Title.

Titles are hard to choose if we are honest. Like really hard because it's the first thing that the reader sees. A title is truly the first impression that works a long way to make it interesting enough to attract the readers.

There are a few things that need to be kept in mind while choosing a title.

1. Relevance - How relevant is the title to your story? Does it give away too much or is just perfectly matching? It's really hard to decide, isn't it?

2. Uniqueness - Is the title you are thinking of common? Did you copy it from others or used a song name? Cuz trust me, song names as titles are extremely common, especially with fanfics.

I can't tell you just exactly how many 'Your eyes tells' (which I preferred but changed to Brush Strokes), 'Spring days', 'Euphorias', I've seen till this day. These are only three examples but I'm sure you've seen more.

The point is, be more creative. Just because the song matches the vibe and story, it's not necessary for you to use it. I could've used 'Seesaw' as the title for my Yoongi FF but I didn't, even though that song is half the inspiration. After going through my own trial and error method, I realised how using a song name as title makes the opposite impact than what you expect. Using a song title won't work everytime.

It's always first come, first serve thingy. If someone was to show me a book named 'Silk Sheets' which isn't by 'You-Know-Who'(I'm not using their username bcuz I'm not sure if that is appropriate), especially a BTS FF, I wouldn't even bother reading the blurb if I'm being honest. No offense to anyone but using a popular book's title, though relevant, isn't going to do the trick either.

The best way to avoid making your title too common or simple, you could always search the books with the same title on Wattpad. You'll see a very, very long list of books. Of course it's almost impossible to come up with a truly ingenuous title, but there are still ways to avoid making it too common.

1. Use a dictionary - Search up different words with same meaning and think just which is the perfect for your book.

2. Short and simple - Not every long ass title is going to work the same way 'To all the boys I've loved before' did. If you use, suppose, 'Our love was meant to be in the stars', will you personally read it?
The trick is to keep it maximum four words. Don't try going for bigger titles. No one would remember it and small, upto the point titles are most likely to attract attention.

3. Pronouns - 'His hostage', 'Her saviour', 'His light', 'Her knight', 'His lover'.
Why? Just tell me why those pronouns are necessary? I don't understand the point. I read this book while reviewing and the title was 'Jolie' and I really liked the title. Imagine if the title was 'His Jolie' instead of 'Jolie', it wouldn't be the same. In conclusion, avoid adding pronouns.

Cover.

If anyone says, choosing a title is the hardest part, I'd like to say, no, it's not. Covers are the hardest thing to make ever. Like, I have mad respect for anyone who can make edits and all that aesthetic stuff because I sure as hell can't despite practicing quite a lot. But fear not. I have tips for that too ;)

I won't lie here. My first ever cover attempt was for 'Bodyguard'. Before that, I had never ever even tried editing a photo. I literally made that cover with the tools in my gallery. So, I think I've come pretty far in terms of making simple edits.

My most trusted app for making edits or line dividers is Canva. It is a very good, easy to use app for a beginner and someone like me who has no sense to understand or create complicated art. I truly appreciate all those who are so talented with editing, especially the picture blending and manip ones.

Next one is my arch nemesis, PicsArt. I hate that app but it's pretty good. Some find it easy to use, some don't. You can try it out and decide on your own, but if you are beginners, then Canva is much better because it comes with templates and variety of fonts. For fonts, you can also rely on Phonto. I haven't used it much but it has some really good fonts you can use. There's also Ibispaint but I can't guarantee it. It's definitely not for beginners and I haven't been able to do much on it either, but if you want, you can try it out for more complex edits.

Also, even after all this, you just can't seem to make a satisfactory and eye-catching cover, your last resort is to seek professional assistance. There are plenty of good cover shops out there which can make you the perfect cover. But, there's a catch too. You have to explain the vibe and storyline perfectly in order to get your desired cover. If you don't explain properly, it's not the designers fault. Don't scream at them unnecessarily like an empty can.

Parting words for this topic.
Don't judge a book by it's cover. Slap whoever says that. On Wattpad, people judge a book by it's cover because it's not only the visuals or the vibes the cover gives on first glance but also shows just how thoughtful the writer is to make a good cover, creating the perfect first impression.

Key to success ;-;

Blurb.

Blurbs aren't that hard but I wouldn't say they are exactly easy. If you see a hardback book, the blurb always mentions the main protagonist and is written in such a way that gives you an idea about the contents of the book but still keeping the mystery. You get what I mean, right?

