I wish I could figure out how to help writers understand this. In my own Prism & Pen publication, writers submit stories all the time with titles that don’t help readers know what the story is about.

I recently wrote a tutorial about that, and made sure all of our writers at least know the tutorial exists if they want to have a look at it.

I wrote a lot more than just “make sure your title says what the story is about.” I wrote about how to make the title compelling and interesting and clickable.

Some writers took it to heart. I’m thinking of a woman who had hardly ever published on Medium before who wrote two articles two weeks in a row with titles that were clear, accurate, and exciting. Each week, her articles were our most read. By a LOT. She has like 50 followers, and she was getting more reads than people with hundreds or thousands who have been publishing on Medium for years.

But all in all, we still get submissions every day with titles that are — to say the least— less than compelling, and in many cases don’t even do the basic work of telling the reader what the story is about.

Of course nobody is reading those stories. Why would they?

P.S. on the Book Cafe I’ve noticed writers reviewing a book under a title that you would never guess meant the article was about a book, that doesn’t mention which book it’s about, and in some cases doesn’t even reveal the major theme of the story. Seriously? I guess they’re just hoping for random clicks.