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How to get a reader's attention: Story Title

helmut_meukel ๐Ÿšซ

It's maybe just me, but skimming over a list of stories, there are titles giving me pause to have a closer look at the story.
A few examples of fiction story titles that did it for me:
โ€ข Freedom, Humanity, and Other Delusions
โ€ข The Etiquette of Sin
โ€ข Details Matter
โ€ข Least Favorite Child
โ€ข The Warp and the Weft
โ€ข Death's Handmaiden
โ€ข The Disunited States of America
โ€ข Agent of Byzantium
โ€ข Resident Witch
โ€ข The Number of the Beast
โ€ข Conquistador
The above are all stories I actually read more than once (except "The Etiquette of Sin", published 2026).
There are others (I don't remember the titles) I never read after a closer look and some I dismissed after reading a sample.
Nonetheless, the title was the first that got my attention.

BTW, the author's nom-de-plume may let me dismiss his/her stories, but that's another kettle of fish.

HM.

garymrssn ๐Ÿšซ

@helmut_meukel

It's maybe just me

I think not. Those are the kind of titles that pique my curiosity also.

Gary

solreader50 ๐Ÿšซ

@helmut_meukel

I agree that the title of a story, as seen on the contents page, can drag you in or send you running. Sad to say, too many send me running. And similarly with the author's pseudonym. The author Fick Suck has written some interesting stories. But for 10 years I avoided them because of the juvenile author name. Sheer desperation for a good story and a high score for several of his tales persuaded me to take the plunge. But that is the name a 13-y-o would dream up while drawing penises on his school books.

Just looking at what is presented today on the home page here's my instant reaction to the titles. This is not saying they are not appropriate, just my reaction to their instant appeal ...
A Most Unusual Passage - double entendre - intriguing.
Innes in Command - In command of what. Not so compelling.
The House Beneath the House - Probably interesting to architects
Seeds and Ash - Not really a title for a space opera.
Barely Covered - Another double entendre. This one probably a sex romp.

Yes, some authors need to learn some marketing to bring their stories to more attention.

awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@solreader50

A Most Unusual Passage - Uninteresting title but intriguing description.
Innes in Command - I saw the author was Lumpy. Hooked.
The House Beneath the House - Intriguing title but description sounds tiktokky
Seeds and Ash - Intriguing title. I like the story. I want to like it a lot but the AI-generated language keeps jarring me.
Barely Covered - Sounds like a 'much sex' story, and I don't have the patience for them at the moment.

AJ

Replies:   awnlee jawking
awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ

@awnlee jawking

Seeds and Ash - Intriguing title. I like the story. I want to like it a lot but the AI-generated language keeps jarring me.

It's on zbookstore, so it's passed management's AI criteria. It's a good story, so if you're enjoying it on SOL, don't let me put you off buying it.

AJ

tendertouch ๐Ÿšซ

@solreader50

I agree that the title of a story, as seen on the contents page, can drag you in or send you running.

I was all set to pile on before remembering I have a story called Protective Coloration Okay, it's not as bad as I Am Super Rich (would a human being, rather than an animated ego, ever write something like that?), but it's still pretty bad.

So, If anyone who's read Protective Coloration has a suggestion for a better title, I'd be happy to entertain changing it โ€” I'm just drawing a blank.

The Horse With No Name ๐Ÿšซ

@helmut_meukel

Sometimes a story can take on a life of its own.

About 11 years ago I started a story about a marathon runner, an international athlete from East Germany, who flees to the west with her son and ultimately emigrates to the US. That story was named "Learning To Live In A Strange Land".

Most people were probably turned off right away by the incest tag, but it gained some audience. Then I had my heart attack and went out of writing for almost 10 years. With my old account not salvagable I had to begin anew and the story now lives under the title "In The Long Run".

I didn't really put too much thought into the titles. I just chose what first came to mind and what I felt okay with. I hate it when stories come with clickbait titles like "Shagging mum's bum" or something like that.

Unintentionally that new title turned out to be a bit of a prophecy. I revived that story when it had 15 chapters - I'm now working on chapter 92, so 'in the long run' has taken on a bit of a double meaning, considering I had never intended it to become so long. Had I told someone I, as a German, was preparing to write a story that will grow to half a million words, they would have sent the blokes with the jacket that closes at the back.

So, what I just wasted three perfectly useable minutes of your life for, was me trying to say that you should never only go by the title, unless it is one that immediately turns you off. The title might have been chosen when the author himself could not yet foresee in which direction his story might develop.

The_Eloquent_Fish ๐Ÿšซ

@The Horse With No Name

So, what I just wasted three perfectly useable minutes of your life for, was me trying to say that you should never only go by the title, unless it is one that immediately turns you off. The title might have been chosen when the author himself could not yet foresee in which direction his story might develop.

Well worth the 'waste' of time.
Personally I don't put as much stock in the title as I do the description and tags of a story. If the description doesn't pique my intrigue I scroll past it.
That said, sometimes an author's blog will grab my attention and I get curious about their writings and find some interesting reads that way.

Dinsdale ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@The Horse With No Name

I remember you from back then, although I can't remember the handle you used - it was something to do with an animal (a Nashorn?). Yes, the Incest tag meant that I never started your story, but you were on my list to follow if you started something new.
Glad to hear that your heart attack is well in the rear view mirror.

