Welcome to Reedsy’s Book Title Generator
A book title generator is a tool that helps writers find a name for their manuscript. And if you’re agonizing over your own, you’re not alone! Many of the best book titles emerged only after much thought. The Sun Also Rises was once titled Fiesta; Pride and Prejudice was once First Impressions. F. Scott Fitzgerald went through a dozen titles (including Gold-Hatted Gatsby, The High-Bouncing Lover, and Trimalchio in West Egg) before picking The Great Gatsby.
Reedsy's book title generator is AI-powered, and built specifically to help spark the imagination of fiction writers when it comes to title-hunting. Simply adjust based on core conflict, tone, setting, and genre, and it’ll return ten title options — each with a one-line explanation of what it captures.
How to use this name generator
It’s simple! Here's how to get the most out of it:
-
Select your genre first. The generator has dedicated pages for each major fiction genre. Each is calibrated to the naming conventions of that genre, so start there rather than using a generic setting.
-
Describe your core conflict or theme. We recommend one to two sentences capturing the central tension of your story. You don’t have to go into a full synopsis, as just the essential question or struggle will be enough. “A woman must choose between her career ambitions and returning home to save her family business,” for example, is exactly the right level of detail.
-
Add comparative titles. Optional, but powerful. The generator uses comp titles the way publishing professionals do: as a creative brief that signals positioning, not just genre.
-
List any words or themes to avoid. If you're tired of seeing “dark,” “secrets,” or “love” in every title suggestion, say so. The generator will steer clear.
-
Choose a mode. This is where the results diverge meaningfully. Commercial mode favors titles with broad market appeal and clear genre signals. Literary mode leans toward more evocative, resonant language. Experiment as you see fit.
-
Review and select. You get ten titles per generation, each with a brief note on what it conveys. Select the ones worth keeping and regenerate! You have four generations per session to work with.
A tip on using the results: the generator is better at sparking a direction than landing the final answer. “Between Two Worlds” might not be your title, but it might confirm that you're looking for something about duality, which gets you closer than you were.
So you want a good book title idea?
We know it’s tough out there for a novelist finding the perfect title, which is why we built this generator: to try and give you some inspiration. Here are some more ways to come up with book title ideas.
Start free writing to find keywords. Write absolutely anything that comes into your head: words, phrases, names, places, adjectives — the works. You’ll be surprised how much workable content comes out from such a strange exercise.
Experiment with word patterns. Obviously, we’re not advocating plagiarism, but try playing around with formats like: “The _____ of _______” or “______ and the _____.” These will work for certain genres, though they are by no means the only patterns you can play around with. Have you noticed how many blockbuster thrillers these days feature the word “woman” or “ girl” somewhere in the title?
Draw inspiration from your characters. If your central character has a quirky name or a title (like Doctor or Detective) you can definitely incorporate this into your book title. Just look at Jane Eyre, Percy Jackson, or Harry Potter, for instance — working with one or more or your characters’ names is a surefire way to get some title ideas down. Equally, you can add a little detail, like Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure, to add a little color to a name and make it title-worthy.
Keep your setting in mind. Is your book set somewhere particularly interesting or significant? Even if your title isn’t just where the action takes place (like Middlemarch by George Eliot), it’s something to have in the back of your mind. You can include other details, like The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum or Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay, to give your readers a sense of action and character, as well as setting (which tend to be linked).
Look for book title ideas in famous phrases. Think Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird here — this is a central symbol and significant piece of dialogue in the novel. It’s enigmatic (what does it even mean? Is it a warning? An instruction?) and makes us really sit up when these words appear in the text itself. Try and think of your inspiration for writing your book or sum up your central theme in a few words, and see if these inspire anything.
Test it before you commit. Search the title on Amazon and Goodreads before finalizing it. A title shared with an existing book (especially a well-known one) creates confusion you don't want. Also say it out loud, repeatedly. A title that sounds elegant in your head can be awkward when someone asks "what are you reading?" at a dinner party.
It should fit the genre, not disappear into it. Genre titles follow conventions for a reason: readers use them as signals. A thriller with a dark, propulsive title tells readers what they're getting. But there's a difference between fitting genre conventions and blending into them. If every psychological thriller of the last decade has a one-word title ending in "-er" (Luster, etc), that's a convention worth knowing, or subverting.
Don't get too attached too early. Many of the most celebrated titles in literary history weren't the author's first choice. The Great Gatsby was nearly Trimalchio in West Egg. Of Mice and Men started life as Something That Happened. A working title is a placeholder, not a promise — use it to keep moving, and revisit the title once the manuscript is complete and you can see the whole story clearly.
A note on our use of AI
We built this tool for writers, which means we thought carefully about what AI should and shouldn’t do here. The generator uses AI to produce titles that better fit your book’s specific context and needs — conflict, characters, setting, and genre — while explaining its reasoning for each one.
Here’s what it won’t do for you: it won’t write your story, title your book, or make creative decisions for you. It simply generates options for you.
More importantly, your inputs are not (and will never be) used to train any AI models. Treat whatever comes out as raw material: a starting point that belongs entirely to you. Every result is yours!
