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.