Whether you’re a marketer writing cold emails, a blogger writing articles, a Youtuber making videos, or an author writing books, you need a title that arouses emotion and curiosity so that someone actually opens your email, clicks on your video, or picks up your book. Fortunately, you don’t need to (and in fact shouldn’t) come up with a title through sheer brainstorming. Instead, steal a title pattern that has already been proven to work. For example, these are all titles of New York Times best-selling nonfiction books, but from different years:
- Killing Lincoln
- Killing Kennedy
- Killing Jesus
- Killing Patton
- Killing Reagan
- Killing the Rising Sun
- Killing England
- Killing the SS
- Killing the Mob
- Killing the Killers
It’s subtle, but there is a pattern to those 10 different titles that you’ll notice if you stare at them for long enough.
So, if you’re writing an article about the downfall of a country or group, or the death of a prominent figure, consider titling your article “Killing <name of country, group, or figure>”.
There are also other patterns though. Here is another set of example titles of real NYT best-sellers:
- Give War a Chance
- You Can Profit From A Monetary Crisis
- Stupid White Men
- White Fragility
- I’m Glad My Mom Died
- Becoming Sister Wives
If any of those felt a little triggering to you, that’s the point. They grab your attention by triggering you, and that’s effective.
There are many other best-selling title patterns as well. Find one that works for you by looking through the list below of every nonfiction New York Times best-selling book from 1969 to 2022.
| Year | NYT Best-Selling Nonfiction Books |
| 1969 | – “The Money Game” – “The 900 Days” – “Jennie” – “The Peter Principle” – “The Selling of the President 1968” |
| 1970 | – “The Selling of the President 1968” – “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)” – “Up the Organization” – “The Sensuous Woman” – “The Greening of America” |
| 1971 | – “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)” – “Civilization” – “The Greening of America” – “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” – “The Female Eunuch” – “Any woman can!” – “Honor Thy Father” – “Eleanor and Franklin” |
| 1972 | – “Eleanor and Franklin” – “The Game Of The Foxes” – “The Boys of Summer” – “I’m OK — You’re OK” – “O Jerusalem!” |
| 1973 | – “I’m OK — You’re OK” – “Harry S. Truman” – “The Best and the Brightest” – “Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution” – “The Joy of Sex” – “How to Be Your Own Best Friend” – “Alistair Cooke’s America” |
| 1974 | – “Alistair Cooke’s America” – “The Joy of Sex” – “How to Be Your Own Best Friend” – “Plain Speaking” – “You Can Profit From A Monetary Crisis” – “Times to Remember” – “All the President’s Men” – “All Things Bright and Beautiful” |
| 1975 | – “All Things Bright and Beautiful” – “The Bermuda Triangle” – “The Palace Guard” – “Breach of Faith” – “Sylvia Porter’s Money Book” – “Power!” – “Bring on the Empty Horses” – “The Relaxation Response” |
| 1976 | – “Bring on the Empty Horses” – “Winning Through Intimidation” – “Doris Day: Her Own Story” – “World of Our Fathers” – “The Final Days” – “Passages” – “Roots” |
| 1977 | – “Roots” – “Your Erroneous Zones” – “The Book of Lists” – “Looking Out for Number One” – “All Things Wise and Wonderful” |
| 1978 | – “All Things Wise and Wonderful” – “The Complete Book of Running” – “The Ends of Power” – “If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits?” – “Mommie Dearest” |
| 1979 | – “Mommie Dearest” – “Gnomes” – “Lauren Bacall by Myself” – “The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet” – “Cruel Shoes” – “Aunt Erma’s Cope Book” – “The Brethren” |
