When I was a book editor, our team would do a "post-mortem" on books that went out of print. We'd try to figure out why the book didn't sell.

Rarely did we seriously consider testing a new title. If we thought the title was the problem, we would chalk it up to "let's find a better title the next time." Few people in publishing know how to test titles, or think to do so.

Back in the late 1920s, a publisher name Emmanuel Haldeman-Julius had a better idea. When one of his "Little Blue Books" wasn't selling, he sent it to "The Hospital" before "killing" it  (i.e. pulling it out of print). If the book was well-written and worth reading, he tried to revive it.

Since he sold these books by title alone, it wasn't difficult to figure out where the problem was! Not only did Haldeman-Julius  try new titles, he kept meticulous records of the results.

Here are some of the results after treatment at "The Hospital":

• When Gautier's Fleece of Gold was changed to The Quest for a Blonde Mistress, sales jumped from 6,000 to 50,000!
• When the title of Oscar Wilde's Pen, Pencil and Poison was changed to The Story of a Notorious Criminal, sales more than tripled!
• The book Patent Medicine did not sell well. When changed to The Truth About Patent Medicine, however, sales more than tripled!
• Arthur Schopenhauer's Art of Controversy didn't do squat until he changed it to  How to Argue Logically. Then the book enjoyed sales of 30,000 per year.
• You can guess what happened when Thomas De Quincey's Essay on Conversation was changed to How to Improve Your Conversation ...
• Barnum, the Man Who Lured the Herd  became P.T. Barnum and His Circus. As such, sales doubled. Haldeman Julius found that a winning title for biographies identified the person in some appealing way. Interestingly, at the time Casanova and His Loves did not sell well (Haldeman-Julius surmised people didn't know who Casanova was). When retitled as Casanova: History's Greatest Lover, sales jumped from 8,000 to 22,000 per year (and, it could be argued, made the name of Casanova synonymous with "lover").

Haldeman-Julius's experimentation and testing resulted in his finding what he calls "magical words"—words that make people want to buy. (We would now say "magic words.")

Can you pick out some "magic words" from the above title changes? I'm sure you can.

"How to ..."

"The Truth about ..."

"The Story of  .."

"Love"

"Life"

"What You Should Know about ..."

"The Art of ..."

"The Secret to ..."

And many more.

Do such "magic words" hold up today? You have only to check the best-seller lists to come up with an answer. Human nature seems to be human nature. While cultural changes obviously affect which titles will appeal, surprisingly little has changed since Haldeman-Julius's meticulous study.

"A good title is a work of genius," Haldeman-Julius concluded. Hitting upon a great title comes partly by instinct, but in my opinion, it's an informed instinct. The greats among copywriters are those who have honed their ability to recognize killer headlines. Like them, you can develop your skill in recognizing just the right words that could turn your book into a bestseller on title alone. 

Want more help on choosing your best-selling title? Here's how to learn more ...