Here are the steps publishers should take before naming a book:

• Create a list of keyword phrases that search engine users will most likely use to find your content.
• Use Google’s keyword tool and check for variations of your keyword phrases and for their search volume.
• Create a new list that contains the keyword phrases with the most search volume.
• Check out your competition: Who is top-ranked for the keyword phrases on your list? What have they done to optimize their book titles for the particular keyword phrase? Could you do better?

By the way, traditional book publishers can learn a lot from e-book publishers. Since they sell their books exclusively online, their success completely depends on search engine marketing and affiliate programs.

Aaron Wall in particular has done a superb job marketing his e-book. His book is about SEO. Therefore, he simply calls it SEO Book. Most people who link to his site, use these two words as link anchor text, which helps tremendously in getting his identically-named product website top-ranked for these search terms. As a result, search engine users will always come across his product when they conduct a general search for a book on SEO.