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I know it had Queen in the title...

Hundreds of historical novels have "king" or "queen" in the title, but without seeing the cover or description, how do you know which monarch a book's about? Miss Moppet and other members have compiled this list to help you.
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cw gortner
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Post by cw gortner » Fri November 5th, 2010, 5:25 am

Me, too. Awed ))))!!!

Guess queens sell ;)
THE QUEEN'S VOW available on June 12, 2012!
THE TUDOR SECRET, Book I in the Elizabeth I Spymaster Chronicles
THE CONFESSIONS OF CATHERINE DE MEDICI
THE LAST QUEEN


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rebecca191
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Post by rebecca191 » Sat November 6th, 2010, 2:51 am

[quote=""cw gortner""]Me, too. Awed ))))!!!

Guess queens sell ;) [/quote]

I've seen tons with Daughter, Princess, or Lady in the title too. I wonder if any of those come close to the number of Queen books!

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Miss Moppet
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Post by Miss Moppet » Sat November 6th, 2010, 4:06 am

[quote=""rebecca191""]I've seen tons with Daughter, Princess, or Lady in the title too. I wonder if any of those come close to the number of Queen books![/quote]

I think Queen is the most prevalent but definitely the others are very common, and books are being renamed to get those keywords into the title. Virgin too, as in Virgin Widow by Anne O'Brien. And Mistress.

I have to wonder if HF titling will go the way of Harlequin Presents, and in a few years' time we'll be seeing titles like:

Virgin Mistress to the French King
Spanish Princess, Secret Baby
The Royal Widow's Forbidden Daughter

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EC2
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Post by EC2 » Sat November 6th, 2010, 11:23 am

[quote=""Miss Moppet""]I think Queen is the most prevalent but definitely the others are very common, and books are being renamed to get those keywords into the title. Virgin too, as in Virgin Widow by Anne O'Brien. And Mistress.

I have to wonder if HF titling will go the way of Harlequin Presents, and in a few years' time we'll be seeing titles like:

Virgin Mistress to the French King
Spanish Princess, Secret Baby
The Royal Widow's Forbidden Daughter
[/quote]

I think it absolutely will, no doubt about it. :( I really don't like it, but 'doing what it says on the tin' appears to be here to stay at the moment. I am good friends with many M&B authors through the RNA and they have no say in their titles and are not keen, but that's the way the market pushes it. It's like the Tudor books. On forums people keep saying if they ever seen another one set in this period they will puke, but then a publisher brands their novel 'The Virgin Tudor Mistress', sticks a beautiful dress on the cover with a headless woman and hey presto, people rush out and buy the thing in droves. One came out in the UK not so long ago,that was repackaged like this and it has sold in large quantities (despite a lot of very stinky reviews). Publishers wouldn't do it, if it didn't sell books, so obviously the wider market is driving the trend. It makes the brand instantly recogniseable, if not necessarily the author, and it's like a useful shorthand for pickup while supermarket browsing with one eye on the clock. Literary historicals might buck the trend - Wolf Hall for e.g. but then most of them are unlikely to sell in the sort of quantities the genre novels do, unless they win the Booker.
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

www.elizabethchadwick.com

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MLE (Emily Cotton)
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Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Sat November 6th, 2010, 9:21 pm

You missed Queen of Swords by Sarah Donati. I presume it's about the heroine, who wasn't a queen.

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Post by Nefret » Sat November 6th, 2010, 10:10 pm

I wonder how many use King in the title.
Into battle we ride with Gods by our side
We are strong and not afraid to die
We have an urge to kill and our lust for blood has to be fulfilled
WE´LL FIGHT TILL THE END! And send our enemies straight to Hell!
- "Into Battle"
{Ensiferum}

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Miss Moppet
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Post by Miss Moppet » Sat November 6th, 2010, 11:04 pm

[quote=""EC2""]I think it absolutely will, no doubt about it. :( I really don't like it, but 'doing what it says on the tin' appears to be here to stay at the moment. I am good friends with many M&B authors through the RNA and they have no say in their titles and are not keen, but that's the way the market pushes it. [/quote]

The M&B titles seem to have got more prosaic over the years and I wonder if that's due to changing social mores and a wider variety in what readers want and expect. For example, I don't remember any Virgin title from the 60s or 70s - readers would expect an unmarried heroine to be a virgin. Now they don't, necessarily, and some like it and some don't, so if the heroine is a virgin that has to be in the title so people know what they're getting.
EC2 wrote:It's like the Tudor books. On forums people keep saying if they ever seen another one set in this period they will puke, but then a publisher brands their novel 'The Virgin Tudor Mistress', sticks a beautiful dress on the cover with a headless woman and hey presto, people rush out and buy the thing in droves. One came out in the UK not so long ago,that was repackaged like this and it has sold in large quantities (despite a lot of very stinky reviews). Publishers wouldn't do it, if it didn't sell books, so obviously the wider market is driving the trend. It makes the brand instantly recogniseable, if not necessarily the author,
That's what bothers me - authors need book sales, but is it more difficult to stand out from the pack when the titles and covers are so similar? Harlequins having a shorter shelf life (although that might change with digital publishing) perhaps it's not such a problem for them.

The other thing that bothers me is when a Queen or Princess gets shoehorned into the title when really, they are peripheral to the story. If you buy a book called Pregnant by the Ruthless Italian Tycoon you know the heroine will get pregnant by a ruthless Italian tycoon. If you buy The Queen's Sorrow by Suzannah Dunn you get a story about a sundial maker in which Mary I has a walk-on part. The book has a two star average at UK Amazon and lots of complaints about the misleading billing - I know it's Amazon and reviewers may have had other issues, but still. No doubt that these title and the headless covers sell books in the short term, but how much do they do for the author's long term career? On the other hand, without sales they won't have a career at all.

ETA: Dunn's Queen of Subtleties, which has got a queen narrator (Anne Boleyn) has a two star average as well. So perhaps they just don't like her at Amazon.
MLE wrote:You missed Queen of Swords by Sarah Donati. I presume it's about the heroine, who wasn't a queen.
I have added it, thanks MLE.
Nefret wrote:I wonder how many use King in the title.
Loads. I nearly started a King thread as well, but it is sufficiently time-consuming keeping track of the Queens.

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boswellbaxter
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Post by boswellbaxter » Sun November 7th, 2010, 1:36 am

[quote=""Nefret""]I wonder how many use King in the title.[/quote]

We really could use a "king" thread--so I started one!
Susan Higginbotham
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Miss Moppet
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Post by Miss Moppet » Sun November 7th, 2010, 1:54 am

[quote=""boswellbaxter""]We really could use a "king" thread--so I started one![/quote]

Thanks BB - now going to scour my bookshelves for a few titles to add to the list!

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Ariadne
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Post by Ariadne » Sun November 7th, 2010, 2:17 am

Btw, Donati's Queen of Swords takes its name from the tarot card with that designation... which represents a strong, sharp-witted woman. The meaning, in turn, reflects the character of the novel's two heroines, one of whom is a tarot reader... and the Queen of Swords card figures as a clue within the ongoing story. Anyway there's no royalty involved.

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