One day I fully expect to come across a romance novel entitled “The Unexpected Runaway Heiress’s Christmas Fireman Rancher.” Have you ever noticed that sometimes the titles of romance novels have very little to do with their content? There’s a disconnect between the story and the title. When the story is really well written and the title is lame, it’s fairly obvious to me that the writer did not conjure up the title.
I find that sad. It must be a contractual thing with traditional publishing. Otherwise why would a talented writer come up with such a poorly written title? The above fictional title includes many of the key words in titles I suspect weren’t author-written. For Regency and other English and Scottish romance novels, the key title words include “accidental” as in “The Accidental Duchess,” “The Accidental Marriage,” “The Accidental Kidnapping,” etc. Don’t you hate it when that happens? Other key words in those genres are heiress, runaway, rake, governess, highlander, warrior, etc. So one day we’ll likely see “The Runaway Heiress Governess Meets the Accidental Highland Warrior.”
I don’t claim to be an expert in writing titles. Far from it. But at least I recognize the connection between the title and the story, and I don’t think readers feel cheated when they read a book based on its title and find meaning there. It’s a simple thing, really, isn’t it? Or is it?
I strive for perfection when I write a romance novel or anything else, which includes making the title as good as I can make it. Do I ever reach perfection? Not hardly. But you’ll never find a romance novel or other book with my name on it that has a meaningless or impossibly stupid title, if I have a breath left in me.