How to Write a Good Book Title

How to Write a Good Book TitleHow to Write a Good Book TitleA well-crafted book title, like an appealingbook jacket, is abedrngnisher effective marketing tool for your book. Not only will a great title help your book to stand out from the crowd, but it will be more likely to stick in the minds of prospective readers. If your book is being published by a traditional publishing house, there are many people- from editors to sales representatives, marketing managers, publicists, nd book buyers- who will weigh in on the consumer appeal and effectiveness of the title. If youreself-publishing, the title is totally up to you, so its important for you to understand the general attributes of a good title and how to create one. Its Short but not Too Short A short title thats easy to remember and easy to find via a Google search is a plus. To accomplish both, aim for a title thats somewhere between two and five or six words long, for example, The Other Boleyn Girl, a novel by Philippa Gregor y. One-word titles, such as Becoming and Elevation, are fine for celebrity writers, like Michelle Obama and Stephen King, respectively. But if your name isnt worth its weight in gold (yet), shoot for at least two words. Otherwise, your title may be buried in a mountain of search engine results. Very long titles stand a better chance of turning up nearer the top of search engine results pages, but theyre harder for readers to remember. Its Memorable but not Cute or Punny Effective titles are compelling, memorable, and easy to say, like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, which is clever without being irritating. Also consider The Reckoning, by John Grisham, which rolls off the tongue and uses only 12 characters to evoke a sense of foreboding or impending doom. A title that relies on a pun, such as The Missionary Position by Christopher Hitchens, may be misleading, offensive to some people, and difficult for would-be readers to decipher accurately in the absenc e of supporting book jacket art or a subtitle, which often accompanies a nonfiction title to clarify what the book is about (in this example, Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice). It Doesnt Mimic Other Titles Google your chosen title to see which keywords it has in common with those of previously published works and change it if its not unique. A case in point is The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins (published by Riverhead Books in January 2015), which ended up as a New York Times bestseller, and Girl on a Train, by A. J. Waines (self-published in February 2015). In fairness to Waines, she may not have been aware of Hawkins similar title when she published her book, and it did garner some sales as a direct result of the confusion. As a general rule, though, you want your title to be one of a kind and fully discoverable via a search engine. Similarly, dont use the title of a past blockbuster, say, Margaret Mitchells Gone With the Wind, for your nonfiction book about the 1930 s Dust Bowl. Although most book titles cant be copyrighted, such a title is likely to annoy readers at best. It Describes or Suggests What the Book Is About For a nonfiction book, writing a good title means telling readers what to expect without pulling any punches. For example, if your book provides detailed plans and instructions for building period-correct furniture for vintage Barbie dolls, a good title might be Building Period-Correct Furniture for Vintage Barbie Dolls. Although it uses more than six words, it tells readers exactly what theyre getting and eliminates the need for a subtitle. Additional examples of effective nonfiction titles include How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, by Mark Bittman John Adams, by David McCullough The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom, by Suze Orman What to Expect When Youre Expecting, by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel Why We Sleep, by Matthew Walker Your fiction title has done its job when it makes a prospective reader want to pick up your book or click on the title to take a peek inside. To encourage the reader to interact with your book, your title should try to hint at the books genre, give readers a whiff of the story that follows, and provoke curiosity. For example Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky (psychological mystery) The God of Animals, by Aryn Kyle (coming of age) Hazards of Time Travel, by Joyce Carol Oates (science fiction / fantasy / dystopian) Nine Perfect Strangers, by Liane Moriarty (thriller / suspense) Stories of Your Life and Others, by halbstarker Chiang (science fiction / fantasy) Prime Your Inner Title Generator If you find yourself hitting the wall where your title is concerned, juice up your creativity by trying one or more exercises, tips, or tricks to get the titles flowing. Keep a list of all the possibilities so you can pare it down to the top few titles when youve finished brainstorming. Search old poems and folk songs that are in the public domain (i.e., not protected by copyrigh t) for title-worthy lines or phrases (e.g., Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck).Consider using one of the locations thats featured prominently in the book (e.g., Howards End, by E. M. Forster).Combine your main characters name with another word or phrase that captures the essence of the story (e.g., Logans Run, by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson) or just use the name (e.g., Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte). Skim your manuscript for a sentence or phrase that could serve as a title (e.g., A Room With a View, by E. M. Forster).Use a brief description one of the central characters as the title (e.g., The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum).Look at the titles of the best sellers in your genre or style category, noting the ones that bestattungs your attention and why. Then work on re-creating a similar ambience with your title.Play with an online title generator and make a note of any that sound promising. Once youve homed in on the best five or so titles from your list, test them out with friends and social media to find out which title rises to the top of the pile. Or use the Lulu Title Scorer to see whether any have best seller potential.

