Non-Fiction Title Generator
Pick your genre and get titles that pair a short, memorable hook with a subtitle that says what the book delivers. Works for memoir, history, business, cookbooks, self-help, science, true crime and more.
- Art, Architecture, & Photography
Concrete Weather: Brutalist Buildings in the Rain
Photo essay on raw-concrete architecture under gray skies
- Astrology, Divination & Tarot
Shuffle Again: Tarot for People Who Overthink Their Readings
A relaxed tarot guide for anxious, second-guessing readers
- Biographies & Memoirs
Mother Kept the Receipts
A daughter sorts forty years of her mother's paperwork
- Business & Investing
Margin Notes: What Small Retailers Learn From Their Worst Month
Case studies of independent shops that survived a bad quarter
- Cooking, Food & Wine
Tuesday Rice
Weeknight rice bowls built from pantry staples
- Crafts & Hobbies
Sock Math: Fitting Hand-Knit Socks to Real Feet
Custom sizing for sock knitters who hate gaps and sags
- Current Affairs & Politics
Quorum: Inside a State Legislature's Longest Night
One all-night budget session, hour by hour
- Diet, Health, & Fitness
Twenty Minutes Before Work: Morning Strength Routines
Short bodyweight sessions for people with early starts
- Education & Reference
Fractions at the Kitchen Table: Math for Parents Helping With Homework
Grade-school math explained for parents
- Engineering
Load Path
How forces travel through a building, for non-engineers
- History
Ice Trade: When New England Shipped Winter to Calcutta
How Boston merchants sold pond ice across the world
- Home & Garden
North-Facing
Gardening on the shady side of the house
Non-Fiction title generators
Each genre has its own sample titles, naming tips and a list of well-known titles to measure yours against.
Art, Architecture, & PhotographyPhotobooks, architecture monographs, criticism and how-to-draw manuals all share this shelf, and each one names itself differently.
Astrology, Divination & TarotName your tarot guide, birth-chart workbook or rune handbook.
Biographies & MemoirsFind a title for your memoir, or for the biography you've spent years researching, that sounds like a life and not a resume.
Business & InvestingBusiness books live or die on a short title and a subtitle that states the promise.
Cooking, Food & WineA cookbook title has to tell a hungry browser what's for dinner and whose kitchen they're in.
Crafts & HobbiesKnitters, quilters, potters and whittlers all scan the shelf for their own craft first.
Current Affairs & PoliticsPolitical books argue, report or confess, and the title has to say which.
Diet, Health, & FitnessName your training plan, healthy cookbook or movement guide with a title that says what the reader will actually do.
Education & ReferenceTextbooks, handbooks, dictionaries and teaching guides need titles that tell a student or teacher exactly what's inside.
EngineeringEngineering books range from bridge histories to circuit design manuals, and their titles split the same way.
HistoryHistory titles usually make a promise twice: once in a short title that sets a scene, and again in a subtitle that names the period and the stakes.
Home & GardenGardeners shop for their conditions and decorators shop for a feeling.
HumorA funny book's title is its first joke, and readers judge the whole book by it.
Music, Film, & Performing ArtsRock memoirs, film criticism, acting manuals and theater histories each borrow from the art they cover.
NatureNature books are usually about one bird, one shore, one forest, watched closely.
New Age & Alternative BeliefsTitles for books on energy work, manifestation, crystals, channeling and the inner life.
Parenting & FamilyParents shop for these books at 2 a.m.
PetsTitles for dog training manuals, cat behavior guides, rabbit and reptile care, and the memoir about the dog who changed everything.
PhilosophyTitles for books that ask how to live, what we owe each other, and whether we can know anything at all.
Politics & Political ScienceTitles for books on elections, institutions, policy fights and the ideas behind them.
ReligionTitles for devotionals, Bible studies, theology, faith memoirs and books on Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu practice.
