Bosh

Five minutes into today's "market research", a cynical task at the best of times, I came to the sorry conclusion that to publish a business book, all you need is a dynamic, one-word title.

Like these:

• shift
• sway
• influence

I know, you think I'm kidding. But I'm not even warmed up yet.

• nudge
• fish

Yes, I'm still 100% serious. Nudge isn't a typo. It's a title.

• socialnomics
• fascinate
• yes
• engage
• buyology
• different
• free

I gave up at this point. I also found a book called Purple Cow, but that was two words, so I decided to omit it from consideration at this time.

My point is, when you come across books called Yes and Free, you have to start wondering what happened to the concept of imagination in business publishing. Yes. YES, for God's sake.

Personally, I don't agree that a book's title should depend on its subtitle. If I were to publish something, I'd endeavour to give it a half-decent title. One that spoke to people off the bat, whether they bothered to read the subtitle or not.

It's reassuring to know, though, that if I run out of ideas, I can choose something like UnSame or Consume or Bosh and, if it's published, Amazon will gladly list it.