33 Responses to “Book Title”

1. 1 1 Jonathan Kariv
   November 5, 2017 at 3:18 am

   I think the most book-selling title you’ve had (indeed the one that made me start reading your stuff) was “more sex is safer sex”. This one strikes me as being a lot more vanilla sounding and hence a lot less book-selling.

2. 2 2 Khodge
   November 5, 2017 at 4:58 am

   “Rational Explanations” does not have the same comfortable welcome as “Armchair Economist.” My first instinct when reading that title is to expect paranormal debunking, appealing to a small niche market.

   I’d be interested a title more along the style of Martin Gardner’s books.

3. 3 3 Toby
   November 5, 2017 at 6:08 am

   Puzzles for the Armchair Economist: 100+ puzzles to make you a better economist.

   I would refer to the title of your previous book. It might also boost its sales then. And previous readers might be more likely to notice this book.

4. 4 4 The Original CC
   November 5, 2017 at 8:16 am

   Wasn’t the author of the 4 Hour Work Week able to test out various titles using google ads or something like that? Oh wait… here’s the link:

   http://freakonomics.com/podcast/tim-ferriss/
   “The 4-Hour Workweek title was one of 12 titles that I tested on Google AdWords. So I created campaigns to test the respective titles and subtitles and then just looked at the click-through rates, which went to under-construction pages. And that performed the best of the options that I had.”

   Maybe you could do something like that. Your current title isn’t bad, but it doesn’t exactly grab my attention. (The author’s name does though!)

5. 5 5 Pete
   November 5, 2017 at 11:49 am

   I like it and think that it’d be an easier gift to give than “more sex is safer sex.” However, I completely agree that “Rational Explanations” is going to confuse a lot of people. If I saw it cold in a bookstore, I probably wouldn’t make the right assumptions about the content. Perhaps really emphasizing the words “puzzles” and “economics” would help.

   Unhelpful compliments: Fair Play was the best argument I’ve ever read about politics and The Big Questions was the best book I’ve ever read about reality.

6. 6 6 Keshav Srinivasan
   November 5, 2017 at 2:54 pm

   Steve, I don’t think is a catchy title at all. First of all, my first reaction was the same as Khodge, it sounds like a book which tries to argue that seemingly supernatural phenomena have rational explanations. So people interested in puzzles wouldn’t pick it off the shelf. Plus, I think it should be more clever-sounding, possibly involving a pun. Something like “Rationally Irrational” or “Irrationally Rational” or something. “Rational Explanations” sounds too straightforward.

7. 7 7 Keshav Srinivasan
   November 5, 2017 at 2:57 pm

   Also, the subtitle “100+ Puzzles to Make You Smarter About Economics” makes it sound as if the book is targeted to people taking an economics course, as opposed to something that would appeal to the lay reader who might find the insights of economics interesting.

8. 8 8 Hugh A.D'Andrade
   November 5, 2017 at 9:08 pm

   I would prefer “This Book Will Make You Smarter:100+ Puzzles About Economics”

9. 9 9 Tristan
   November 6, 2017 at 11:10 am

   I really like Toby’s suggestion:

   Puzzles for the Armchair Economist: 100+ puzzles to make you a better economist.

   I think it stands a chance of being enticing to both academic and non-academic would-be economists.

10. 10 10 Bill
    November 6, 2017 at 11:14 am

    Don’t Read This Book Unless You Want to be Smarter: 100+ Puzzles About Economics

11. 11 11 Harold
    November 6, 2017 at 11:47 am

    I think a reference to The Armchair Economist would be helpful. To those who know it is a signal of what one might find inside, and to those who don’t the armchair economist is a cozy and comfortable image whilst setting the context rather well.

    However, if you have “Puzzles for the Armchair Economist” before the colon you can’t really have “100+ puzzles to make you a better economist” after it, as both economist and puzzle have already been introduced. However, I cannot for now think of anything better.

12. 12 12 Jim WK
    November 6, 2017 at 12:06 pm

    The Return of The Armchair Economist: Puzzles to Make You Smarter About Economics

    Great books sometimes deserve a sequel, and with this title you will:

    A) Have a title that summarises exactly what the book is all about

    B) Bring new readers to the attention of the original Armchair Economist book

    C) Ensure that when one of the books is searched for in Google the other one comes to their attention too

    D) Possibly add the weight of the quality and reputation of the first Armchair Economist to the sales impetus of The Return of The Armchair Economist

13. 13 13 SBF
    November 6, 2017 at 12:50 pm

    +1 to Toby’s suggestion: “Puzzles for the Armchair Economist: 100+ puzzles to make you a better economist.”

14. 14 14 Neil
    November 6, 2017 at 5:57 pm

    I don’t think this title captures the theme of your book, which I understand to be “What is obvious is often wrong.” So what is wrong with the title What is Obvious is Often Wrong: 100+ Puzzles to Challenge Your Economics Intuition.

15. 15 15 Neil
    November 6, 2017 at 6:00 pm

    PS Rational Explanations is too cute, IMHO.

16. 16 16 LuisO
    November 6, 2017 at 7:29 pm

    Since you are a successful author your name will be very prominent in the cover, this will give context to the title. But I agree with the rest, this title doesn’t have the visual imagery strength that the titles of your other books had.