Here's the thing about blurbs on Wattpad. They need to be short and I don't mean One liners, just not that big. They also need to be catchy and must show how your story has something different from other stories. Also including a hook line, most preferably an interesting line or dialogue from the book itself draws in a lot of readers too.

The best length of a blurb is 250-300 words, according to a discussion we had in the reviewer section in the community. I personally prefer short paragraphs that introduce the main characters and the main conflict while also hiding the most probable outcome.

If you have a difficult title, a word not used in general talking, then add the meaning and write a short, 2-3 line blurb following that and you'll be able to hook them readers.

Things you shouldn't do:

1. Avoid usage of 'normal'.
Normal is a very overrated, overused term when in real, the story of such books, portraying a 'normal character' is anything but. And I don't know, the moment I see normal, I'm out of there. No one is normal, so why put a label on it, right?

2. Wordy blurbs that reveal way too much.
I have often seen blurbs that reveal too much of the main story, failing to attract readers because it doesn't spark interest. Like I said before, keep it short and don't use big words or incomprehensible words that I will have to look up in the dictionary. Granted using fancy words get attention but if you do that in blurb, make sure to use them throughout the whole book.

This is a tip my English teacher gave me when I was 14 or 15. She told us to use an idiom or phrase only once in a 3-4 sentence paragraph. Don't overload one paragraph with fancy-ness. Same is the case with words. Use a big, fancy word every 3-4 sentence and according to the flow.

Back to lengthy blurbs. Tell the name of your characters, the main leads only. Don't put each and every character's name and start explaining the relation of the protagonist with them.

Also, there's always this one element in your book that you want to keep a secret. Then keep it! Don't reveal it in the blurb, bruh. Secrets are meant to be kept till it's really necessary to show. You get me?

3. Using sexual dialogues/innuendoes.

"I'll make you beg, babygorl."

"Try me."

We've seen this type of blurb, with only two dialogues and I know most of us have opened such a book to read. No shame in admitting that. But just how many books lived up to the hype? Not many do.

The most such lines are going to do are attract horny kids who are just curious and looking to know more about sexual things. It won't get you readers, however, who will genuinely appreciate your writing skills or understand what you are trying to convey.

If you do use such lines in your blurb, please, please add a few more lines about the characters or what is it about, just a few lines would do. Plus, don't be disappointed if some readers stop reading because you didn't include a sexual scene in the book and call you out for misleading. Therefore, write a small note at the end of the blurb if the book really contains sexual scenes or not.

Dang, I used the word 'sexual' too much, didn't I? But well, I'm an adult and the word isn't anything bad unless you make it taboo. So, all well and good.

4. Fancy fonts.
I absolutely hate it when I can't read the blurb. My mobile phone doesn't support fancy fonts and I know it adds an aesthetic touch but more than that, you should think about ease of reading. During the last batch for reviewing and we had this book with a blurb written in a different font. All I could see was rectangles and one of the reviewers had a hard time reading it because they are dyslexic and it was too messy.

Best way to avoid this, stick to the standard fonts, the ones this app provides. For me, I don't give a damn about aesthetics. I look for quality food and not the fancy garnishes you put on it. The taste of the food matters more than presentation sometimes. Things can be kept clean and tidy with the standard font. At the end, your words are going to make an impact, not aesthetics.

As parting words, I'd like to urge you to do a few things. Like I said, first impressions are really important. From cover to title to the first three chapters, they determine if the readers are going to stay. How will you know if they will stay or not?
Simple. Ask opinions.

I'm sure many of you must have friends on wp, discord, instagram where you guys talk about it. So, just drop in the group chats or dms and just ask their opinions. Take lots of opinion and criticism, because criticism really does help. And then decide for yourself if you need to work on some stuff more or you are ready to publish your work.
I do this every time I create a new cover or write something to know if it's good and trust me, it helps.

If you don't have friends who are honest and will help you improve, don't drop in my dms. I hardly check them. There's a better option and that's Review shops (Seesaw review shop of K-pop House community). There are a lot of good review shops on Wattpad with a lot of good reviewers (not all of them obviously) and the reviews help A LOT. I'm a reviewer myself but I still seek reviews for my books because an outsider opinion is always good.

I hope this chapter helps you. If you have any questions or want to discuss anything, comment here ☞￣ᴥ￣☞

Now, joke time!!

Everyone told Sam, not to sing.

But Samsung anyway ;-;