Same Name Game

Have any of you been noticing lately how many books have the same title? I was flipping through the September issue of Ebony magazine and saw that Walter Mosley's new Paris Minton/Fearless Jones novel will be out next month and is called Fear of the Dark. The title sounded so familiar. Then I remembered that another mystery writer, Gar Anthony Haywood's debut mystery, which introduced his stellar private eye Aaron Gunner, was also called Fear of the Dark.

Currently, I'm listening to the audio book for Jonathan Kellerman's latest Alex Delaware mystery called Gone, earlier this summer I listened to the audio book for Lisa Gardner's thriller also called Gone. As a matter of fact, I'm currently working on a thriller that was tentatively titled Gone. I've since changed the title.

Remember last summer when two books called Bliss were published? One by Danyel Smith and the other by Fiona Zedde? Two completely different books but with one thing in common. The female main characters of both books escape to an island paradise to seek answers to the problems plaguing their lives. And four years ago an author named Garbrielle Pina wrote a mystery also called Bliss. Don't know if an island was featured in that one.

Both of my books, The Company You Keep and Tangled Roots, share titles with other books. Author Neil Gordon's The Company You Keep was published in 2003 and is a about an ex sixties militant who's new identity is uncovered and goes on the lam for a long ago bank robbery. Mystery writer Taffy Cannon's book Tangled Roots was published in 1995 and is the second book in her series featuring trial lawyer Nan Robinson.

My editor came up with the title The Company You Keep, which was originally The Pleasure of His Company, and I came up with Tangled Roots, which had originally been The Braider's Tale. The original title for my third book, which is about the murder of an actress, was One Dead Diva. My editor thought it was too harsh so it was changed to Diva's Last Curtain Call. Personally, I suck when it comes to thinking up book titles. I wonder what authors and publishers would do if book titles were copyrighted? I guess we'd be forced to think more creatively.

Angela ; )