Help me title my eBook?
Hi all. Can you help me title my eBook?
So imagine that you have a few ideas in your "Great SaaS Ideas" notebook, and not sure how to pick one to work on.
Which of these eBooks would you buy to help you?
Any additional feedback, comment or enquiries welcome in the comments too!
Thank you very much.
Trending on Indie Hackers
40 open-source gems to replace your SaaS subscriptions 🔥 🚀
After 19,314 lines of code, i'm shutting down my project
Need feedback for my product.
We are live on Product Hunt
Don't be a Jerk. Use this Tip Calculator.
I know the struggles you're going through of picking the right title for your book. It took me some time and several names until I came up with Start With A Side-Project but it's all possible and it's good you ask for advice from the community.
To be honest, I didn't like any of the suggested titles you offered, so I came up with another one for your consideration:
SaaS ideas: How to pick the right one
Your title is nice and snappy - I like it! Thanks.
What helped you settle on the name Start With A Side-Project?
I came up with a few names and this one resonated with me the most. Try to build a list of names you like and take a few days to ponder the decision.
Thanks. And I think I will take your advice.
Thanks everyone for the comments and votes.
The winning title, by 11 votes (out of 33 total) is:
"How to pick a good SaaS idea: A checklist from successful founders"
Close second:
"Pre-validate: How successful founders pick winning SaaS ideas"
Thank you.
I work as a book editor and have been helping writers for years. I hope you don't think it is presumptuous, but I have some questions...
Who is your target market?
What are the titles of the most popular books in your book's genre?
What pain point are trying to solve?
Not presumptuous at all - thanks for the very helpful questions.
Target market: Indiemakers/founders who are not sure which idea of theirs is worth pursuing, or what makes a good idea to pursue.
Popular book titles: I don't know, but I will research!
Pain point: "I worked on a couple of ideas but they didn't work, and I really don't want to spend another 3 months validating an idea that didn't have a chance in the first place. How do I know what I should be working on next?"
Book titles are always hard.
I think of them like covers; they need to match the genre and not be too different.
If you look at this article (https://davidmytton.blog/the-best-books-for-startup-founders-and-ceos/) you see all the titles are similar.
This tells me that you want a long title with a snappy start, followed by an explanation.
So...
Snappy Start: This is an explanation that is giving the reader more information
As for pain point, it's 'how do I know if my idea will work?'
Using this, the title needs to be something like...
Picking a Good Idea: How to know if your idea is any good
But, you know, less crap :)
Excellently put.
If you don't mind me asking, how did you find out about IH or why would a book editor sign up to join IH?
Ha, good question.
BubbleCow.com, my editing business, is just one of my businesses. This pays the wage bill and has been very good to us over the years. Its been running since 2008 and is well established. I know the publishing industry well.
However, my real passion is 'business'. I love building things.
So... as well as BubbleCow.
We also have a writer's community (proactivewriter.com).
A very early stage publishing company for TTRPS (endlessknotgames.com).
And a newsletter for RPG gamers looking to find out about new crowdfunded games (ultimaterpg.net).
That's not to mention all the stuff we tried and rejected over the years. :)
Nice!
I've signed up for an account on proactivewriter.com.
PS: @farez Sorry for derailing your post but some of the @TheEndlessKnot's self-promotion is relevant to me 😉.
PPS: I literally LOLed at this bit from your Twitter bio: "TED talk survivor".
No worries!
Wow @TheEndlessKnot, quite the pedigree of products. proactivewriter.com sounds really useful. I'm signing up to get the Writing Manual ebook.
Thanks. ProActive is still very much a work in progress, but we are growing.
Man, that was book titling 101 from a pro.
I was looking through my Kindle and you're right about the popular format. As someone else put it: "Hook: Benefit".
Thanks for the detailed feedback. Really appreciate it.
Farez
Ha ha. No probs, I do this kind of stuff for a living, so it's nice to help.
Also, 'hook: benefit' was what I was trying to say :)
The key is to hit that pain point smack on the nose.
Think of Tim Ferris The 4-Hour Work Week'
I know it isn't following the rule, but that title genius!
It's aimed at people looking to be a success under their own steam, and what says success more than only having to work four hours? Think what you like about the book, the title works. If I remember correctly, he tested that title with Google ads.
I resonate with the problem you tryign to solve as I posted about it before
I like the first one, but i sounds like a title for a blog post not a book
I would choose 2 or 3.
Thanks Jamal. That's useful input.
Wow, that's a beautiful flowchart that you created! Vary useful too. Did you show it to @bramk?