Title Length

I understand why Charles Dickens' books were so long -- he was paid by the word when they were serialized in the newspaper. So, what is the excuse of publishers when they have titles that take up three lines? And do subtitles really add any value at all? And on the flip side there are journals that go by acronyms which mean nothing to the common patron browsing the shelves...Or those that abbreviate their titles on the spine, but their official title is quite long (e.g. The Journal which is really The Journal:Literary Magazine of Ohio State University).


I wish I knew an editor or publisher I could ask about this title conundrum -- it doesn't keep me up at night but it can make things difficult for my day to day work.


If I bind a title that has more than 2 or 3 words in it there winds up being a lot of dashed words on the spine...and titles that are acronyms are annoying to check in and display...Do I alphabetize it by the acronym? By the full title? By how most people would know it? What if more than one journal uses the same acronym but it means different things for each journal?