Same Title, Different Story

Content is protected by law.  Titles and ideas are not.  Sure, if a writer basically cribs from another, to the point where the stories are essentially the same, that’s not kosher.  However, many writers have similar ideas, and even similar titles.  It’s usually not even apparent until after publication.

I bring this up because a few folks have brought up that there’s another book out there called Schism.  Released roughly a week prior to my own version, it’s even about a Second American Civil War, albeit this one about the aftermath(mine is more about the war itself).  This shook me a bit when I discovered it.

I’ve never heard of, let alone met, the other author.  The worst fear of most writers is that our work gets stolen and somebody else gets rich and famous off our work.  Of course, this is needlessly paranoid, but every writer feels it.  With Schism, I wondered what the heck happened.

What happened was that we live in perilous times where deep partisan divisions run deep, and it has been that way for years.  Even my own novel reflects the way divisions ran several years ago(when I first wrote Schism), and I’d have probably written it a little differently nowadays to reflect more updated conflicts(BLM, antifa, Patriot Prayer, Trump, Pelosi, etc).  This is the peril of writing slowly and releasing after a process of polishing and editing.  Makes me wonder if writing quickly is more advantageous than trying to write quality).  Maybe that depends on the topic.

Schism isn’t the only book I have that shares a title with someone else, but it’s the only one, from what I can tell, that shares similar content.  Salvation Day shares a title with a science-fiction novel, and Akeldama shares a title with several pieces of music, but none of those are anywhere near what I wrote.  Wrongful Death appears to share titles with several suspense novels.

I think all of this leads to needless anxiety.  Just write what your story is, and let others write theirs.  Much as I’d like to think all of my ideas are unique, others can be smart too, and sometimes we overlap.  Just tell a better story.