A Different Kind of Cover Story

By Deborah Raney @AuthorDebRaney

I just love stories about how a book cover came to be—the process of working with a publisher’s design team and models, or for some of the more creative among us, how you designed your own cover. Or in my case, how my husband designs the covers for my books. (He designed these beauties below!)

But maybe a more accurate title for this blog post would be “A Different Kind of Title Story.” My novel Beneath a Southern Sky was the fourth book I wrote (twenty years ago now!) and it was contracted by WaterBrook Press after my first three books were published by Bethany House Publishers. This was the first time my publisher let me keep my original title. Yes, when you write for a traditional publisher, you may not get to use your first choice of titles.

So I was thrilled WaterBrook Press liked my title, and even more thrilled when we searched amazon.com for other books with the same title and found there was nothing like it. A couple of years after my book was released, a non-fiction book was published called Beneath Southern Skies. But for a long time, that was the only book with a similar title.

Fast forward about fifteen years and the floodgates opened! If you search for my title now, you will find nine titles that have Beneath a S_______ Sky in common, another dozen that have Beneath a _______ Sky in the title (most of those have the same number of syllables and rhythm as Beneath a Southern Sky.) Even more interesting: Almost every one of these books has been published within the last five years.

You’ll find titles with Beneath an _______ Sky, including Indian, Irish, and Italian skies, and then more titles with Beneath the _______ Sky. (There were a couple I didn’t include because the covers were a little on the racy side.)

Here are some titles with Beneath _______ Skies (plural) including two more Beneath Southern Skies!

There are more in the Fantasy/Science Fiction genre:

And still more in the non-fiction genre:

I’m especially fond of the title Beneath Missouri Skies now that we live in Missouri. Texas, Oklahoma, and Iowa are also represented. And in addition to Southern skies, I noticed there are now Northern and Western sky titles. (Maybe I should write a book called Beneath an Eastern Sky, just to round things out!)

There are two starless skies, two star-lit skies (and one starlet sky!) And if I really stretch the cover “copycats” I could add these titles, which continue the “beneath/under the _______ stars/sky” theme:

I’d like to think that my novel was the impetus for these dozens of almost-identical and similar titles. However, that last group is actually a great example of how authors come up with unique and different titles—a task that becomes more of a challenge every year with thousands of new books being published. If it’s not obvious by now, a title idea often comes by twisting and reshaping an existing title to fit your story and make it your own.

It helps if there is an unusual name or place in your title. Mitford in a title is a pretty sure bet that the book was written by Jan Karon. And you will only find one book titled The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. (But it’s a good one!)

I still always hope to come up with a wonderful title that no one else on earth has ever used. That’s rare. And since titles can’t be copyrighted, it’s perfectly fine to have all these books with similar titles. The downside is that you never want a reader to request your novel and end up with another author’s same-titled book!

Have you ever chosen a book simply because you liked the title? Have you ever accidentally read the “wrong” book because it had the same title as the book you thought you were getting? Maybe you’ve discovered a new author that way! No matter what the title of the book you’re currently reading, I hope it’s a good one!

Deborah Raney’s first novel, A Vow to Cherish, inspired the World Wide Pictures film of the same title and launched her writing career. Forty books and numerous awards later, she’s still creating stories that touch hearts and lives. Deb is a RITA Award and Carol Award winner, as well as being a three-time Christy Award finalist.