A Book with MY Title!

[N.L.]

I've had my second novel complete for like three years but I've been waiting to...*ahem*...learn a bit more about marketing first before throwing it out there to the masses.

And in the meantime....a book was published with MY TITLE.

(I know it's not MY title, as I did nothing with it and lost out...but in my heart it's mine!!)

I just did a search on my title this morning to check for this very catastrophe and it's finally happened. I've been scooped.

I don't have a cover yet and I haven't even told anyone about the title, but it still feels like one of my children has been kidnapped.

My title was Lesser Evils and I adored it, it was so perfect for my story. I could come up with another title, but do I really have to? Can two books have the same title? Could I just add a tag line to differentiate it?

*heavy sigh* Thoughts and insight greatly appreciated, friends.

[J.D.]

You'd be surprised how often multiple books share titles. My debut novel, Bounty, shares a title with Michael Byrnes' latest thriller, and my sequel, Blood Ties, shares that title with at least two other novels. I'm sure there's even a book out there titled Behind the Badge, much like my third book. It's actually a lot more common than you think -- and a tagline might be a good idea (course, it also depends on how well-known this other book is).

[Heidi]

I did a search for my title, The Hunters, before I published in 2013. There was an old movie, and then nothing else. Do the search now. It is kind of ridiculous. And it really bugs me when I see people using it as a tag line (I know three different authors who are currently using the hunter/ the hunters as a tag line on their books.)

But one cannot trademark or copyright titles or catch phrases. Trump tried with "you're fired" and got laughed out of court!

A tagline is a great way to distinguish your book from all the others, but the cover is going to be what really sets you apart. Make sure that your cover looks nothing like their's and you will be fine.

You will have to work a lot harder at SEO to come out on top (And man is that a headache) but if you are really married to the title, it will be worth it.

[Ben]

Yep, nothing you can do. Still stings

[N.L.]

Heidi wrote: "I did a search for my title, The Hunters, before I published in 2013. There was an old movie, and then nothing else. Do the search now. It is kind of ridiculous. And it really bugs me when I see pe..."

Ugh SEO! Thank you for your advice Heidi!

J.D. wrote: "You'd be surprised how often multiple books share titles. My debut novel, Bounty, shares a title with Michael Byrnes' latest thriller, and my sequel, Blood Ties, shares that title with at least two..."

Whew. That's actually a relief. Thank you J.D.!

[Marie Silk]

Yes you can still have the title even if there are already 50 books with the same title. The thing you are not supposed to do is make your title sound like it belongs with another popular series (a series name can technically be trademarked if it is popular enough). So you cannot use "Harry Potter and the Lesser Evils" or "Lesser Evils for Dummies".

If there is only one other book out there with that name, I would probably still use the title it if it were me. It is hard to find a title that has never been taken before.

[N.L.]

Marie wrote: "It is hard to find a title that has never been taken before."

It sure is! Thanks for the advice, Marie. I'm feeling a lot better now :) I was a little bit gutted this morning. As of now, I think I'll keep my title and make it work!

Thanks!

[Jane]

There's only so many words in the world, and only so many combinations of the same.

If the title fits your book go for it.

[P.D.]

I always check my titles ahead and try to avoid duplicates. But they still happen. Sometimes a subtitle or longer title helps to avoid confusion and make yours pop better in a search.

And sometimes no matter what you do, someone publishes a book with the same name as yours two months later. (sigh)

But the way I see it, maybe they'll come across yours by accident when looking for the other...

[J.D.]

P.D. wrote: "But the way I see it, maybe they'll come across yours by accident when looking for the other... "

Michael Byrnes found my review of his Bounty and then DM'd me on Twitter to say he would read my Bounty. So you never know!

[John Hooker]

Besides a regular Google search for a potential title, you can also set up a Google ngram to see if the phrase has been used in any of the content in the books in Google Books database. It will give you a frequency graph over whatever years to wish to include.

https://books.google.com/ngrams

[Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger)]

Jane wrote: "There's only so many words in the world, and only so many combinations of the same.

