Change to a long title or keep the short title?

Keep the short title or include the full title?


  • Total voters
    13

KrakenRiderEmma

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My ongoing smut novel (first one below) has one of the shorter titles around, but it has a long subtitle. (The whole thing is “Succubated! by the Nine-thousand-year-old Demoness”

The short title looks better on a cover with the long extension in smaller letters, of course. But which is better for the official Scribblehub title? I’m very amused by some long titles, although the super-long ones get silly. Some long titles feel like they get across the tone and subject of the series better. So I’m torn — get on the long title bandwagon or stick to the short and sweet?

I may just be futzing around with minor tweaks during a quiet week, and ought to whip my aging AI into collaborating on my difficult side series instead.
 

LilRora

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Best titles are short and catchy. I say you should stick to the short one.

When I browse stories or manga, my eyes generally glaze over titles that take up three lines on my phone screen. They just don't register it as something I'd potentially be interested in.
 

TotallyHuman

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If you sort stories by pageviews, you'll see that long titles and short titles come across somewhat interchangeably. I will not do any actual statistics, but I feel that length of the title does not correlate to popularity of a story.
 

Paul_Tromba

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Short titles catch the eye but longer titles can catch the mind. In other words, you can pique someone's interest with a short snappy title that makes them want to see what it's about but if the title is longer and can sort of explain what the book is about then the person will know whether it's something that is related to their interests. Though a short title would be 1-4 words usually while long titles are 5+ words. A good median is around 8-10 words as it isn't so long that the reader finds it to be a mouthful but not short enough that it barely hints at the story.
 

KrakenRiderEmma

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If you sort stories by pageviews, you'll see that long titles and short titles come across somewhat interchangeably. I will not do any actual statistics, but I feel that length of the title does not correlate to popularity of a story.
Actually looking at data, what an idea!
This makes sense, though I'm curious about favorites as well (pageviews depend too much on # of chapters and how long it's been up?)
 

K5Rakitan

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Do what sounds best to you.
 

CarburetorThompson

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Best titles are short and catchy. I say you should stick to the short one.

When I browse stories or manga, my eyes generally glaze over titles that take up three lines on my phone screen. They just don't register it as something I'd potentially be interested in.
The best titles are short sure, but the way to get clicks is to dump your synopsis in place of the title.
 

Omnifarious

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Why not both, have a short title followed by small subtitle that just on the cover.
 
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