| 1980 | – “Aunt Erma’s Cope Book” – “The Brethren” – “Donahue” – “Free to Choose” – “Men in Love” – “Thy Neighbor’s Wife” – “Shelley: Also known as Shirley” – “Crisis Investing” – “Cosmos” |
| 1981 | – “Cosmos” – “Crisis Investing” – “Never-Say-Diet Book” – “The Lord God Made Them All” – “The Beverly Hills Diet” – “A Light in the Attic” |
| 1982 | – “A Light in the Attic” – “A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney” – “Jane Fonda’s Workout Book” – “Living Loving and Learning” – “Life Extension” – “And More by Andy Rooney” |
| 1983 | – “And More by Andy Rooney” – “Jane’s Fonda Workout Book” – “Megatrends” – “In Search of Excellence” – “Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession” |
| 1984 | – “Motherhood: the Second Oldest Profession” – “In Search of Excellence” – “Mayor” – “First Lady from Plains” – “Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi” – “The Kennedys: an American Drama” – “Loving Each Other” – “Iacocca: An Autobiography” |
| 1985 | – “Iacocca: An Autobiography” – “A Passion for Excellence” – “Yeager: An Autobiography” – “Elvis and Me” |
| 1986 | – “Iacocca: An Autobiography” – “Yeager: An Autobiography” – “Bus 9 to Paradise” – “You’re Only Old Once!” – “The Triumph of Politics” – “Fatherhood” – “His Way” – “A Day in the Life of America” |
| 1987 | – “Fatherhood” – “A Season of the Brink” – “Communion” – “The Closing of the American Mind” – “Spycatcher” – “Veil” – “The Great Depression of 1990” – “Free to Be… a Family” – “Time Flies” |
| 1988 | – “Time Flies” – “Trump: The Art of the Deal” – “Love, Medicine, and Miracles” – “Moonwalk” – “For The Record” – “A Brief History of Time” – “Talking Straight” – “The Last Lion” – “Gracie” |
| 1989 | – “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” – “Blind Faith” – “A Woman Named Jackie” – “Summer of ’49” – “It’s Always Something” – “My Turn” |
| 1990 | – “It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It” – “Liar’s Poker” – “Megatrends 2000” – “Barbarians at the Gate” – “Means of Ascent” – “Men at Work” – “Trump: Surviving at the Top” – “Darkness Visible” – “Millie’s Book” – “By Way of Deception” – “The Civil War” – “A Life on the Road” |
| 1991 | – “A Life on the Road” – “Iron John” – “The Prize” – “And the Sea Will Tell” – “You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again” – “Nancy Reagan” – “The Commanders” – “Chutzpah” – “Parliament of Whores” – “When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It’s Time to Go Home” – “Uh-Oh” – “Me: Stories of My Life” – “Den of Thieves” – “Under Fire” |
| 1992 | – “Me: Stories of My Life” – “Den of Thieves” – “Revolution from Within” – “Give War a Chance” – “The Silent Passage” – “Diana: Her True Story” – “Every Living Thing” – “The Way Things Ought to Be” – “Sex” |
| 1993 | – “The Way Things Ought to Be” – “Healing and the Mind” – “Women Who Run with the Wolves” – “Days of Grace” – “Embraced by the Light” – “Seinlanguage” – “Private Parts” – “See, I Told You So” |
| 1994 | – “See, I Told You So” – “The Book of Virtues” – “Embraced by the Light” – “The Agenda” – “Couplehood” – “Barbara Bush: A Memoir” – “Don’t Stand Too Close to a Naked Man” – “Nicole Brown Simpson” – “Crossing the Threshold of Hope” |
| 1995 | – “Don’t Stand Too Close to a Naked Man” – “Crossing the Threshold of Hope” – “The Hot Zone” – “I Want to Tell You” – “Breaking the Surface” – “In Retrospect” – “A Good Walk Spoiled” – “New Passages” – “To Renew America” – “My Point… and I Do Have One” – “My American Journey” – “Miss America” – “The Road Ahead” |
