When I go to the bookstore, I often stop by the shelf that holds the local ghost books: stories about Atlanta, North Georgia, and yes, even the entire state. (Several others have beaten me to it, but it takes more than that to keep me down!) My husband and I stopped by last night and there was a new book there: Haunted Georgia.
Needless to say, I was a little horrified at finding my own working title already on someone’s published book. I had perused Georgia ghost book titles all while I was working on my manuscript to ensure that my title didn’t match someone else’s. This new book has a 2008 copyright, so that explains why I hadn’t spotted it before.
The first thing I did this morning was to fire off an email to my editor, telling her the news. Although I can still use Haunted Georgia as my title, I’m wondering if I shouldn’t come up with a new one to avoid confusion. A lot of the obvious titles are taken, like Georgia Ghosts, so I’m in a bit of a quandary as to a new title. It’s amazing that I could write an entire manuscript, then get writer’s block over a title that’s just a few words long. Any suggestions?