6 ways chewing gum is wrecking your health

6 ways chewing gum is wrecking your health6 ways chewing gum is wrecking your healthWe pop a piece after a boldly flavored lunch to put the kibosh on that garlic breath. We reach for a piece when we feel a little hungry but arent ready to eat a full meal just yet. And we snag another piece when were caught in an uncomfortable situation and need that oral fixation to help take the edge off (and distract you from the awkwardness). Were gum chewers, and its not doing our health any favors.If you chew gum regularly, too, its important to know how the habit impacts your body, from your teeth to your stomach and beyond. Here are all the ways chewing gum is hurting you more than its helping you.1. Itsreallybadeanstalt for your teeth.Unless you opt for sugar-free gum 100 percent of the time, that gum chewing habit is negatively impacting your dental health. Thebad bacteria in your mouth digest sugarbefore it gets to your stomach, and you chew gum over a prolonged period of time, so those win dows of time increase the amount of plaque buildup on your teeth and cause tooth decay to occur over time.2. It could cause jaw problems.Another common side effect of chewing gum, especially during times of high stress, is calledtemporomandibular joint dysfunction, or TMJ. It predominantly affects the jaw, jaw joint and surrounding muscles, leading to severe pain any time you try to move your jaw away from its typical closed alignment. It hurts to chew your food, it hurts to laugh Pretty much everything related to moving your mouth hurts.3. It can give you a lot of headaches.Thatconstant compression in your jaw from excessive chewingdoes more than predispose you to conditions like TMJ - it also increases the number of tension headaches you experience and how frequently they present themselves. So if youre someone who already deals with a migraine disorder or frequent headaches due to the common stressors and anxiety triggers in your life, youre better off staying away from chewing gum altogether.4. It can make your indigestion symptoms worse.A lot of people chew gum tohelp relieve feelings of nauseaor an upset stomach, but gum can make these unpleasant symptoms worse. When you chew gum, you swallow a bunch of little sips of air over time,filling your stomach with unwanted gas. This process can lead to additional bloating and make your tummy feel even more distended than it did before. Talk about an unhappy digestive system5. It can make folks with IBS truly miserable.For the people out there who think sugarless gum is the way to go because it has fewer calories, be mindful if you have any sensitive stomach issues or digestive problems. The sugar alcohols that serve as artificial sweeteners can act as laxatives,causing things like cramping, digestive distress and even diarrhea. Those with irritable bowel syndrome are best off staying away from all products that contain a significant amount of sugar alcohols - not just chewinggum.6. Its reputation as a diet ai d can backfire.Many people chew gum to curb unwanted (and unhealthy) snacking cravings and avoid weight gain, but the constant chewing motion can actuallytrigger the brain to think that your body actuallyishungry. That means that you still end up digging in and eating more than you probably would have after chewing away on that gum. Whats more, if you prefer mint gum, that flavor makes you more likely to reach for junk foods afterward rather than healthy options like fresh fruit. Doesnt sound like a successful dieting plan to usThis post was originally published onSwirled.comin the Thrive section, which covers valuable career and personal finance content for Millennials.