Role Playing & Fantasy GamesTitles for core rulebooks, setting sourcebooks, adventure modules, game master advice and histories of the hobby.
ScienceTitles for popular science on genes, galaxies, microbes, the brain and the people who study them.
Computers & TechnologyTitles for programming guides, engineering handbooks, security books and histories of the industry.
Self-Help & RelationshipsTitles for books on habits, confidence, boundaries, dating, marriage and recovering from hard years.
Social SciencesTitles for books on why people behave, gather, trade and believe as they do.
SportsTitles for athlete memoirs, season-long team stories, coaching manuals and histories of the game.
Study Aids & Test PrepTitles for exam prep books, study guides, flashcard sets and revision workbooks.
True CrimeTitles for books on murders, frauds, cold cases and the investigators who wouldn't let go.
TravelTitles for travel memoirs, walking books, road trips, food travel and practical guidebooks.
WeddingsTitles for wedding planners, budget guides, etiquette books, toast and vow helpers, and memoirs of a big day gone sideways.
Women's StudiesTitles for feminist essays, women's history, gender research and memoirs about women's work, bodies and power.
What makes a Non-Fiction title work
Non-fiction readers buy a promise. They want to learn a skill, understand an event, fix a problem or spend time inside someone else's life, and the title is where they decide whether this book will do it. That makes non-fiction titling more practical than fiction titling: the subtitle matters, the keywords matter, and a clever main title only works if the rest of the cover explains it.
The genres pull in different directions. Cookbooks and craft books name the dish or the technique. Business and self-help titles promise an outcome and often a framework. History and true crime lean on place, date and a stark noun. Memoir can be the most lyrical of all, because the author's voice is the product. Science and social science titles sit in between, with a curious hook and a subtitle that names the field.
Write title and subtitle as one unit
The main title hooks and the subtitle explains, so draft them together. Samin Nosrat's Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is four ingredients, and the subtitle about mastering the elements of good cooking tells you it's a method, not a recipe list. Read the two aloud as one sentence before you settle.
Label the form when the title can't
Some of the best main titles say nothing about the book's form. Tara Westover's Educated is a single word, and the subtitle A Memoir does the rest. Plain labels like A Memoir, A Guide or A History cost nothing and stop the wrong reader from buying.
Keep the main title short and sayable
Non-fiction sells through word of mouth: a friend recommends it, a podcast host mentions it. Angela Duckworth's Grit is one syllable anyone can repeat. If a listener couldn't type your title into a search bar after hearing it once, shorten it.
Put the search words in the subtitle
Readers search for the subject, not your clever phrase: sourdough, ADHD, the Civil War, retirement savings. Work those words naturally into the subtitle, where they help retailer search without crowding the main title. One or two is plenty.
Check the shelf before you commit
Search your genre's category on a major retailer for your title and close variants. If three recent books share your main title, readers will confuse them and reviews may land on the wrong page. A small change, a word or a number, can make yours distinct.
Questions about Non-Fiction titles
Does every non-fiction book need a subtitle?
Most do, because the subtitle explains the book to a reader who has never heard of you. Famous authors and some memoirs can skip it, since the name or the story carries the cover. If your main title is a metaphor or a single word, a subtitle is close to essential.
How long can a non-fiction subtitle be?
Many run five to fifteen words. Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing caps the combined title and subtitle at under 200 characters, but a subtitle that long won't fit on a cover thumbnail. Aim for a line a reader can take in at a glance.
Should a memoir have a subtitle?
Usually, yes. Either a simple label like A Memoir or a short line naming the situation (a place, an illness, a family, a job) helps readers know what kind of life they're stepping into. A memoir without a subtitle relies on the author already being known.
Should I put keywords in my title for Amazon search?
Use real, relevant words in the subtitle, and make sure the title and subtitle you enter match the cover. Retailers discourage stuffing titles with extra search terms that aren't part of the book's actual title. One natural keyword phrase is better than a string of them.
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