If you’re writing a book, think about it. They say “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” but what else do we have to go on? Do you go to the bookstore and open each individual book? Of course you don’t. The reality: if the spine doesn’t impress me, I’m not even going to look at the cover. The title is the single most critical aspect of designing the entire book.

I made the mistake, when I started writing my current book, of picking a bad working title. I figured I’d nail the title later, and just get the book written in the meantime. The result: I finally figured out what the real title would be, and the final title rendered 60% of my content unusable. While it’s true that you probably won’t think up the perfect title right out of the gate, it’s important to hold a working title to some key quality standards.

1. Does your working title clearly identify the audience for the book?

2. Does your working title clearly define the scope of the book?

3. Does your working title come across clearly to other people? (Hint: you’ll need to ask)

If you think you’ll figure out the title later, ask yourself if you’ve got something that fits these 3 criteria. If you don’t, you’re not ready to start writing the content yet. If you’re stuck, start writing some chapter titles and bouncing them off of people. This should get you on the right track. You’ll know you have a good working title when you can use it as a litmus test. In other words, when you’re debating whether or not to include something, you can justask yourself if it makes sense with your working title.

If you do this, the final title will fall into place later in the writing process, and nothing will need to change about your book.