Your Name Is Mine

Now, before anyone starts saying "You can't copyright a title...and isn't it also the title of a Rob Zombie song...and there must have been a French horror film of the same title...and really, do you think anyone who reads her books reads your books?" understand that I am aware of all of the above. Nevertheless: What the fucking fuck?

The image to the left there is the cover of Elizabeth Scott's YA novel Living Dead Girl. Some of you might recall my award-losing novel of the same name, pictured to the right. I know I do. I know others do, too, since, not to get all proprietary or anything, but, you know, it's kinda synonymous with me, since it lost a bunch of really nice awards. Perhaps had it won a few, well, we'd not be having this conversation. (Oddly -- or perhaps not so oddly, knowing how these things work -- the cover is actually really reminiscent of a cover I rejected.)  Anyway, I hadn't heard of Elizabeth Scott prior to this morning when a friend of mine emailed me to say, Yo, someone is biting on your mad style, you better get them to recognize, G (or, you know, something like that) and sent me a link to her book. Intrigued, I also visited the author's website to find out if her novel was about a missing woman, a dead child with weird tumors and an unreliable narrator dealing with life among the ruins. Alas, no:

Once upon a time, I didn't know how lucky I was.

When Alice was ten, Ray took her away from her family, her friends--her life. She learned to give up all power, to endure all pain. She waited for the nightmare to be over.

Now Alice is fifteen and Ray still has her, but speaks more and more of her death. He does not know it is what she wants.

She does not know he has something more terrifying than death in mind for her.

This is Alice's story. It is one you have never heard, and one you will never, ever forget.

Sounds interesting, I gotta say. I'm not sure what is more terrifying than death, however, apart from maybe that one time I was getting gas at the ARCO station in Banning and 200 Hell's Angels pulled in at the same time. I never felt more Jewish. Anyway, I poked around Elizabeth's site some and found something interesting: Living Dead Girl isn't the only book she's written that shares a title with another book...or books. Her current release is called Stealing Heaven, the title of a popular novel by Madeline Hunter, which came out originally in 2002, but also, oddly, the title of a book by Marion Meade released by Soho (the publisher of Living Dead Girl) in 1994, the title of a Jaclyn Reding novel from 1996, and the title of a book by Heather Von Prondzynski in 1998...and then there was 1995 romance by Kimberly Cates as well, which makes me think there's probably a storage bin at Harlequin filled with books titled Stealing Heaven.

I can't think of anyone I know who has released a book and had another book come after it with the same exact title, particularly not when the book has been around for only a few years, is at least somewhat known and is still in print and selling. There's the case of two books with a very, very similar title being released at the exact same time, as was the deal with Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell and The Cloud Atlas by Liam Callanan, both of which were released within weeks of each other in 2004, but I can't think of any others immediately.

So, to answer the obvious question: Yes, I find myself angered by this. Not impossibly so, because there are larger things to be angry about in the world than someone else using the same book title as me -- and in some cases, like when the punk band Riot Like Words named a song Fake Liar Cheat because they were inspired by the book to write a song, I'm more flattered than anything, even if I do have real dominion over those three words together -- but in just a regular business sense, I have to wonder: Why use a title someone else has already used for your book? And why do it more than once? You'd think the sheer confusion factor from having one book with the same title as another 10 books would be enough to keep you away from other such issues.

On the upside, I pray to Dave Navarro that some angst filled YA readers order the wrong book and find themselves asking their parents about whether or not it's possible they have the traces of their unborn siblings festering in their bodies...

Comments

[SweetieZ]

Not knowing anything about anything, which I dont, wouldnt the publishing house have told her in advance her title selection is in current use ?

Will she be man enough to post your book cover on her site ?

I loved Living Dead Girl. I was up at one in the morning reading about how you really can have traces of unborn siblings festering inside your body. (this may explain my large backside)

[Jane]

My next book will be called Things You Left Behind in Palm Springs when a Burn Notice caused you to Simplify, you Fucktard, Fake, Liar & Cheat.

[Karen]

This past year, Liam Callanan titled his new novel All Saints. I contacted him when I found out, just to say hello. It doesn't bother me much because mine is ten years old now, and titles are up for grabs, and so. Callanan even wrote a short item for PW about it. It was kinda weird to read that.

It does seem strange that this woman who used LDG has done it before. You'd think she'd check on Amazon first. It's tough when you see that someone else has already taken your brilliant idea, but really, better to come up with something original ... if you can.

[rob roberge]

Tod---dig this--

there are not one but TWO other motherfuckers writing self-pubbed books with the name Robert Roberge (one goes by Robert Roberge Jr.)....I can be at least minimally thankful that they go by the pretentious "Robert" rather than Rob (the blow of which would be softer if Harper Collins had not screwed up some advertising calling me "Robert" in some press material when they never receive ANY correspondence from me including my BOOK with anything other than "Rob")...but still, it drives me batty...even though I know it's their name, too, and even less of an infringement than any title.

I'm going to start writing as Tod Goldberg Jr.

Todbert Goldberg Jr.?

R

[Graham]

I believe you meant Todbert Goldberge Jr.