17. 17 17 Harold
    November 7, 2017 at 10:26 am

    I like Neil’s “what is obvious is often wrong”

18. 18 18 Thomas
    November 7, 2017 at 12:46 pm

    Rational Explanations is good, but not punchy enough, especially with the long (but necessary) subtitle after the colon. Here’s an alternative — Econologic: Puzzles to Make You Smarter about Economics. I’ve omitted 100+, which seems unnecessary and only lengthens the subtitle.

    I would prefer Ecologic to Econologic — it’s shorter and punchier — but Ecologic is too easily confused with ecological.

19. 19 19 Alessandro
    November 7, 2017 at 5:48 pm

    Drawing on previous suggestions: Obvious but wrong: 100+ puzzles for the Armchair Economist.

20. 20 20 Zazooba
    November 7, 2017 at 9:57 pm

    “Rational Explanations” is a lot of syllables to chew through, so not crazy about it. Also, non-economists aren’t going to get the joke.

    The rest of the title is kind of hard to get through too.

    From left field:

    Snap!
    100 Economic Puzzles
    … and Then Some

    (Maybe it will open up a different line of thinking.)

21. 21 21 Enrique
    November 8, 2017 at 2:03 pm

    I second Thomas and Zazooba’s comments. Frankly, proposed title is lame.

22. 22 22 Zazooba
    November 9, 2017 at 2:25 pm

    “Rational Explanations: 100+ Puzzles to Make You Smarter About Economics”

    On further thought, I’m liking the first two words of the title a little better. It conveys the notion that the book will reveal rational explanations for seemingly irrational phenomena. The first two words are still pretty dry, though, which is ok for people looking for a dry book on economics, but fails to convey the undoubtedly fun nature of the actual contents to the rest of the book-buying public.

    There also seems to be a bit of confusion of perspective in the title.

    (1) “Rational explanations” sounds like the author is going to explain in a calm and reasonable manner various things to the reader. This sets up a picture of the author teaching the reader things in a rather passive teacher-student relationship. Kind of dry too.

    (2) “100+ puzzles” suggests that the author will give the reader a bunch of puzzles to solve. This is a more participatory relationship that makes the book sound like a book of crossword puzzles that the reader can work through with some effort. It could even be fun.

    (3) “to Make You Smarter” is a bit of a third perspective. This adds a self-improvement tone that clashes a bit with the “for-fun” tone of doing puzzles. It also conflicts a bit with “rational explanations”, which are passively received by the reader, while becoming smarter about economics is more like doing brain exercises.

    (4) “About Economics” saves until the very last word of the title the important information that the book is about economics. Readers have to go back and update their mental images of these explanations, puzzles, and ensmartenings to include this new information that these are economic explanations and puzzles and they will be ensmartened about economics.

23. 23 23 Zazooba
    November 10, 2017 at 12:06 pm

    How about: Puzzles to Build Economic Insight?

24. 24 24 Zazooba
    November 10, 2017 at 12:08 pm

    Actually, Toby has a better version of “Puzzles to Build Economic Insight”, i.e., “Puzzles for the Armchair Economist”

25. 25 25 spaf
    November 11, 2017 at 10:05 am

    A puzzle book title/cover should convey a sense of fun or at least be sort of mysterious/intriguing.

    You have my money already, but I would not buy a book based on that title.

    You’ve done well with title before (Fair Play, etc). But this one is bad.

    I agree with falling back on the “armchair economist” brand if you cannot come up with something good.

26. 26 26 doc
    November 12, 2017 at 6:30 am

    I think:

    1 I know you so that I think I’ll buy your book regardless of its title.

    2 You have to persuade who doesn’t know you. In this scenario on my part “about economics” is too much selective, so that I prefer something like “about reasoning” (somebody could think that a book on economics is to much specific without considering that economic principles are about logic and good forms of argument)

27. 27 27 Andrew M
    November 12, 2017 at 11:07 am

    Depending on the audience, I wouldn’t put “economics” in the (sub)title, but rather something like “how the world works”. The title immediately struck me as a play on “rational expectations” but maybe that’s unintentional. Something like “hidden explanations” is more direct and connects with the puzzle concept.

28. 28 28 Andrew M
    November 12, 2017 at 11:18 am

    I can’t decide whether the “make you smarter” pitch is overkill/redundant. Without it, my above comment would give something like “Hidden Explanations: 100+ Puzzles (and Solutions) About How The World Works”.

29. 29 29 AD
    November 15, 2017 at 8:41 pm

    Just publish it and take my money

30. 30 30 Ken B
    November 17, 2017 at 2:06 pm

    Thumbs down. “Make you smarter” sounds too Dale Carnegie.

    Readers might like this excellent video on using waves in QM, for beginners. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzRCDLre1b4

31. 31 31 Enrique
    November 18, 2017 at 2:21 am

    If “Mind fuck economics” is off the table, then I love Toby’s “Puzzles for the armchair economist,” since it harkens back to Landsburg’s previous best-seller and is much shorter than the proposed title. There should be Occam’s Razor principle for book and paper titles.

32. 32 32 Ken B
    November 25, 2017 at 1:25 pm

    Questioning Economics

33. 33 33 MiataMeToo
    December 15, 2017 at 5:54 am

    Rational Explanations?
    100+ Puzzles to Make You Smarter About Economics
    The Armchair Economist Strikes Again