| 1996 | – “The Road Ahead” – “It Takes a Village” – “Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot” – “Blood Sport” – “In Contempt” – “Bad as I Wanna Be” – “Outrage” – “The Dilbert Principle” – “Unlimited Access” – “American Tragedy” – “The Soul’s Code” – “My Sergei” – “Angela’s Ashes” – “A Reporter’s Life” |
| 1997 | – “A Reporter’s Life” – “Angela’s Ashes” – “Personal History” – “Murder in Brentwood” – “Underboss” – “Mothers & Daughters” – “Without a Doubt” – “Into Thin Air” – “Just as I Am” – “The Royals” – “Diana: Her True Story – In Her Own Words” – “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” |
| 1998 | – “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” – “Talking to Heaven” – “Tuesdays with Morrie” – “The Millionaire Next Door” – “We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters” – “A Pirate Looks at Fifty” – “The Day Diana Died” – “The Death of Outrage” – “The Century” – “The Greatest Generation” |
| 1999 | – “The Greatest Generation” – “Monica’s Story” – “All Too Human” – “Every Man a Tiger” – “Shadow” – “Tuesdays with Morrie” – “Tis” – “Have a Nice Day!” |
| 2000 | – “Tuesdays with Morrie” – “The Rock Says” – “Flags of Our Fathers” – “The Day John Died” – “Life on the Other Side” – “It’s Not about the Bike” – “Nothing Like It in the World” – “The Beatles Anthology” – “The O’Reilly Factor” |
| 2001 | – “The O’Reilly Factor” – “An Hour Before Daylight” – “Ice Bound” – “Longaberger” – “Seabiscuit” – “Napalm & Silly Putty” – “Foley Is Good” – “John Adams” – “The Wild Blue” – “Jack: Straight from the Gut” – “Germs” – “The No Spin Zone” – “One Nation” |
| 2002 | – “The No Spin Zone” – “John Adams” – “Bias” – “Shadow Warriors” – “Stupid White Men” – “Lucky Man” – “Master of the Senate” – “American Son” – “A Mind at a Time” – “The Right Words at the Right Time” – “You Cannot Be Serious” – “Slander” – “Let’s Roll!” – “Leadership” – “Journals” – “Portrait of a Killer” – “Bush at War” |
| 2003 | – “Bush at War” – “Portrait of a Killer” – “The Savage Nation” – “What Should I Do with My Life?” – “Stupid White Men” – “Devil in the White City” – “Leap of Faith” – “An Unfinished Life” – “Living History” – “Kate Remembered” – “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them” – “Who’s Looking Out for You?” – “Dude, Where’s My Country?” – “A Royal Duty” – “I Am a Soldier Too” |
| 2004 | – “Who’s Looking Out For You?” – “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them” – “My Prison Without Bars” – “The Price of Loyalty” – “Deliver Us from Evil” – “Against All Enemies” – “Plan of Attack” – “Eats, Shoots & Leaves” – “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim” – “Big Russ and Me” – “My Life” – “American Soldier” – “Unfit for Command” – “The Family” – “America: The Book” |
| 2005 | – “America: The Book” – “Witness” – “Blink” – “Juiced” – “Blood Brother” – “A Deadly Game” – “My Life So Far” – “The World Is Flat” – “On Bullshit” – “1776” – “The FairTax Book” – “The City of Falling Angels” – “The Truth (with jokes)” – “Our Endangered Values” – “Teacher Man” |
| 2006 | – “Teacher Man” – “Team of Rivals” – “Our Endangered Values” – “My Friend Leonard” – “For Laci” – “Marley & Me” – “Don’t Make a Black Woman Take off Her Earrings” – “Dispatches from the Edge” – “Godless: The Church of Liberalism” – “Wisdom of Our Fathers” – “Fiasco” – “I Feel Bad About My Neck” – “Culture Warrior” – “State of Denial” – “The Innocent Man” – “The Audacity of Hope” |
| 2007 | – “The Audacity of Hope” – “In an Instant” – “A Long Way Gone” – “Einstein” – “At the Center of the Storm” – “God Is Not Great” – “The Assault on Reason” – “The Reagan Diaries” – “The Diana Chronicles” – “Lone Survivor” – “Quiet Strength” – “It’s All About Him” – “You Can Run But You Can’t Hide” – “Wonderful Tonight” – “Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World” – “Power to the People” – “The Age of Turbulence” – “My Grandfather’s Son” – “I Am America (And So Can You!)” – “An Inconvenient Book” |
