Friday, November 04, 2005

Title tittle tattle

One thing I'm trying to do as I think about my next project is come up with prospective titles, which I'll hopefully get to keep. Sometimes that happens, and sometimes editorial or marketing decide the author's suggestion is not the best. That leads to a lot of back-and-forth with new titles and counter-titles. No matter what the process, I've never been stuck with a title I hated, and one of my favorite titles for an upcoming book, HERS TO COMMAND was actually the wonderful suggestion of Tracy Farrell at HQN.

Anybody who's a romance reader will know there are certain words that keep cropping up, like "bride" and "baby." I've had my share of "bride" titles: A WARRIOR'S BRIDE, THE WELSHMAN'S BRIDE, THE OVERLORD'S BRIDE, BRIDE OF LOCHBARR and THE UNWILLING BRIDE. There's a reason those names keep appearing on the cover of my books and others. It's because words like "bride" = sales.

However, I've been perusing the bestseller lists and seeing what's popular in other media, and I've come up with some titles that I think will greatly increase the sales of future books. And here they are:

YE OLDE SODUKU
CSI: MEDIEVAL
LAW AND DISORDER
THE MAGNA CARTA CODE
HE'S JUST THAT INTO HER
THE SWORD RUNNER
IN THE DARK OF THE NIGHT UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE WOLF IN THE FOREST (this one is courtesy of my daughter and husband)

Of course, the plots might have to be tweaked a little, but if one's picking a book by title alone, I've got it made, don't you think?

1 comment:

Sandra Schwab said...

Love the IN THE DARK OF THE NIGHT UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE WOLF IN THE FOREST! Though, you'd probably need a fold-out cover to fit the title on it! *g*

~*~

How lovely to find your blog, Margaret. We met at last year's RWA conference in Dallas when you signed my old and tattered and much-read copy of THE WASTREL (which is one of my favourite romances!)