If the title fits your book go for it."

Jane, I really like the way you stated that! Thank you, as I'm having the same issue. : )

[J.N.]

I think (I could be wrong, I'm not a lawyer) that you can trademark a series title. But the title itself is not protected.

If any lawyers read this, I'd like to hear if what I stated above is 100% true.

Just a thought...

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

The following is what my rusty brain recalls from the last time this topic came up. You may want to do research to be sure I'm not misleading you.

Titles cannot be copyrighted. In a few select instances, a title may be trademarked, but generally that only happens if the book becomes a series and is widely popular. You should be fine.

[Angela]

If the other book is in the same genre, I would look at renaming your book to avoid confusion. I had to do it with one of mine. Readers remember titles more than author names, and you wouldn't want someone buying the other book by accident. On the other hand, if the other book is popular you could make some extra sales, although you would probably get some grumbling reviews as a result.

[G.G.]

I was told directly by Copyright that title were not and could not be copyrighted. In truth you could call your book anything you want and change it as you wish, it doesn't alter your copyright. You'd only want to refile if you'd want it to be associated with the book,but not for copyright reasons.

So unless there are too many books with the same title and it would make yours hard to find, there would be no problem at all. (Of course, I would stay away from bestsellers titles if not for copyright or trademark for people would get mad at you for that and write bad reviews....kind of like the author named Stephen King who was not the real King... Not ONE good review for him.

[Carole]

I think you can trademark a character. Someone attempted to have one of my characters trademarked. I had to hire a lawyer to stop the process.
Good advice from Heidi- distinguish your title with a memorable tag line.
When I asked about titles of books my lawyer responded with this-

Book titles are not generally a part of copyright law. This means you can name your book anything you want. Some names and titles do receive protection under trademark law, however, so you should check your title for previous trademark. There is a search engine available at http://www.uspto.gov/# which can help you to make sure the title you select isn't trademarked. http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-pr… for more information on copyright.

[Hannah]

The same thing has also happened to me. I just saw that my historical fiction novel, "The Greenlanders", shares a title with a book by Jane Smiley. Luckily, the plots are different: mine focuses on the founders of the Greenland colony and is set in the 10-th-11-th century, while hers is set in the 14-th century, close to the colony's time of decline. I'd be a lot sorrier if the plot, and not the title, coincided.

[Anna]

This happened to me too. When I decided on my book title "His Hostage" I searched it on Goodreads and Amazon - no hits. I did a little happy dance; I was going to have a book title no one else had yet! I bought an ISBN, took a while editing and formatting my book...then I published it and realized that Willow Winters had just published a book also called His Hostage. :P Needless to say I was kind of bummed out (it was my first book and I wanted it to be SPECIAL XD)...but stuff like this happens. I agree it's practically impossible to find a cool title that someone hasn't already used somewhere.

[Rachel]

It is so hard to find a title that isn't already taken! Everything I think of pretty much is. Lesser Evils is a great title - I agree, go for it!

[[deleted user]]

P.D. wrote: "I always check my titles ahead and try to avoid duplicates. But they still happen. Sometimes a subtitle or longer title helps to avoid confusion and make yours pop better in a search.

And sometim..."

After I had a very interesting surprise with one of the titles (there seem to be tons of books with the same one), I started checking on Amazon first. It's not easy to come up with something absolutely genuine and be also close to the content of the book but.,... I try

[P.D.]

I find you're better off searching on Goodreads than on Amazon. There seems to be a better catalogue at Goodreads. I have often searched Amazon and found nothing, then gone to Goodreads and found two or three identical.

[[deleted user]]

P.D. wrote: "I find you're better off searching on Goodreads than on Amazon. There seems to be a better catalogue at Goodreads. I have often searched Amazon and found nothing, then gone to Goodreads and found t..."

Wow, I haven't thought of that.

[C.B., Beach Body Moderator]

None of the Titles of any of my books have ever been used before and I almost have eight of them out now. :)
It is possible.