The Next Bestseller

An excerpt from Wired.com on how to create the title of the next best selling book:

1. Create a title-as-theory.
Your title needs to both summarize your Big Idea and introduce a new term. It sounds tough, but we’ve made it easy. Instructions: Choose a word from column A and combine it with one from column B. Feel free to use one or two connectors from the middle and start with “The” if necessary.

Hint: The best Big Idea titles tend to sound like B movies: Unleashing the Ideavirus, The Black Swan, and Guns, Germs, and Steel could all pull double duty as fright flicks. We’ve heard rumors that Freakonomics is under option from Wes Craven.

2. Subtitle it!
Since your Big Idea title is an entirely new concept, you’ll need a subtitle that can do some heavy lifting and explain things a bit. It should be both specific and vague, expressing your Big Idea in a simple catchphrase while not giving away too much. After all, you want people to buy the book. Instructions: Pick one or more clauses from column C, followed by one from column D.

Hint: Before taking it to a publisher, pitch your Big Idea to Robert Scoble over an online telelunch. If he’s blogged 16 entries and started four businesses based on it by dinner, you’ve got a winner.

3. Pick a premise.
Your book needs what seems like a premise. Not every nitwit will pick up on your Big Idea from the subtitle, so this is a little helper that your publisher can send out in a letter to reviewers. Don’t worry — it doesn’t actually need to make sense as long as it’s sweeping and profound. Instructions: Select one word or phrase from each column to sum up your brilliant-sounding idea.