Author | Joseph L. Selby

That’s Been Done Before

I’ve commented before that there are some parts of my beloved genre that just bore the shit out of me. “New” is really “The same but from a different persecptive.” How can you tell? Because our titles sound like they came out of a sausage maker. Fantasy in, delicious sausage out. One link looks much like the next.

Here is your modern fantasy title:

[Article] [A]’s [B]

(The use of the article or the possessive can be eliminated to make the title more impactful.)

COLUMN A
Assassin
Dark
Dragon
Fire
Ice
Kingdom
Mask
Prince
Shadow
Thief

COLUMN B
Blade
Emperor
King
Knife
Magic
Shadow
Shard
Sword
Thorn
Throne

Joseph L. Selby

2 responses to “That’s Been Done Before”

  1. Nate Wilson Avatar
    Nate Wilson

    Are the books sausage as well? Or is it more a product of those involved seeing more and more of the top books using that title format and incorrectly concluding it's the only way their stuff will sell?

    Of course not. It's because such titles are AWESOME.

    – the author of the upcoming novels The Shadow's Shadow and Shard of the Blade Assassin

    Reply
  2. Joseph L. Selby Avatar
    Joseph L. Selby

    I was waiting to see who would be the first person to notice Shadow appeared on both lists. 😉

    Reply

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