Title (publishing)

The title of a book, or any other published text or work of art, is a name for the work which is usually chosen by the author. A title can be used to identify the work, to place it in context, to convey a minimal summary of its contents, and to pique the reader's curiosity.

Some works supplement the title with a subtitle. Texts without separate titles may be referred to by their incipit, especially those produced before the practice of titling became popular. During development, a work may be referred to by a temporary working title. A piece of legislation may have both a short title and a long title. In library cataloging, a uniform title is assigned to a work whose title is ambiguous.

In book design, the title is typically shown on the spine, the front cover, and the title page.

In the music industry album titles are often chosen through an involved process including record executives.^[1]

Typographical conventions

Most English-language style guides, including the Chicago Manual of Style, the Modern Language Association Style Guide,^[2] and APA style^[3] recommend that longer or complete works such as books, movies, plays, albums, and periodicals be written in italics, like: New York Times is a major American newspaper. These guides recommend shorter or subsidiary works such as articles, chapters, and poems, be written in quotation marks, like: "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is a poem by Robert Frost. The AP Stylebook recommends that book titles be written in quotation marks. Underlining is used where italics are not possible, such as on a typewriter or in handwriting.

Titles are also usually written in title case, with most or all words capitalized. This is true both when the title is written in or on the work in question, and when mentioned in other writing. The original author or publisher may deviate this from this for stylistic purposes, and other publications might or might not replicate the original capitalization when mentioning the work. Quotes, italics, and underlines are generally not used in the title on the work itself.^[4]

See also

• Incipit

References

Further reading