Two Books With the Same Title
(Could this happen to you?)
 

By Susan Kendrick
www.WriteToYourMarket.com

See more articles at:
www.BookCoverCoaching.com

See the PW article excerpt below, then answer the questions.

"Hey, That's My Book Title!"
By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 10/19/2007 10:31:00 AM

In November, St. Martin's Minotaur will publish Person of Interest, a mystery by Edgar Award-winning author Theresa Schwegel. In February, Viking will publish A Person of Interest, a novel by Pulitzer Prize finalist Susan Choi. We got both authors on the phone together to talk about the coincidence. ...

Article Excerpt:

PW: How do feel about the coincidence?

TS: It doesn't bother me. I think if anything, maybe the title will be more recognizable across the board either way. People may say, "I’ve heard of that book!" Maybe they’ll pick it up either way.

SC: I think they’re really different books. I don’t think our books are in danger of being mistaken for each other... They’re not books that are going to be elbowing each other in sections in bookstore or in the mental space of readers. hope there will be some sort of harmonic convergence and both of our books will do really, really well.

Book titles can't be copyrighted
Book titles can't be copyrighted, so there are bound to be different books with the same titles that show up in all categories. Note that both of these books are fiction, but ...

_ What if these books were non-fiction?

_ What if one of them was yours?

_ What if you were using yours as a brand builder and lead generator
     for your business, products, seminars, or consulting?

_ What if your book and the other one were on two different topics?

_ What if they were on the same topic?!

The Same or Different?
The books in the article above are both being released at close to the same time, so outside of industry rumor, they could not have known about each other--hence, the coincidence. But add them to the list, and there are now five (FIVE!) fiction books with this same title.

In the interview, neither author seems bothered by the situation. But, then, they are each award-winning authors who already have a loyal following. The issue of having the same titles changes somewhat if (1.) you are using your book title to build your business, or (2.) you are the newcomer to the situation.

Which came first?
Of course, the inevitable problem is that since books can't be copyrighted, even if you are the first one to market, who's to say someone else won't come along later and choose your same title for their book. You'll just want to be sure that if or when that happens, you've established a your own reputation and loyal following in your market. That's why securing the domain name is also helpful. See our Book Cover Coaching article, "5-Step Checklist for Book Title Domain Names."

"People have bought my book based on the title alone," say many authors we work with. "My book title and cover got me picked up by a major distributor," says another. A great book title will do the same thing for your book. Go to www.BookCoverMarketing.com.

Questions? Please give us a call at 715-634-4120 or email info@WriteToYourMarket.com.