Penn Engineering Creates Super Strong Porous Metal

Penn Engineering Creates Super Strong Porous Metal Penn Engineering Creates Super Strong Porous Metal Penn Engineering Creates Super Strong Porous Metal Economist E.F. Schumacher made his mark in the 1970s touting the idea that Small is Beautiful. A new generation of materies scientists is now telling us that smaller is stronger. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have used this principle to create a foam metal made of nickel that one of its innovators, James Pikul of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, calls metallic wood.Metallic wood foil on a plastic backing. Image University of PennsylvaniaThe new work is based on that of Dr. Afsaneh Rabiei at North Carolina State University, who developed composite metal foams where the metal particles are regularly arranged in a matrix, giving it impressive strength, despite consisting largely of air. Suggested applications for these metal foams range from vehicle bumpers to bullet-proof vests.The Penn en gineers took the metal foam idea one step further, by going smaller and controlling the size of tiny nickel pillars within the material. Instead of packing metal spheres, the team formed a foam from closely stacked plastic spheres, each around 17 nm in diameter. They electro-deposit nickel into the schablone and dissolved the plastic, leaving only the nickel pillars behind. The metal forms a very strong, well-organized porous matrix.Editors Pick Air Taxi Aces Test Flight The self-assembly process allows us to have very, very fine nanoscale control over the feature sizes, Pikul said.The goal was to take advantage of the fact that the metals we produce and use today, as strong as they are, have only roughly 10 percent of the strength that they could theoretically have, based on the strength of the bonds between atoms within the metal. However, new foam-type metals come much closer to achieving the theoretical maximum strength.The Penn team has produced square sheets of this material, roughly 1 cm per side and a few hundred micrometers thick, which is a sample big enough to test for macro mechanical properties and study fracture mechanics. According to Pikul, the tiny pillars have a yield strength of eight to 10 GPa, which is roughly ten times what is typically found in metals. Register today for ASMEs Offshore Wind Summit The microscale foams are strong because as you decrease the strut size, you get rid of some of the defects that migrate to the surfaces, which changes the deformation mechanism in the strut, causing it to approach the theoretical strength of the metals, Pikul said.The materials density compares to that of water, which avoids the issue found in other superlight materials with high specific strength but with volume fractions too low to be of much practical use.More on Materials Solving World Hunger with 3D-Printed Food The porous nature of the material lends itself to certain applications. Pikul has produced batteries with very high power densiti es using a very similar material and filling the pores with electrolyte. Another application can include things like micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) that could take advantage of the materials combination of flexibility and strength.Metallic wood might also be used for protective cases for high value items like mobile phones. Other researchers are exploring graphene for use in similar applications. Each material will have their niche, Pikul said, adding that applications are endless since technologists have centuries of experience working with metals.Pikul said that self-assembly is the way that nature builds things and calls this development bio-inspired. Self-assembly also makes scaling up easier.If you do this self-assembly with thousands or tens of thousands or millions of particles, then you can do this over large scales, Pikul said.While still more work must be done, Pikul can envision producing the material in quantity on a roll-to-roll type of process. Big WebinarHow t o Design a Wind Turbine in 25 Minutes R.P. Siegel, P.E., is a writer based in Rochester, N.Y.Read More Exclusive Stories from ASME.org Six Project Management Tips Every Engineer Needs Polymer Composite Can Regulate Its Own Temperature Navy Sails into Supply Chain with Metal 3D Printing.disc list-style disc outside nonepadding-left 16pxmargin-removed 1em 0.number list-style decimal outside nonepadding-left 16pxmargin-removed 1em 0Table.gridtable width-removed 100%border-collapse collapsemargin-removed 0 0 1em 0Table.gridtable tdpadding-removed 5pxvertical-align middleAs you decrease the strut size, you get rid of some of the defects that migrate to the surfaces, which changes the deformation mechanism in the strut, causing it to approach the theoretical strength of the metals.James Pikul, University of Pennsylvania