How To Craft A Love Story Book Title

What gets readers’ attention when they’re looking for a new love story to read?

Of course, there’s the cover to draw them in, but when your readers can only see a small thumbnail of your cover on Amazon or other retailers, all they’ve got to go on is your name, the cover itself, and your book title.

That makes your title really important.

Choose the wrong one, and it’s less likely that your book will be picked up.

Good titles for love stories attract the right audience and help sell the book.

So how do you choose romantic book titles to suit your own stories?

Read on to discover how to choose your love story book title, our selection of romance book title ideas for inspiration, and how to finalize your book title.

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What to Consider When Creating a Title for a Love Story

With your book title being such an important part of attracting the right audience, you might feel the pressure right now.

But sit tight and follow our straightforward steps, and you’ll soon have some ideas for your romantic book titles.

1. Look at the bestselling romance books.

The best thing you can do to start your search for the perfect book title is to know your genre. That means being familiar with the tropes that readers love and examining the top bestselling stories in your genre.

Go to Amazon and look at the top one hundred list for your category. Look at the covers, titles, and blurbs of the top-selling books.

This is a good exercise because it can help you see what’s selling, ensure you’re choosing the right covers, and learn how to improve your blurb. However, it can also help you get ideas for your own book titles.

Jot down any titles that you like and any other ideas that come up. Don’t just look at the popular titles; also think about potential keywords you might be able to include.

You don’t have to do this, and it’s more important to get the right title, but if you can include a good keyword in your book title, it can help readers find you more easily.

2. Choose a title that suits your story.

If you’re lucky, the perfect title will pop into your head from re-reading your story. It might be something someone says or a particular description that summarizes the whole book. It might even be the last line or something from the blurb.

If not, think about how you want the reader to feel as they read and when they’ve finished your book. Think about the words that come into your mind while you do this exercise and jot them down.

Don’t worry if there’s nothing that feels right yet. At this stage, you’re just gathering ideas rather than making final decisions.

3. Choose a title that suits your main character.

Sometimes, your main character or couple is so strong that they can inspire the title on their own.

Go back to your character sketches for your main couple and look at how they speak, their sense of humor, and how they react throughout your story to each other.

Jot down any other ideas you get from this exercise, though bear in mind you need something that suits the whole book, not just one character unless the character is central to the book.

4. Get some help.

Talk to your beta readers, other authors in your genre, and perhaps your editor. They may have ideas you couldn’t come up with just because you’re too close to your story.

Your beta readers and editor may think of a good title because they’ve spent so much time reading and thinking about your story.

Other author friends can also help because of their experience choosing titles in the same genre. While your beta readers and editor have the advantage of being familiar with the story, your author friends can look at it from the outside, so you get the best of both worlds.

You could also ask your readers and use the opportunity to get some marketing in for your book at the same time. Give them the blurb or a short description of your book, and let them suggest possible titles. Make it a competition and offer a prize for the best one.

If you finally choose a reader-suggested title, you can add them to your book’s acknowledgments. Readers love that kind of prize, and you could get quite a lot of marketing mileage out of this.

5. Brainstorm as many titles as you can.

You should have many possible words, feelings, and ideas now, so have fun and brainstorm many possible titles.

Feel free to write down ridiculous titles and funny ones that you know won’t work at this stage. Let your imagination run free, and don’t discard anything right now. That odd title you dismissed might turn out to be the idea that inspires the title you finally end up with.

Try mind mapping too. Write down a central idea for your book in the middle of a page and then radiate new and related ideas around that central idea. This can work well for visual people, who find it more helpful than staring at a list of ideas.

6. Try a romance book title generator.

Search online for romance book title generators. You might even find title generators in your specific genre, such as fantasy romance or sci-fi romance.

There’s nothing wrong with using a generator to get ideas, but you will want to tweak any suggestions from a generator, rather than using them just as they are.

Thousands of other authors will have looked at the same generators, so there’s a chance these authors will have used some of the titles already. Also, you do want a tailored and unique title that fits your book perfectly, and some generators are quite generic, though they can still help you come up with great ideas.

7. Pick an attention-getting title.

By now, you should be looking at quite the list of potential titles for your book. Now it’s time to start narrowing it down.

Think about your audience. What is going to get their attention as a title? There are millions of books on Amazon, and you want your book to have a chance. So, look at your options and start to highlight the titles that are different and grab attention.

One other thing to consider is whether you’re writing a series or working on a standalone romance. If you’re writing in a series, you may want to follow the same format or title length, or use a repeated word in each book title. If so, look at your title ideas and see which ones fit your series.

8. Be unique.

When narrowing down your title options, you want to fit in with genre expectations and be unique.

Use a thesaurus to develop different word ideas, try alliteration, and consider a title that rhymes, if it fits.

Draw on your own experiences and writing experience to see how you can come up with a title that hasn’t been done before, uniquely suited to your author brand and the book itself.

Does the title fit you as an author? Does it sound like something you’ve written? Even better, could readers look at the title alone and think that you probably wrote it?

If you can get to that last point, you have a great title that reflects who you are and the contents.

9. Check you’re not treading on someone else’s trademark.

You can’t copyright a title, so if your perfect title is taken, you can still use it, but you do need to check that no one has trademarked any words in your title.

