Cute autobiography titles
50 Eye-Catching Autobiography Titles (+ How to Write Your Own)
You’ve written your life story.
You’ve laid your heart bare before the world
So, what’s the best title for your one-of-a-kind masterpiece?
“____________: An Autobiography”?
Nooo!
Seriously, unless you’re a household name, using “autobiography” as part of your title might not work in your favor, but not to worry. You don’t have to be famous to write an autobiography, but you do need a title that will grab a buyer’s attention, so they know your book is worth a second look.
The purpose of this article is to break down what makes a standout autobiography title and the process for creating your own.
The secret sauce for writing an amazing book title
The process of creating an autobiography book title that gets noticed starts with a marketer’s mindset.
Yes, it all boils down to strategic book positioning in the marketplace. Creativity is a big part of it, but that’s a small part of the bigger picture. After all, if your book doesn’t get in front of the people who would be most likely to read it, you can’t change lives with the content inside!
Unlike fiction books or other types of nonfiction books (e.g. business books or textbooks) where there’s a specific category or genre expectation, autobiographies play by their own set of rules—the more creative the better.
How to think like a marketer when creating your title
If you are self-publishing your book, then you’re probably already aware that marketing is a key component of your book’s success, but what is marketing exactly?
The American Marketing Association defines marketing as
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
When marketing your book, knowing how to write a good book title matters, because, alo Some of our clients come to us with a title already picked out, before they've even begun to write. Others wait for the title to be revealed to them in the writing. Which way is better? It depends. We get asked this question a lot: how do I choose a title for my book? Choosing a title for your memoir, especially a thematic title, before you start your project can be a great guiding force, helping you narrow the focus of your book as you write. For instance, Arthur and Lila Mae Debenham had chosen a title for their book years before they even started the process: Tender Mercies. They knew they wanted their book to reflect the "tender mercies" that God had bestowed upon them in their course through life, and this theme guided our efforts in the writing process, helping us decide what events to include and what to leave out. But if you don't have a title already picked out, don't panic. It's much more common for writers to choose a title after they've begun or even finished writing. Often, the writing process itself will reveal a theme, phrase, or tone that suggests a title. Start by considering what themes run through your narrative. What are the most important ideas in your book? Love, faith, survival? Look for a title that reflects the message you want to convey. Here are some examples of thematic titles from some of our clients: Look Beyond the Weeds by Beverley Sorenson Taylor reflects her undying optimism and positive outlook expressed in her book, despite some difficult circumstances. Unfaltering Faith by Hank Hoole details the author's religious conversion and how his faith has shaped his life. Riches of His Grace by Fay Miles and the above-mentioned Tender Mercies also reflect this theme. Life is What You Make It by Nif Hicken. This title was a direct quote from Dr. Hicken that summed up his philosophy. "Life is what you make it. People embrace stories based on the titles that they see. A great title encourages curiosity, which causes a potential reader to pick up a memoir to examine it some more. A poor title will create the opposite effect. The only problem is that it can sometimes be difficult to find the perfect title for your memoir. These memoir title ideas will help you begin to develop the best one to use in no time at all. A Good Title Represents the Journey When someone picks up a memoir to read, what they are actually doing is agreeing to the unspoken contract that the writer has offered to them. This contract is dictated by the title that was chosen for the memoir in the first place. Everything must come back to the few words that have been given to it because the title invokes a specific image in the reader’s mind. If the value of the story doesn’t match up to the value of the unspoken contract, then the memoir will never be finished. So think of the memoir title as a name. When someone says the name “Orion’s Belt,” many will picture the constellation in the sky. What should people picture about your memoir? And what will help to draw them back into your story if they need to set it down for some reason? Here are some titles of existing memoirs that have represented their journey very effectively. A Memoir Title Must Also Be About Marketing The title of a memoir is going to become a direct reflection of the writer’s personality. For that reason, it should be a title that is reflective of something that is extremely important to the author. If a writer has a great sense of humor, then the memoir title should be humorous. If the writer made a living as a critic, then the title should be critical in some way. This is how the title of a memoir initially ties the Choosing a Title for Your Autobiography
Should I start with a title?
Thematic title
When we at Why Not Bookswere considering titles for the memoirs of the late Carolyn Goodman, mother of slain civil rights worker Andrew Goodman and a civil rights icon herself, we harkened back to a particular story she told:
When my youngest son David was seven years old, he came running home from school one day, breathless with excitement. In his hands he held a large piece of construction paper smothered in assorted colors, lines, shapes, and squiggles. In the eyes of a seven-year-old, it was a creation of unmatched brilliance, Monet and Degas and O’Keeffe all rolled into one. In fact, that’s quite literally what it looked like. With the flamboyance only a true artist can exude, David boomed into our Upper West Side apartment, raised his magnum opus, and proudly declared, “Mom, come here! Look at my mantelpiece!”
A masterpiece is essentially the product of another’s estimation. Someone else reviews your life’s work and pronounces judgment. But a mantelpiece is a personal statement of values and choices, your life’s work presented as a museum of the self… My life has been a work of art—a wondrous, colorful, tragic, flawed, intimate and epic work of art. This is my story. This is my mantelpiece.
So that’s what it became—MY MANTELPIECE: A Memoir of Survival and Social Justice.
Selecting a title for a well-known person’s autobiography or memoir can be a challenge. For some reason, iIf you’re an unknown with a remarkable story, it seems easier to choose evocative titles like Girl, Interrupted(Susanna Kaysen), The Color of Water(James McBride), or Reading Lolita in Tehran(Azar Nafisi). But when you’re a celebrity of some sort, it can be a bit trickier. And not always successful.
We at the Why Not 100have ranked 69 of the more interesting choices through the years. Those at the top of the list are wonderful. Those at the bottom are wince-inducing. You be the judg