Add extra keywords in titles of Kindle books to boost sales?

[joshi]

I am toying with the idea of adding extra words to the titles of my Dad's books.
These are existing works that have all been published previously in the last 20 to 50 years. I newly scanned and published them to Kindle earlier this year.

My question is simply I want to boost sales and one way to do that is to have more words in the titles. Some of the books existing titles are simply one word, so I am hoping it can have a significant effect.

Anyone think this is a good / bad / otherwise idea?

The books are of literary significance. My Dad is the author Clifford Irving:
[Link removed - MODERAT0R]

Your thoughts please?

ps. The works are mostly fiction

[susan_cassidy]

Don't change the titles of existing books. That will just confuse people who are familiar with his books.

[teh603]

I haven't tried it with Amazon, but aren't your keywords based on your tag cloud and not your title?

[Quexos]

It must be nice to be the son or daughter of a writer. I think I would have liked that.
Just wondering why your dad does not take care of this himself ?

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Quexos

It must be nice to be the son or daughter of a writer. I think I would have liked that.
Just wondering why your dad does not take care of this himself ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Irving

[GMcG]

You could add some words to the title like it was done with the print version of
Fake: The Story of Elmyr de Hory the Greatest Art Forger of Our Time
The original one-word-title "Fake" is shown on the cover next to it.
($ 245.45 for a used book?)

George

[David Marseilles]

I think there may be an Amazon TOS issue, but I can't recall the portion specifically, about adding non-title content to the title space. If you mean to change the titles of the books themselves, I'm sure that's different.

[gmw]

According to the ISBN user manual, a new ISBN is required if you change the title of the publication.

[jarrahloh]

Though they usually miss it anyway, it is actually against the Amazon 'rules'

Also, I think it's a little low for a respected author.

But do what you gotta do, if it helps, no biggy.

[frahse]

Longer titles are generally good, but that doesn't mean they should be complicated and hard to remember. Try at least to get the title idea at the front of the title.

Consider
"Real Success, the trials and tribulations of a defrocked priest trying to make a go of it in High End NY Real Estate."

"Real Success"

"The trials and tribulations of a defrocked priest trying to find Real Success in High End NY Real Estate."

or being cute and catchy in the media:

"Defrocked in High End."

[joshi]

Thank you for the input.

These are my dads suggestions per my request (with my notes following in brackets):

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF HOWARD HUGHES : A Billionaire's Confession of a Bizarre Life
(This addition may be pushing it since currently this Fictional work is in 'Biographies & memoirs' category?)

JAILING : The Prison Memoir of Novelist Clifford Irving
(Cover picture shows: JAILING: The Prison Memoirs of 00040, AKA Clifford Irving)
Which I prefer and would simply add the word 'Novelist', is this cool with Amazon I wonder?

TOM MIX AND PANCHO VILLA : A Historical Romance of Mexico and the Old West

FAKE! : The True Story of the Greatest Art Forger of the 20th Century
(I just changed to same as hardback edition: Fake! The Story of Elmyr De Hory, the Greatest Art Forger of Our Time)

TRIAL : A Texas Courtroom Thriller

FINAL ARGUMENT : A Florida Courtroom Thriller

THE ANGEL OF ZIN : A Novel of Nazis, Death Camps, and the Holocaust

DADDY’S GIRL : A True Story of Multiple Murder, Incest, and Texas Justice
(This is already done as it exists in Hardback like this)

DIABLO VALLEY: A Saga of Empire in the Old West

THE SPRING : A Colorado Courtroom Thriller

BLOOMBERG DISCOVERS AMERICA : A Jew’s Dangerous Journey through the Old South

I REMEMBER AMNESIA : An East Hampton Courtroom Thriller


Please let me know your thoughts on this?
Especially No.1

Best,
Josh

[RaphaelOKeffe]

The best way to go about this is to just switch your description up and add very highly targeted keywords to the description to attract more traffic to your website.

Don't change the title up though that is bad. Once you have your title your stuck and you don't want to compromise your title for keyword stuffing.

[Dr. Drib]

Since Irving confessed to the fake biography of Hughes and was sentenced to prison for almost 2 years for fraud, then I think Irving should take advantage of this 'negative' part of his life.

"THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF HOWARD HUGHES" now says nothing 41 years later and resonates in no way with Irving's decision to commit fraud.

I think it should be retitled to take 'advantage' of this aspect of his crime, if one can think of it in that sense.

Perhaps even repackaging "Jailing" with the "Autobiography" [if those two are related] - ALONG WITH ANY NEWLY WRITTEN THOUGHTS ABOUT THE CRIME - would be an interesting marketing ploy.


Don

[cathalmc]

It's an interesting idea, but its logical conclusion is that every book would be called 'The Romantic Adventure Mystery of the Lost Wizard Zombie in the Tomb of Fantasy Vampire Treasure'.

Which keywords were you thinking of ...?

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Since Irving confessed to the fake biography of Hughes and was sentenced to prison for almost 2 years for fraud, then I think Irving should take advantage of this 'negative' part of his life.

"THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF HOWARD HUGHES" now says nothing 41 years later and resonates in no way with Irving's decision to commit fraud.

I think it should be retitled to take 'advantage' of this aspect of his crime, if one can think of it in that sense.

Perhaps even repackaging "Jailing" with the "Autobiography" [if those two are related] - ALONG WITH ANY NEWLY WRITTEN THOUGHTS ABOUT THE CRIME - would be an interesting marketing ploy.


Don

I like Don's idea. More specifically, I like the idea of repackaging into new editions with added value - new content. Even if you did this for only one book, successfully marketing the new edition would increase exposure (and sales) to the other titles without having to change them.

But it has to clearly be a new edition, with adequate new content to justify it. In other words, sufficient new content that it would be interesting to those who owned the original work. Otherwise it's just a very transparent marketing ploy.

Simply re-titling the existing works is not a good idea. It can get you caught up in issues with retailers and readers. As someone else already mentioned, ISBNs are tied to one format of one named title anyway, so trying to slip a new title into an existing edition is bad form and can get you de-listed.

So my next question would be - does your father currently hold rights to all formats? If not, which ones are you in a position to work on? Look at what you've got and look for ways to make them fresh. Autobiography, Hoax and Jailing make an interesting bundle, yes?

Is there a journalist or respected blogger that would be interested in doing a retrospective piece? Does your father have any unpublished bits that could be released in a clever manner?

There's lots to work with here. So much interesting stuff, and such an interesting man! Don't fuss about titles - think bigger!