Night Watch, a Painting and a Title

Night Watch by Rembrandt van Rijn is one of the world's most famous paintings. Although I've never liked the dark colors, this intense painting has intrigued me from the moment I first saw it in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Apparently, over the years, it has drawn negative as well as positive response resulting in attacks on the painting by people who wanted to inflict major damage to it. One incident, in 1975, resulted in zigzag knife slashes in the canvas which I've read are still evident despite restoration.

Because my novel, Night Watch, features art theft and work by Rembrandt in the story plot, I decided to use the name of the painting for the title of my book. When I checked out the title on Amazon, I found there were other books with the same name which I thought might be a good thing for promotion and visibility of my book.

It wasn't.

There are so many books with that same title that I have to type in my name along with the title to find it. A new release, May 31, 2011 by Suzanne Brockmann, has the title, Night Watch. I have a Google alert for Night Watch, but the information I receive almost never includes my book.

It surprises me that anyone would want to attack a painting created in 1642. It also surprises me that the choice of a popular title for a book can be a big mistake. My advice to other authors is to take care in the words you choose to put on the cover of your next book. The best choice may be a title that is one of a kind, if that's at all possible.