Edit: Found it, I'll take another look in a couple of days.

Fick Suck ๐Ÿšซ

@helmut_meukel

Man, oh man, does anyone understand marketing? Marketing on a porn site no less? My chosen name may be juvenile or crude or a stick in your eye, but it is memorable and will not be confused with any other author's name on the site. Most have no issue, dropping a line or sending a message that begins "Hi Fick,..." The name is naughty and we are on a naughty site. Delish!

ghostwritten ๐Ÿšซ

@Fick Suck

Careful, I wouldn't call this a porn site. I did that once and people got really offended and upset with me. I mean, even though every time you post a story it asks about sex content, fetishes, sexual activities, etc.

Replies:   Fick Suck
Fick Suck ๐Ÿšซ

@ghostwritten

As they sang on Avenue Q: "Porn, porn, porn, porn!" Not to give away any reveals, but PORN saved the day on Avenue Q.

The Horse With No Name ๐Ÿšซ

@Fick Suck

You might think lapping the swetters was a clever idea, but in German you actually did the exact opposite. The German word ficken translates to the f-word in English. Many a car manufacturers have fallen flat on their face because they found out that their clever car names meant something rude in a different language

Replies:   Dinsdale
Dinsdale ๐Ÿšซ

@The Horse With No Name

Yeah, and I speak German.
As for names of cars, the word "Pinto" has an unfortunate meaning in Spanish and the word "mist" approximates to "dung" in German.

awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ

@Fick Suck

My chosen name may be juvenile or crude or a stick in your eye, but it is memorable and will not be confused with any other author's name on the site.

Although your stories contain adult content, IMO there's a lot more to them than porn. And I too found your pseudonym to be disincentive to reading your works until I found out how good they were.

AJ

Replies:   Dinsdale
Dinsdale ๐Ÿšซ

@awnlee jawking

Another name which initially told me "avoid" was Reluctant Sir, not sure exactly why now.

Replies:   awnlee jawking
awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ

@Dinsdale

To me, it conjures up BDSM and Mdom. But if I hadn't tried any of his stories, I would have missed out on some true greats.

AJ

Replies:   Dinsdale
Dinsdale ๐Ÿšซ

@awnlee jawking

Bingo.

Pixy I ๐Ÿšซ

@helmut_meukel

I think the most important title, is the title of the very first story/book/whatever, because that's the one where you have no followers and there is an argument there for getting the proverbial ball rolling.

After that, then there is an argument for all the subsequent titles being superfluous.

Think about your favourite authors, do you actually decide whether or not to read the book based on the title, or do you go, "Oh look! A new book by...!" and grab it regardless?

I have a theory that the weirder the title, the more likely you are to remember whether or not you have read it. This is pertinent to those who write lots, eg, Bernard Cromwell with his twenty-odd Richard Sharpe books. Some may be able to look at a shelf of twenty-four Sharpe books in a shop and remember which ones they have read. Not me.

I used to go by book covers, since they were more memorable to me than titles (which I never pay attention to, because ICRS). Which was fine, until publishers caught onto that and started to republish books with different covers. Nothing more annoying than going "O..., (insert author) has a new book out...!" Buying it, going home to read it and finding out that you have already read/own it.

When I was little, I always wondered why my father had more than one copy of the same books (with different covers) on his many shelves. Now I know.

Equally, covers can put you off a book. I was very late to the Discworld, purely because I thought the Josh Kirby covers were childish and that the contents would be as well.. How bloody wrong was I... Once I had read one, the covers made sense and my attitude changed, and I came to like the JK covers as much as the stories within.

Granted, we are all not the same and my foibles are not someone else's. Which is probably for the best.

Whenever I post a new story, all my other work gets a look in as well. Sometimes it's only a few of them, and sometimes it's all of them, and you know that you have caught the attention of a new reader (fan) and they have consumed everything you have written. Otherwise, the weekly stat just shows a few hits on one or two stories and you know someone has tried it, and found it not to their liking. Or they tried one, were on the fence, tried a couple more, and then decided my style was not for them.

My stance on the matter, is that titles are good for attracting the attention of curious readers out to try something new, and that titles (in porn) can be a good way of telling a bored and curious reader as to what the contents of a story are, before they even get to the 'blurb'. For instance "Daddies slave" tells a reader immediately that it's an incest story with elements of BDSM. If that is what they are looking for, then they can read the blurb and decide whether they want to read it. If that sort of story is of no interest to them, they can skip it easily.

And then there are regional differences. Or 'localisation', which I think is the technical term. Many times, both written and film fiction has different titles and cover art, depending on the country the product is being sold in. HP and the philosophers stone was retitled, 'Sorcerers stone' for American audiences for instance. So when posting titles on an internet site, which by it's nature is international, using complicated titles could actually backfire.

Replies:   TheDarkKnight
TheDarkKnight ๐Ÿšซ

@Pixy I

I think the most important title, is the title of the very first story/book/whatever, because that's the one where you have no followers and there is an argument there for getting the proverbial ball rolling.

The title of my first story is "Garage Sale", which isn't exactly one to draw much attention, but I got enough downloads and encouraging notes to keep me going. Maybe things were easier twenty years ago.

Interesting sidenote: The title of my third story is "PrettyPussy", a bit more provocative, but 21 years later, both of those stories have almost exactly the same number of downloads.

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