notes on possible chapter titles. Revise as needed and then see how your list of chapter titles reads on the page. Revise again. Writing chapter titles is similar to choosing the title of your book or writing headlines. You are compressing a huge message into a few words. The difference is you don’t have to be as concise as a book title might need to be.

Your chapter titles can become another marketing tool; a subtle one that helps make the sale to Reader, when she’s deciding between your book and someone else’s. Your book has an exciting table of contents, whetting Reader’s appetite. The other book has that dreary list of chapter one, chapter two, chapter three and so on.

Be the book that Reader chooses.