Subtitles

The New York Times Sunday Book Review carries an essay, "The Subtitle That Changed America". It's written by Ben Yagoda, who directs the journalism program at the University of Delaware. He's nostalgic for times past when books needed only "strong titles". He blames an excess of books published and decreased advertising budgets for elaborate subtitles to capture the fickle reading public's attention. The current fad, Yagoda notes, is to include a "how", "why", "list", or "opening preposition" such as Inside, Beneath, and Beyond. Three-part lists have been popular in recent years. I think another purpose might be to catch the attention of Internet search engines. Every time a book is buzzed in a blog, the more keywords mentioned in the title/subtitle, the more snags are available to catch digital attention.