Everyone else does, apparently, especially crime novelists. I wonder if it’s because so many of Shakespeare’s expressions sound sinister these days. Maybe it’s because there’s so much death in his plays, most of it violent. But I’m sure you can recognize a Shakespeare title without thinking twice. When I search just for Murder Most Foul on Goodreads, I gave up counting after I got to 38 books.
Here’s an article by Moira Redmond of Clothes in Books, published in the Guardian this week. And she’s only restricted herself to titles from Hamlet, so heaven knows how many others there are. All suggestions welcome.
If you’d like to read more about Moira’s blog, see my previous entry about her.
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E Katherine Kerr
September 20, 2015 - 11:41 am ·Nothing new under the sun, apparently
notquiteold
September 20, 2015 - 3:08 pm ·Sometimes when you love your title, you want to use it even though someone already has – my book had one other use, but the book was not widely known and the subject was completely different (nonfiction about unusual gifts). So I went ahead with it. However, if there were already dozens??? For God’s sake, think of something else!!
cyclingrandma
September 20, 2015 - 5:29 pm ·You’d think a publisher would discourage writers from using a title already used by another writer.
Gabi Coatsworth
September 20, 2015 - 5:36 pm ·They always say you can’t copyright a title. Apparently that’s true ☺