Many authors struggle to craft that perfect title that encapsulates what their book is about and that will entice potential readers, leading to better book sales.
Self-publishing authors don’t have their own book marketing professionals to help them craft the perfect book title, so we must manage on our own.
How do I come up with a title for my book? There are lots of ways to come up with a title for your book, such as:
- Consulting free book title generators for ideas
- Brainstorming on a piece of notebook paper
- Looking up similar bestsellers in your genre for inspiration
- Taking a notable line from your book
There’s no shame in experimenting with a book title generator. Plus, there’s no cost to try it out.
Yes, they’re usually generic… but don’t use the generic suggestions. Story title generators are most helpful in sparking your own unique inspiration.
For this article, I've researched, tested, and linked to all the best book title generators, separated below by genre.
- Best free book title generators
- How to test your book title once you’ve created it
- What a book title generator is (and isn’t)
- Other tools to help validate your book ideas
Table of contents
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List of Book Name Generators
Many book name generators are genre-specific — and that’s on purpose. The typical sentence structure and word lexicon for erotica book titles are completely different from science fiction book titles. (Suddenly, I’m interested in sci-fi/erotica crossover titles.)
What should I name my story? You should name your story with a title that’s relevant, marketable, eye-catching, and genre-related. Make sure a casual reader knows by the title whether your book is non-fiction, adult fantasy, short story, romance, memoir, middle grade, etc.
To help you get the most out of a random book title generator, many of those listed below fall under a specific niche/genre.
You might notice a couple of these generators are mentioned multiple times. That's because they allow you to choose different genres with the same free tool.
Fantasy Book Title Generators
- Fantasy Name Generator
- Random Fantasy Novel Title Generator
- Serendipity Fantasy Novel Generator
- Writing Exercises Story Title Ideas
- Reedsy Fantasy Title Generator
- Fantasy Name Generator by RinkWorks (Character names)
- Fantasy Name Gen (Character names)
- Seventh Sanctum Name Gen (Character names)
Sci-Fi Title Generators
- Random Sci-fi Title Generator
- Adazing’s Book Title Creator
- Story Toolz Half Title Generator
- Reedsy Sci-Fi Book Title Generator
- Pulp Sci-fi Title-O-Tron (This one is just plain fun.)
- Fantasy Name Generator (It has a sci-fi option.)
Horror Title Generators
- Generator Land's Horror Titles
- Writing Exercises Story Title Ideas
- Fantasy Name Generator (It has a horror option.)
- Seventh Sanctum's Evil Names (Character names)
- Plot Generator for Horror Stories (Plot/blurb generator)
Romance Title Generators
- Reedsy Romance Title Generator
- Book Title Creator
- Writing Exercises Story Title Ideas
- Fantasy Name Generator (It has a romance option.)
Mystery Novel Title Generators
- Reedsy Mystery Title Generator
- Thriller Book Title Generator
- Story Toolz Half Title Generator
- Randomly Generated Titles
- Fantasy Name Generator (It has a mystery option.)
Check out Kindlepreneur’s article on How to Write a Mystery, written by an author of 16 mystery novels.
Crime Book Title Generators
- Tara Sparling’s Crime Thriller Book Title Generator
- Thriller Book Title Generator
- Reedsy Crime Title Generator
Comic Book Name Generators
- Rum and Monkey's Comic Book Name Generator
- Ruggen Berg's Title Generator
- Fantasy Name Generator’s Web Series Name Generator
Children's Book Title Generators
- Kids Book Title Pinterest Page
- Story Title Ideas for Kids Books
- Fantasy Name Generator (It has a children’s book option.)
If those don't help you develop a good book title for your children’s book, here's a great article full of pro tips.
Don’t forget to check out Kindlepreneur’s in-depth article on How to Write a Children’s Book.
Non-Fiction Book Title Generators
- Portent's Content Idea Generator (My favorite!)
- Adazing's Book Title Creator
- Kopy Writing Kourse Book Name Generator
- Awesome Titles – Title Generator (700 Headlines with 1 click)
- Fantasy Name Generator (It has a non-fiction option.)
Nothing beats a title that matches the intent of what people are typing into Amazon. The best non-fiction title is the one that uses the words of the customer.
To figure out what people are typing into Amazon, make sure to learn about Kindle keywords or use a special tool, like Publisher Rocket, that will pull this information for you.
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Sign Up NowTest Your Title in 3 Ways
Here are 3 ways to test your title after you’ve crafted your favorites:
- Analyze Your Next Title
- Ask professionals
- Try Pickfu
Don’t forget to check out Kindlepreneur’s article on How to AB Test Your Book Title, Cover, and Description.
