When I was on the faculty board for my university's press, we often kicked the titles around during the board meeting that accepted the manuscript. The librarian on the board often had the deciding vote, as the person who understood what keywords people would be searching for when they wanted to find a book on a topic in the library (it would presumably be similar when looking at Amazon). The "clever title: long descriptive subtitle" that works for database searches was in vogue for a long time, though more recently I see a tendency to "clear sensible title: long many keyworded subtitle." Remember, however, the marketing department of the press, whether it's commercial or academic, knows a lot more than you do about how to sell books.
Yes. My first book had the clever title and didn't really sell that well (though it's still in print nearly 10 years later). I wanted the forthcoming book to have a snappy title, because I wrote it for a more general audience, but the press insists that clear sensible title is what is going to happen. And, yes, they know what they're doing, so clear sensible title it is.
