The future of business is avoiding cliched subtitles
The Long Tail's subtitle was "Why selling less of more is the future of business". Shamelessly, the subtitle of my Wired FREE article was "Why $0.00 is the future of business".
But now comes my colleague Jeff Howe's new book, "Crowdsourcing: Why the power of the crowd is driving the future of business", and the forthcoming hardcover by David Edery and Ethan Mollick, "Changing the Game: How video games are transforming the future of business."
I've had a lot of good suggestions on subtitles in this post, so I'll dig through those. But I think I can say with certainty that the book won't have the same subtitle as the Wired article.
BTW, in book industry lore, there's a big difference between "Why" books and "How" books. The first is considered a bit intellectual, while the second is considered more practical. So assuming I'm going to use one of those two constructions, I'll have to decide between smart or servicey.
How about, "Why $0.00 is changing business today."? It's changing business now, is it not?
But I'd probably go with some juxtaposition of profit vs. free. Like, "Why the highest profits come from selling things for $0.00."
Well maybe not quite that, but you're the fancy-pants writer, I'm sure you'll figure it out. Looking forward to reading it.
Posted by: Sprizouse | September 22, 2008 at 10:34 PM
How about:
Why & how [insert the rest of the title here].
Posted by: Raanan Avidor | September 23, 2008 at 12:11 AM
Yes, "why & how"! Why not be intellectual AND servicey?
Posted by: Lee Berg | September 23, 2008 at 07:29 AM
Or why not throw caution to the wind and use both...?
Posted by: Will Davies | September 23, 2008 at 07:38 AM
I suggest "when", because in some cases, if I assume right, $0,00 is changing business, but in other - it's not.
Posted by: MIchal | September 23, 2008 at 08:30 AM
"How to Become Chris Anderson"? You're already so close.
Posted by: Brett | September 23, 2008 at 08:51 AM
How about "If it's free for you, it's profit for me."
Craig
www,budgetpulse.com
Posted by: Craig | September 23, 2008 at 10:59 AM
Interestingly, while my US publisher went with the subtitle: "WHY the power of the crowd is driving the future of business," my UK publisher adopted the more pedestrian "HOW the power of the crowd," etc. Neither edition is more practical than the other. In fact, of course, they're identical. Perhaps the Brits just have a higher bar on what constitutes an intellectual book. Either way, guilty as charged. In fact, I think we may have quite exhausted the How/Why formulation in subtitles. For apt parody on the convention see: http://tinyurl.com/2a7aos ...
Posted by: Jeff Howe | September 23, 2008 at 02:39 PM
Hi, in Italy the subtitle is:
"Da un mercato di massa a una massa di mercati"
which may be translated:
"From a mass market to a mass of markets".
Posted by: Dee | September 24, 2008 at 06:16 AM
Howhy?
I guess something like "WHY free?" or "Get free ou fail" would be interesting.
anyways, I vote for Why.
Posted by: Stefano | September 24, 2008 at 06:20 AM