Help me write a subtitle

Last night I had a nightmare that actually woke me up. I dreamed I was standing in line at a store with my parents, who are now in their 70s. They're telling a stranger that their son is writing a book, and he says "How interesting. What's it about?" My father goes blank for a second and then turns to me and says "I'm sorry, Chris, I've forgotten. What's the Long Tail about again?" So I get furious and chastise him for not caring enough to remember.  But in truth I'm just stalling because I can't figure out how to explain it to this stranger either.

What I need is a subtitle that can do double duty as a one-sentence summary. I started with this:

1) The Long Tail: How the mass market is turning into a mass of niches

That touches on some of the high points--the decline of the mainstream and the rise of niches--and it benefits from a little lyricism in the form of the repeated "mass". But I'm not sure that really is the best collective noun for niches. So I considered another approach at lyricism, our old friend Mr Alliteration:

2) The Long Tail: How the mass market is turning into a million niches

I quite like that one (I can justify the random precision of a million as poetic license and numbers, especially big ones, are always good), but I'm slightly concerned that it needs better context. Which mass market? Perhaps a "future of..." construction would help. Like this:

3) The Long Tail: How the future of business is turning from mass markets to millions of niches

The main problem with that is the sweeping nature of "the future of business". I could focus it on one thing--"the future of entertainment", "the future of shopping", etc--but each of those only represents a portion of  the scope of the book.  Another problem is that "business" is a supply-side word, telling readers that the book is mostly of interest to businesspeople. But I'm writing the book to be of equal interest to consumers--indeed, I see the Long Tail future as being something of a consumer paradise. Perhaps the way to do that is to make the point of view that of a shopper:

4) The Long Tail: How the rise of infinite aisles is turning mass markets into millions of niches

But does anyone know what I mean by "infinite aisles"? Of course I'm referring to unlimited shelf space and other ends of distribution scarcity, but there's always a risk of confusion when you're coining one neologism to explain another.

So all four of these have their plusses and minues. I'd love your thoughts on them (and suggestions of better alternatives), either by comment or email. Who knows: you might just see your words on the cover of a book someday.

Comments

[John Locke]

I like your #1 and #2, but here are some other ideas, in slightly different directions:

* Reversing the 80/20 rule

* How micro markets are beating the mass market

* The decline of monopoly and the economics of abundance

Cheers,

[Johnnie Moore]

I vote for #2: clean and simple. It's a subtitle, you're allowed to to be simple. And it makes one point well.

I see what you're trying to do with #3 but I find it too long and rambling. For me #4 is one concept too many.

[Mike Lambert]

Some potential taglines I just came up with:

How collective niche markets are challenging the mass market.

How niche markets can add up to rival the mass market.

[Bob]

This reminds me of that thread on John Batelle's blog about what to call his book.

My suggestion:

The Long Tail: How the 80/20 became 50/50.

[Bryan William Jones]

The Long Tail: Tapping the potential of the niche market.

or:

The Long Tail: The potential of niche markets.

Simple and to the point while not excluding consumers or businesses. Once you have the eyes, you can put a more elaborate summary in the Forward.

[Kevin Pownall]

Hi Chris,

How about introducing technology into the subtitle because in the end that's the enabling factor, and that's what's changed... something along the lines of... How technology is turning the mass market of today into a market of a million niches tomorrow

[praktike]

The Long Tail: a Surprisingly Profitable Embarrassment of Niches. (HT: nadezhda)

[praktike]

Or:

The Long Tail: the rise of the infinite aisle

[Hank Aaron]

How the Niche Became Mainstream

[stephen o'grady]

don't know that i've seen this yet, so just in case it hasn't been suggested yet:

The Long Tail: How Mass Markets Became Masses of Markets

[Thomas Hawk]

Making billions on billions -- how the new era of technology and internet efficiencies will turn Pareto's 80/20 rule on it's head.

[Christopher Carfi]

a few riffs on your #1 and stephen o'grady's:

The Long Tail: How the mass market becomes a mass of markets

The Long Tail: How the mass market became a mass of markets

The Long Tail: The "mass market" isn't

The Long Tail: Why the real "mass market" is outside the mainstream

[Barry Welford]

How about:
The Long Tail: Infinities of Infinitesimals
or
The Long Tail: Macros of Micros
or
The Long Tail: Many a mickle maks a muckle.
(At least for your Scottish book buyers. :) }

[David Sabel]

The Long Tail: A million reasons why the future of mass markets will be different.

[Cori Schlegel (kinrowan)]

I'll have to say, I like Bob's or either of Bryan William Jones's versions better than any of your originals, Chris.

They are all short, simple, and express the essence of your idea. Seems to me that a sub-title wants to be very brief and to the point. You want something that someone browsing the book bindings in the store (or the title and sub-title on Amazon) will be able to take in in one visual "gulp" so to speak.

[Mike]

There's a market born every minute

Why there's a market for everything

[Howard Owens]

The Long Tail: The revolution of micro markets.
The Long Tail: The revolution of micro markets and the economies of abundence.

[David Palmer]

How producers and consumers will benefit from the niche market revolution.

[Meng Weng Wong]

Little drops of water make a mighty ocean.

The age of the micro market.

[LeegleechN]

I like "The Long Tail: Why there's a market for everything". I think the whole "mass of markets" idea is on the wrong track.

[Joe Gratz]

The Long Tail: How the Smallest Markets are Becoming the Biggest Market

or

The Long Tail: Why the Niche is the Mass Market of the Future

or, more verbosely,

The Long Tail: How New Distribution Technologies Are Making The Smallest Markets the Most Important

[steve]

The Rise of You-Media, content after the Long Tail.

The Micro-Media Revolution: life in a Long Tail world.

The Birth of Micro-Media: the Tale of the Long Tail

Long Tail Marketplace: Now YOU actually matter.

The Triumph of the Tail. Thriving media that you don't hate

Embrace Content You Love: The Power of the credit card in a Long Tail world.

Life in the Long Tail Universe. Power in the hands of content consumers.

[Jeff De Cagna]

I don't know what kind of leeway you have on the title as a whole, but I'd offer up the following:

Grabbing the Long Tail: The Shift from Mass Market Purgatory to Niche Market Paradise

[chris anderson]

Bob Baker just emailed me with a few good ones that I thought I'd share with everyone (I particularily like the first):

The Long Tail: How Technology and Unlimited Consumer Choices Are Turning Niche Markets Into Mass Markets

The Long Tail: The Rise of Niche Markets and the Economics of Abundance

The Long Tail: The Rise of Niche Markets and Abundance Economics

[scott]

I really like the idea of a "consumer's paradise." It snaps. Though, I don't quite like "to turn" to describe the change at hand.

The Long Tail: How Abundant Niche Markets are Creating a Consumer's Paradise.

Thanks for opening this up.