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Q&A

Too Long for Title/Subtitle?

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I was considering naming my book "Cherry on Top." However, because this may be hard to search for on Google, I was going to add a subtitle. Perhaps make the full title/subtitle "Cherry on Top: Not so Sweet."

My question is if this is too long or off-putting for a fiction novel. As well, is there a sort of rule to follow for this sort of thing?

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This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/27292. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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I'm struggling at the moment to think of a novel which does have a subtitle (beyond "A Novel" to differentiate it from a non-fiction work).

Look at the NYT Best Books of 2016. Not one novel has a subtitle. Easily 85% of the non-fiction titles do.

Does your book need a clarifying subtitle? Might it work better to just find a title which is more distinguishable?

ETA @RobtA correctly notes in the comments that 2001: A Space Odyssey and its sequels do have subtitles, possibly because just the year is insufficient to be memorable.

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