Upworthy, a website set on making important news viral, has greatly influenced the way people write their headlines for their own website and social media accounts; The Millions Book Title series takes their style to a whole other playing field by applying them to popular novels. For instance, In place of 'Lolita,' it puts "Some Guy With Two First Names Proves That “Nymphet” Is The Grossest Word In English."
Thought up by Nick Moran and Janet Potter, they ask, "What if books were whorishly titled, optimizing our search engines rather than our imaginations, rather than leaving us to discover who Oliver Twist was or who was proud and who was prejudiced?" The Millions Book Title series is the provocative answer.
Key Themes Behind This Trend
- Clickbait Book Titles
- There is an opportunity for publishers to apply Upworthy's style of headline writing—clickbaity, provocative and viral—to book titles
- Social Media-inspired Title Writing
- Inspired by Upworthy, there is potential for other formats—blogs, podcasts, newsletters—to adopt their style of writing headlines to make them more shareable on social media
- Seo-optimized Book Titles
- The Millions Book Title series demonstrates that there is an opportunity to optimize book titles for search engines by using popular keywords and phrases in a creative way
Where This Applies
- Publishing
- Publishers can take advantage of the trend of clickbaity book titles, potentially leading to more sales and wider audience reach
- Social Media
- Social media platforms and content creators can benefit from adopting Upworthy's style of writing headlines, leading to more engagement and increased visibility
- Marketing
- Marketers can explore the opportunity to optimize website and social media content by applying SEO principles to their headline writing, making it more visible to online audiences
