The Importance of Titles

Because they are important, aren’t they? The Lord of the Rings just sounds so much more epic than Short Hairy Man Saves the World. The Sun Also Rises sounds intriguing. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? makes me want to pick up the book to find out. Same with The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul. With a Game of Thrones you know what you’re going to get – the clue is in the title.

I’ve often bought books on the basis that the title intrigued me. And of course the title also has to appeal to the market you’re aiming at. Which is where I came unstuck. The WIP is done and into revisions ( which so far are fairly minor, luckily). But, and it’s a big but, it’s a fantasy romance. So the title has to appeal to romance readers. It has to sound romancy. And also fit the style of the book.

So it was called For I Am A Jealous God. In the style of old GRRM, this tells you what is going on in the book. It fits. So much it hurts. But it’s not a romance title is it? No. And therein was my problem.  So, as it’s the sequel to Ilfayne’s Bane I’ve got two choices. I go with a title that links the books together. Or I go with something that is romance-oriented and fits the book. And this is where I need a hand.

If I go for the title to link the series, I’ll go with either Hunter’s Bane ( which will make the third book Hilde’s Bane, possibly) or Hunter’s Oath (which will probably make the third Kyrion’s Gift) which still kinda links them together in the ‘Someone’s Something’ style of title.

But in my puddle of angst at trying to rename the book, I trawled through lots of poetry – Lovecraft, Byron, Shakespeare. And I found something that fits, I think. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 142:

Love is my sin and thy dear virtue hate,
Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving:
O, but with mine compare thou thine own state,
And thou shalt find it merits not reproving;
Or, if it do, not from those lips of thine,
That have profaned their scarlet ornaments
And seal’d false bonds of love as oft as mine,
Robb’d others’ beds’ revenues of their rents.
Be it lawful I love thee, as thou lovest those
Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee:
Root pity in thy heart, that when it grows
Thy pity may deserve to pitied be.
If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide,
By self-example mayst thou be denied!

Now this almost perfectly encapsulates Our Hero’s feelings for much of the book. And so the thought of calling it Love is my Sin came along.It fits. Oh yes.

And this is where I’d like your help.Which one do you think is better?