Titles

I noticed while perusing the latest issue of Just Erotic Romance Reviews that M.L. Rhodes has a new book out for Amber Quill called Night Shadows I: Night Shadows. S.A. Martin also has a new fantasy romance for NCP called Night Shadows. And of course, I have the upcoming The Shadows of Night. This is the thing about titles... many titles have been used more than once. I tend to base my titles on song lyrics or lines from a poem, so it's even more likely they'll sound familiar. (Never Love a Stranger came from a poem, although it's also the name of a 1950s movie, and Isn't It Romantic? and In the Mood are both song titles, although they've both been used for other romance novels, too. I got The Shadows of Night from a poem, too.)

The upshot of this post is, sometimes new writers get upset when they see someone "stealing" their book title. But your title probably isn't as creative and unusual as you think it is. It's almost impossible to come up with a completely new title, and you can't copyright a title anyway. You want a title that will attract readers, but so do other authors, so it's not surprising that titles are sometimes inadvertently duplicated!