The Pain and the Glory: Titles

I just found out a couple of days ago that I get to keep my original title for the Harlequin American that comes out next January: Good Husband Material.

You might not realize this, but more often than not we authors do not keep our original titles, for myriad reasons. Sometimes the author's original title is simply a clunker. Thus, my original title for a paranormal romance, The Crimson Cat (sounds like a cozy cat mystery) became Witchy Woman (much catchier, recalls that old Eagles' song). The Doctor's Fake Fiancee, a Harlequin American, was thankfully changed to the much snappier Plain Jane's Plan.

But often the reasons for making a change are harder to understand and seem quite arbitrary. For example, I had a Silhouette Intimate Moments that I called The Bounty Hunter, and it got changed to Midnight Confessions. That's an okay title, but I preferred the stronger-sounding original. A few years later I wrote a Harlequin Intrigue that I called Breathless. And what does it get changed to? Bounty Hunter Ransom.

I once had a perfectly lovely title, Taken by Storm, which was about storm chasers. It fit beautifully, but for reasons I will never understand, the title was changed to Hell on Wheels.

Sometimes titles are changed not because they are bad titles, but because they don't fit in with the line. My very first Harlequin American was originally called The Perfect Seduction. "Great title," my editor said. "If it were a Harlequin Temptation." Instead, the book was re-christened Virgin Promise, cashing in on a popular buzzword of the day.

For my firefighter trilogy released this year, I thought up an oh-so-clever series of fire-related titles: Sparks Fly, The Heat is On, and Fanning the Flames. But those were all no-go's; they didn't say enough about the stories. After about a hundred alternate titles flew back and forth between me, my editor and the senior editor, we settled on The Family Rescue, Her Perfect Hero, and An Honorable Man. But I'm tellin' ya, the search for three catchy titles that also fit together nicely and accurately reflected the stories almost drove us all crazy!

Now I'm working on an idea for a trilogy revolving around a fishing charter service. These are my tentative titles:

His First Mate
Catch of the Day
Her Safe Harbor

Any bets on whether they'll survive, should the trilogy sell to Harlequin American?

--Kara Lennox