| 2008 | – “I Am America (And So Can You!)” – “In Defense of Food” – “Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography” – “Liberal Fascism” – “Losing It” – “Beautiful Boy” – “Mistaken Identity” – “Home” – “Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea” – “The Revolution: A Manifesto” – “Audition: A Memoir” – “What Happened” – “When You Are Engulfed in Flames” – “The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality” – “sTORI Telling” – Hot, Flat, and Crowded” – “Against Medical Advice: A True Story” – “Too Fat to Fish” – “Things That Matter” – “Outliers” |
| 2009 | – “Outliers” – “The Yankee Years” – “Liberty and Tyranny” – “Resilience” – “Catastrophe” – “Unmasked” – “Culture of Corruption” – “Official Book Club Selection” – “True Compass” – “Arguing with Idiots” – “Have a Little Faith” – “The Book of Basketball” – “Open” – “Going Rogue” |
| 2010 | – “Going Rogue” – “Have a Little Faith” – “Committed” – “Game Change” – “No Apology” – “Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang” – “The Big Short” – “Oprah: A Biography” – “Spoken from the Heart” – “Shit My Dad Says” – “Crimes Against Liberty” – “The Grand Design” – “Earth (The Book)” – “Obama’s Wars” – “Life” – “Decision Points” |
| 2011 | – “Decision Points” – “Unbroken” – “Known and Unknown” – “The Social Animal” – “Red” – “Onward” – “Bossypants” – “Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me” – “In the Garden of Beasts” – “Those Guys Have All the Fun” – “The Greater Journey” – “A Stolen Life” – “In My Time” – “Jacqueline Kennedy” – “Killing Lincoln” – “Steve Jobs” |
| 2012 | – “Steve Jobs” – “Heaven Is for Real” – “Ameritopia” – “Once Upon a Secret” – “The Vow” – “Imagine” – “The Big Miss” – “Drift” – “A Night to Remember” – “Let’s Pretend This Never Happened” – “Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake” – “The Passage of Power” – “Amateur” – “Becoming Sister Wives” – “Wild” – “Unbroken” – “Paterno” – “The Glass Castle” – “No Easy Day” – “Killing Kennedy” – “Proof of Heaven” |
| 2013 | – “Proof of Heaven” – “American Sniper” – “America the Beautiful” – “Lean In” – “Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls” – “Control” – “Happy, Happy, Happy” – “The Guns at Last Light” – “Eleven Rings” – “The Dog Lived (and So Will I)” – “This Town” – “Zealot” – “The Liberty Amendments” – “Si-cology 1” – “Killing Jesus” – “Things That Matter” |
| 2014 | – “Things That Matter” – “Lone Survivor” – “Duty” – “The Monuments Men” – “Twelve Years a Slave” – “Thrive” – “Flash Boys” – “Heaven Is for Real” – “Finding Me” – “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” – “One Nation” – “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” – “Hard Choices” – “Blood Feud” – “Unbroken” – “What If?” – “13 Hours” – “Killing Patton” – “Yes Please” – “41” |
| 2015 | – “Unbroken” – “American Sniper” – “Dead Wake” – “Becoming Steve Jobs” – “The Residence” – “The Road to Character” – “And the Good News Is…” – “Hope” – “The Wright Brothers” – “Down the Rabbit Hole” – “Between the World and Me” – “Plunder and Deceit” – “It Is About Islam” – “A Walk in the Woods” – “Why Not Me?” – “Killing Reagan” – “Humans of New York: Stories” – “Troublemaker” |
