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I was looking at the sales rankings on Amazon today with my publisher and he pointed out that all of the self-published best sellers have a short title then a semi-colon followed by a pitch line (see pic attached). I'm certainly not a fan, but the proof is evident that it gets visibility.
Does anyone have data-driven proof that this increases sales?
The data you are seeking is tightly held. Publishers and sellers don't really want you to know this. They even hide a lot of stats about sales figures on books.
Some Helpful Info
However, I recently read the following book by an indie publisher which explains exactly what you're talking about: Six Figure Author : Using Data To Sell Books (Chris Fox)
My Experience
I had recently published a book which I titled : Launch Your Android App
The interesting thing is that the author of that hyperbolically named, aforementioned title explains that Amazon's search engine is completely based on titles.
I Tested the Theory
After 2 months or so of Launch Your Android App being for sale I had only sold 2 or 3 copies. I decided to change the title and re-publish the book so that it was named similarly to other books in the category. You can see the book with teh new title at: Beginning Android Programming With Android Studio
Title Change Instantly Changed Sales
This was amazing to me, because the next day after I changed the title, the book sold 3 or 4 copies. After that, it sold a copy or two every day. It's quite interesting and I believe the information you have is correct about how titles are used on Amazon.
