Berg Esenwein, _Writing the Short-Story_.]
"The American editor, like the heiress, is willing, anxious, to pay
big money for a genuine title; only she is on the lookout for an old
one, he for a new," says Mr. Harry Cowell, in _The Magazine Maker_.
And though he speaks of titles for fiction stories, what he says
exactly fits when applied to photoplay writing. Again, Mr. Cowell says
that "the best of titles, once used, is bad"--for re-use, of course.
Mr. Epes Winthrop Sargent remarks: "There are dozens of instances of
title-duplication to be noted in the past year, some of the titles
being used more than twice. A matter of greater moment is to avoid
duplication of plot." It is of still greater moment to avoid both.
Because he discovered that the Essanay Company was about to release a
picture called "Her Adopted Father," a certain writer changed the
title of one of his stories from "His Adopted Mother" to "The Bliss of
Ignorance." This avoided, not a duplication, but a too great
similarity in titles; at the same time the change was an improvement,
when one considers the theme of the story.
As a photoplay author, you should subscribe for one of the
trade-papers, if for no other reason than to keep posted on the titles
of the various subjects released by the different manufacturers.
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