| 2016 | – “Killing Reagan” – “Not My Father’s Son: A Memoir” – “Between the World and Me” – “When Breath Becomes Air” – “The Rainbow Comes and Goes” – “Hamilton: The Revolution” – “The Gene: An Intimate History” – “Bill O’Relly’s Legends and Lies: The Patriots” – “Alexander Hamilton” – “Crisis of Character” – “It Gets Worse: A Collection of Essays” – “Hillary’s America” – “Hillbilly Elegy” – “The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo” – “Love Warrior” – “Killing the Rising Sun” – “Born to Run” – “The Magnolia Story” – “Settle for More” |
| 2017 | – “Killing the Rising Sun” – “The Princess Diarist” – “Hillbilly Elegy” – “Hidden Figures” – “Portraits of Courage” – “How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life” – “The Zookeeper’s Wife” – “Old School: Life in the Sane Lane” – “Shattered” – “Option B” – “Astrophysics for People in a Hurry” – “AI Franken, Giant of the Senate” – “I Can’t Make This Up” – “Understanding Trump” – “Rediscovering Americanism” – “Devil’s Bargain” – “The Glass Castle” – “What Happened” – “Killing England” – “Grant” – Leonardo Da Vinci” – “Sisters First” – “Obama: An Intimate Portrait” |
| 2018 | – “Grant” – “Astrophysics for People in a Hurry” – “Fire and Fury” – “Educated” – “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” – “Russian Roulette” – “Secret Empires” – “This Is Me” – “Killers of the Flower Moon” – “Fascism: A Warning” – “A Higher Loyalty” – “The Soul of America” – “How to Change Your Mind” – “The Restless Wave” – “Calypso” – “Kitchen Confidential” – “Things That Matter” – “Liars, Leakers and Liberals” – “The Russia Hoax” – “Everything Trump Touches Dies” – “Unhinged” – “Sapiens” – “Fear: Trump in the White House” – “Ship of Fools” – “Killing the SS” – “Beastie Boys Book” – “Becoming” |
| 2019 | – “Becoming” – “The Threat” – “The Right Side of History” – “Life Will Be the Death of Me” – “The Mueller Report” – “The Pioneers” – “Howard Stern Comes Again” – “Unfreedom of the Press” – “Educated” – “Three Women” – “Call Sign Chaos” – “Talking to Strangers” – “Inside out” – “Blowout” – “Me” – “The Beautiful Ones” – “Triggered” – “A Warning” – “Crime in Progress” |
| 2020 | – “Educated” – “Just Mercy” – “A Very Stable Genius” – “Profiles in Corruption” – “Open Book” – “The Mamba Mentality” – “The Splendid and the Vile” – “Untamed” – “Hidden Valley Road” – “White Fragility” – “How to Be an Antiracist” – “The Room Where It Happened” – “Too Much and Never Enough” – “Live Free or Die” – “His Truth Is Marching On” – “Melania and Me” – “Disloyal” – “Rage” – “The Meaning of Mariah Carey” – “Humans” – “Caste” – “Greenlights” – “Clanlands” – “A Promised Land” |
| 2021 | – “A Promised Land” – “Just as I Am” – “Think Again” – “Walk in My Combat Boots” – “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster” – “The Code Breaker” – “This Is the Fire” – “Broken Horses” – “On the House” – “Out of Many, One” – “What Happened to You?” – “Killing the Mob” – “The Anthropocene Reviewed” – “How the Word is Passed” – “The Body Keeps the Socre” – “Nightmare Scenario” – “How I Saved the World” – “American Marxism” – “I Alone Can Fix It” – “The Afghanistan Papers” – “Peril” – “The Storyteller” – “Midnight in Washington” – “Not All Diamonds and Rosé” – “Going There” – “The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present” – “Will” – “The 1619 Project” |
| 2022 | – “The 1619 Project” – “The Storyteller” – “Unthinkable” – “The Body Keeps the Score” – “Enough Already” – “Red-Handed” – “From Strength to Strength” – “One Damn Thing After Another” – “Bittersweet” – “Freezing Order” – “Finding Me” – “Killing the Killers” – “The Office BFFs” – “Here’s the Deal” – “Happy-Go-Lucky” – “James Patterson” – “Battle for the American Mind” – “Tanqueray” – “I’m Glad My Mom Died” – “Confidence Man” – “Beyond the Wand” – “Radio’s Greatest of All Time” – “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing” – “The Light We Carry” |