Great story on how Think and Grow Rich got its name. Originally told by Jordan McAuley at http://www.celebritypr.com/marketing-media-publicity.
In the Success System that Never Fails, W. Clement Stone tells the story of how the best-selling success book of all time got its name:
When Napoleon Hill finished his book, it had the working title: The Thirteen Steps to Riches. The publisher, however, wanted a better selling title; he wanted a million-dollar name for the book. He kept calling every day for the new title, but even though Hill had tried about 600 different possibilities, none of them was any good.
Then one day the published phoned and said: “I’ve got to have the title by tomorrow. If you don’t have one, I have. It’s a humdinger — Use Your Noodle and Get the Boodle.
“You’ll ruin me,” shouted Hill. “That title is ridiculous.”
“Well, that’s it, unless you get me a better one by tomorrow morning,” responded the publisher.
That night Hill had a talk with his subconscious mind. In a loud voice, he said, “You and I have gone a long way together. You’ve done a lot of things for me — and some things to me. But I’ve got to have a million-dollar title, and I’ve got to have it tonight. Do you understand that?” For several hours, Hill thought; then he went to bed.
About two o’clock, he woke up as though someone had shaken him. As he came out of his sleep, a phrase glowed in his mind. He jumped to his typewriter and wrote it down. Then he grabbed the phone and called the publisher. “We’ve got it,” he shouted, “a million-dollar sales title.”