1. Analyze Your Next Title
ViralML’s Analyze Your Next Title free tool helps you figure out if your book title is marketable and stands a chance of selling well. It compares your title to one million well-reviewed titles.
This nifty tool gives you 3 data points:
- An overall percentage, out of 100%
- Smiling title skew
- Ideal title length
What is smiling title skew? According to viralml.com, “If we analyze enough top Amazon sales ranked books, we notice the following pattern: they start with distant words and end with distant words but are tied together by closer ones… A good title starts and ends with the least synonymous words.”
I used to suggest Lulu’s Title Scorer, but it seems to have been taken off their website in the past year.
2. Ask Your Target Readers
Next, test your book title with potential readers. Some people go to Facebook groups or family and friends to ask their opinion. Most of the time, however, these are not the best people to ask.
Perhaps you have friends who read in your genre. Sure, ask them.
I recommend asking librarians, bookstore clerks, anyone in the publishing industry, or other writers. All of these professionals know more about your target audience than your dad or neighbor or coworker. They know what sells and what doesn’t.
3. Use PickFu
For an online survey of readers from your target market, use Pickfu.
PickFu is a survey service that takes your potential book titles, finds the target market for you, and has those readers vote on which title they like best. Not only will you learn which title is best, but you’ll also glean some insight into why your target market loves one over the other.
Basically, PickFu takes the guesswork out of the process and gives you raw data that will stay with you for your whole career.
You can even see how I used PickFu to test a book description for the popular book Battlefield Earth. My book description helped Galaxy Press double their conversion rates and make more sales.
Book Title Generators Explained
Now that you’ve seen the vast amount of free book title generators out there, you may wish to learn more about how these generators function and generate book titles.
Some book title generators work by identifying a typical pattern or structure to the book titles within a specific genre.
For example, consider the made-up book title The Wizard’s Quest. Imagine this is taken from the fantasy genre. The title generator may identify the pattern that the first word in the title is “The,” followed by a character’s name, followed by a noun describing something about the story.
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Take the CourseThis book title formula could generate titles such as:
- The Hero’s Journey
- The Thief’s Mission
- The Priest’s Trial
Other ways that title generators may work include:
- Using synonyms for words taken from other book titles
- Using a random combination of words that have been deemed appropriate for the genre
- Using a formula such as a physical description word plus a color and a name
There are many types of book title generators, and they don’t all work the same way. But these proposed methods should give you a good idea of how they operate.
If You'd Like to Learn More about Book Title Generators
To help you with learning about book title generators, here are a few more resources and links:
How to Title a Book — I wrote an article on The New York Times’ book title creation process and how you can use that process to craft a novel title that sells more books.
Collection of Great Book Title Ideas on Pinterest — This Pinterest page collects some of the best book titles to give you a glimpse into what other creative authors have come up with over the years.
7 Tools for Creating Superb Bestselling Book Titles — This article helps you dive deeper into book title testing. This way, you'll know your book generator title is the right one.
Feeding Your Writer's Creativity — Check this article out to give your writer brain a shot of creative adrenaline when coming up with your title using the above generators.
How to Select a Subtitle That Sells — Subtitles are almost as important as book titles. Subtitles can be used to boost discoverability and increase the keywords for which you rank.
My Favorite Book Title Generators
Check out the video below to see my favorite book name generators in action and how a nonfiction title generator can work surprisingly well as a novel title generator.
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What are you waiting for?
There are plenty of free tools to help authors jump-start their creative juices. There are free tools at your disposal to test your title and make it the most marketable title possible.
Although these generators aren’t perfect, they are free and better than nothing — especially when serendipity is not on your side.
Just remember, these generators are to help you brainstorm book title ideas and shape how you create your ultimate book title. They shouldn’t be used as prescriptions. Like all fantastic writing, your title shouldn’t feel generic.
After you come up with the perfect title, make sure your book cover design and the fonts you choose for your cover are awesome, too, to catch those Amazon shoppers’ eyes.
For more Kindlepreneur fan-favorite posts, check these out:
- Scrivener Review: See what the hype is about — and snag my exclusive coupon code.
- Best Book Writing Software: What software do you need and not need.
- Best Proofreading Software: Should you use Grammarly or ProWritingAid? It depends.
- +127 Best Book Promotion Sites: Free and paid ways to advertise your book.
- Social Media For Writers: Writers need to market themselves, and social media makes that easier than ever.
Give those book title generators a go, and don't forget to let your writer brain run rampant before zeroing in on the one perfect title.
I am writing an ebook about the Effects of PINEAL GLAND will cause the whole life…
Interesting.