Category: book titles

April 16, 2009 | 1 Comment

Confession time–I stole a book title from Nelson deMille. I didn’t mean to. When I titled my historical romance, I didn’t realize it had been used on Nelson’s thriller. Fortunately, it didn’t appear to create much confusion. But regarding titles, this is something I get asked about from time to time, including today’s question in my e-mail. Number one, can you get in trouble for stealing a title and number two, why would you knowingly do it?

Coming up with the same book title as someone else is nothing new. Especially with internet title searches, Google and Amazon, you can find out in an instant if your book’s title has been used before. Chances are, it has been. Look up “Fire and Ice” on Amazon. Or “Fire and Rain.” Or “Once More With Feeling.” Lots of great minds are thinking alike.

The fact is, a book title isn’t subject to copyright. It’s no crime to re-use a title; it’s really just a matter of judgment. Common sense will tell you not to title your book Gone With the Wind, Clan of the Cave Bear, The #1 Ladies Detective Agency or The Da Vinci Code. Those titles are simply too distinctive and you’d look foolish for using them.

It’s easy enough to re-use a title unknowingly. Long after Home Before Dark was published, I learned there was another book titled Home Before Dark–by another Susan. I bought the book, of course. It’s a memoir by Susan Cheever, nothing like my novel once you turn the title page. I believe there was another The Raven and the Rose published in addition to my 1991 title.

Finding a good book title is hard. Finding the perfect title is a gift from heaven. To my mind, the perfect title captures the essence of the book in a powerful, evocative phrase–Saving Juliet. The You I Never Knew. The Killer Angels. The Princess Diaries. Bastard Out of Carolina. Harriet the Spy. Practical Demonkeeping. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret. All those titles promise a good read–and deliver.

There’s an interesting article about titles here. It’s both an art and a craft. http://www.articlesaboutbooks.com/Article/Tips-on-Choosing-a-Title-For-Your-Book/1588. It’s more focused on nonfiction but you might glean some insights into picking a title for a novel. http://www.articlealley.com/article_28586_50.html

If your books are related, they need to sound as if they’re in the same family. This can get tricky as the series evolves. The Lakeshore Chronicles are starting to challenge me. I really liked the simplicity of Summer at Willow Lake. My editor came up with The Winter Lodge. They other titles evolved amid much discussion. I’m really happy with The Summer Hideaway, which I’ve just begun working on. “Summer” is a great keyword that conveys the idea of a juicy, fast-paced beach read. My publisher loves the word summer. I’ve had A Summer Affair, That Summer Place, Summer by the Sea and Summer at Willow Lake! So hideaway is a nice addition, particularly since the word “hideaway” implies something intriguing and possibly dangerous, like a character in WITSEC (a witness protection program). Definitely a reason to hide. Away. In the summer. All summer long. See how this works?

It’s easy for a writer to be weird about her titles. I’ve pitched wonderful, glorious titles to publishers, only to have them changed, often for the most random of reasons. Sometimes I come up with a horrible title and it gets changed to a great one. Heavy Breathing became The Ocean Between Us, thanks to my friend Lois. It can work the other way, too. How cute is the title Twyla’s Ten-Year Reunion? That was changed to Husband for Hire. It was. Sometimes you just have to let go.

Here are my contenders for Worst. Title. Ever. — and this one: http://failblog.org/2009/04/02/book-title-fail-2/

I am about to change the titles of three already published books. Yep, three of my out-of-print historical novels are going out wearing new titles. And I am going to be wearing a flak jacket, because this is a practice that drives readers crazy. I feel your pain, readers!

What are some of your favorite titles?

learning from myself

March 22, 2009 | 4 Comments

meeting with the mentor

So I’m struggling through the story synopsis on the next book, know up until now as “Lakeshore #7.” I have a title I love–The Summer Hideaway–and a fascinating cast of characters (including some long-lost Bellamys) but there are some missing elements. I decided to dig deep into the setting to make sure the setting–a summer on the lake, deep in the Catskills Wilderness–had a psychology of place. I went to some of my favorite texts on writing to remind myself a writer’s techniques in this regard. As always, Janet Burroway illuminated something for me in Writing Fiction, and E.M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel had a nugget or two. Then I checked the Writing the Breakout Novel workbook by Donald Maass…the index sent me to pp. 178-179. And there was an excerpt–and little writing lesson–from The You I Never Knew, a novel by my favorite writer. Me!

I need to learn to trust myself more. In writing, as in life, you know more than you think you know.

Backstory: A Good Book Title

July 28, 2008 | 1 Comment

Okay, this wasn’t supposed to be the next post in the lengthy “backstory” saga, but I have some notes about the title of this book. I don’t usually come up with the final title for a book right away. This novel had a lot of working titles. I’ve forgotten most of them, but here’s my favorite:

Daddy Take My Kidney, Lover Take My Heart. This was a suggestion by one of my favorite writers, Ellen Recknor. But it gives away too much and it’s too funny. I have no problem with humor except this book is way more drama than comedy. Eventually I came up with:

The You I Never Knew. This was one of those lucky titles that occurred to me out of the blue. Later, another of my favorite writers, Barbara Dawson Smith, sent me a clip from People about an 80s pop star who meets “the son he never knew.” They ran a picture of the sixteen-year-old kid and the dad he finally found, and the similarity was eerie. Life imitates art?

The title works on several levels. We have Michelle, estranged from her former-Hollywood-icon father since she was seventeen. Now an adult single mother, she reunites with him for both the best and worst of reasons. They don’t know each other anymore, and for both of them, the future depends on fixing the situation.

There’s another storyline for this title as well. Cody, her teenage son, is in full-on rebellion mode, and one of the things he’s struggling with is his identity. Is it important to know where your DNA comes from? Or is there something else at work? Cody and his biological father, Sam, have never known each other, a choice Michelle has struggled with all Cody’s life. Now father and son meet for the first time, and the situation explodes.

So the title tells a lot about the story, but even before the reader knows anything about the plot, it’s appealing. When a manuscript is shopping for a publisher, an appealing title can separate it from the pack.

Daddy Take My Kidney, Lover Take My Heart

March 04, 2008 | 1 Comment

That’s the working title of The You I Never Knew, in case you’re wondering. Finding the right title for a book is always tricky, and sometimes the results are just downright odd. The Bookseller Magazine awards the Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title. Readers are encouraged to vote here.

The shortlist for the 2007 prize has been announced, with the winner to be announced on March 28. The nominees are:

I Was Tortured By the Pygmy Love Queen – Jasper McCutcheon
How to Write a How to Write Book – Brian Piddock
Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues – Catharine A. MacKinnon
Cheese Problems Solved – P. L. H. McSweeney
If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start with Your Legs – Big Boom
People Who Mattered in Southend and Beyond: From King Canute to Dr Feelgood – Dee Gordon

Previous winners of the award include Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice (1978), How to Shit in the Woods: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art (1989), High Performance Stiffened Structures (2000), Living with Crazy Buttocks (2002). There’s a complete list here.