There was a furor in the author world a few years ago when one author tried to trademark the word, “Cocky” and attempted to push other authors to take down their titles that used that word.

In the end, that author gave up her trademark after a court case, but that isn’t the only instance of trademarking in the book world, so do your research.

63 Love Story Book Titles

Take a look at our suggestions for romance book titles in various genres. Use our list to inspire your own romance book title ideas and come up with something that suits your love story.

Regency

1. Wallflowers and Wanderers

2. How to Love a Duke

3. The Accidental Engagement

4. Rakes and Roses

5. Midnight Rose

6. The Devil Duke’s Ward

7. The Summer She Loved a Lord

8. Saving the Heiress

9. The Distant Debutante

10. Dreaming of the Rake

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Steamy

11. Hot Summer Nights

12. Tempting Toni

13. Made for Sin

14. Chosen for Pleasure

15. Heated Encounter

16. Sense and Sensuality

17. Ravishing Romana

18. Midnight’s Passion

19. All My Desires

20. Taken by the Billionaire

Paranormal Romance

21. Bearly Dressed

22. Witch Way to Love?

23. Fangs for the Memories

24. Loving My Lycan

25. Romancing the Wolf

26. Shifting into Love

27. Magically Yours

28. To Hook a Hippogriff

29. The Wolf’s Secret Mate

30. Taken by the Tiger Shifter

Romantic Suspense/Mystery Romance

31. Trapped in Attraction

32. Chasing Romance

33. Saving Kira

34. Romance on the Run

35. Caught in His Web

36. Mysterious Lover

37. Risking it All

38. Snared by a Stranger

39. To Trap a Heart

40. Romancing the Spy

41. The Moonstruck Caper

Sci-fi Romance

42. Love Across the Galaxy

43. Cyborg’s Conquest

44. Alien Captive

45. Bonded to the Alien Warrior

46. Tr’Ak’s Fated Mate

47. Elowed’s Alien Love

Cowboy Romance

48. Hidden Ranch Hero

49. Ranch Hand’s Woman

50. Lassoing Her Lover

51. Cowboy’s Conquest

52. Wrangling His Bride

53. Cherry Farm Romance

54. Brown-Eyed Cowboy

55. Love on the Range

56. Maverick’s Valentine

General Romance

57. Falling for Rose

58. Flirty and Thirty

59. How He Stole My Heart

60. Waking Up with My Best Friend

61. Betting on Love

62. Snowbound with The Prince

63. A European Affair

What to Do Once You Narrow Down Your Love Story Book Titles

You’ve got the perfect title for your romance book, or at least several options, and you’re excited. But there are still a few more steps before you can confirm your final choice.

1. Check if your title is taken.

A quick search on Amazon will show if your book title is taken. If it is, you may still be able to use it, but there are some things to consider:

Is the author in the same genre as you, or writing something similar?

Are they a big name?

If they don’t write in the same genre as you, it’s possible that you can still use the same book title without causing any confusion. If your book is a sci-fi romance and theirs is literary fiction, you’re probably safe.

Even if you both write romance, but they write long family sagas, and you write steamy romance, you could still use that title if your heart is set on it.

However, if they’re a big name, do you really want your book to be buried under thousands of entries for that well-known author and their book in the search engines?

2. Run your title past your beta readers.

Now you’ve narrowed down your title options, go back to your beta readers and see if they have a favorite title from your list.

As we said earlier, your beta readers will be more familiar with your story, so it’s a good idea to get their opinions on your final choices to see if they think your options suit the story.

3. Run a reader poll.

Remember how we suggested you ask your readers for possible titles and make that part of your marketing to generate excitement about the book? Do it again here.

If you really can’t choose between several options, set up a poll in your reader group and let them vote on the final title. Readers love to feel involved and would be delighted to vote on possible titles.

You can do the same here and use this to talk more about the book and perhaps share a sneak peek of the cover or an excerpt or two.

4. Call in the experts.

If you’re really stuck, and you’d rather not consult your readers, get the experts back in and talk to your author friends and your editor to help you make the final choice.

It’s good to have opinions from people who really understand what you write and what you’re aiming for with your current book.

5. Make sure your title is memorable.

If you’re still struggling to choose, this last test should do the trick. Which is the most memorable of your title options?

Which one can readers easily remember between seeing an ad for your book when driving past a bookshop and getting home to order it?

Which one is the easiest to spell? We know it sounds obvious, but if readers can’t find your book on a quick search of their chosen online book provider or on Google, they’ll go and buy someone else’s book.

6. Give your title a final check.

Polish your title and ensure it’s as perfect as it can be. It’s not too long or complicated. You’ve got the right feeling you wanted to convey, and it really does reflect your story well.

Now proofread it before you start sharing it everywhere or putting it on your book cover. Then proofread it again. Seriously. Especially if you write sci-fi or fantasy romance and use a character or place name in the title.

Was it Fr’altzar or F’raltzar? Was the city called Halandar or Helandar? Check it and check it again.

Done? Happy? Congratulations, you have your new book title.

Final Thoughts

It’s not always easy coming up with good titles for love stories or for any other book. It’s so important to get it right and reflect the story within.

But with a little inspiration from our list of romantic book titles and our tips on crafting your perfect title, you should be well on your way.