Verifying originality of your story for children PB

First of all, don't worry about it. Seriously. No two writers will tell an identical story, even if they're using the same plot/writing prompt/etc.

If you want to check titles, Amazon or Google will work. Again, though, you shouldn't stress about it. Your book can have the same title as another book. It's actually very common. Also, agents and/or editors often change a book's title before publication.

Welcome to AW!

Google maybe a better choice. You can check the key words if you really care. But I think that's not a big problem even different books had the same title.

HA-HA! You asked the question to my favorite answer. www.tvtropes.com.

To explain. There are no new ideas under the Sun. But, there is a law called copyright. Copyright is literally "the right to make copies". Change a story enough and you are free to make your own copies. This is subjective and the more money that'll you pay a lawyer the less you have to worry.

Though you don't have to worry that much. The tvtropes site can be a little difficult to navigate until you learn the snide terminology but, it is very hard not to find your ideas there. Yes it is mainly tv and movies, but you find just about all fictional ideas there.

I have studied professional writing for children a long time. What I am looking for are ways to construct unique characters and recently discovered that they are 'masked.' An example, Charles Addams "Adams Family" is set in a Gothic/horror setting because the humor is dark. If they weren't 'masked' and dressed in normal clothes instead then, the dark humor would make people sad. Nobody would laugh.

The best research is to become a parent. You get exposed to each level through raising your child and experiencing childhood development first hand. It's the most satisfying job in the world. I have a series of PBs in the works that I am sure have been done before but not from my angle. After 5-6 years you move from PBs to MGs, then YA as early as 9 years old. Are you ready for a 9 year apprenticeship? Good luck.

Hello Mana, I thought I had a pretty good idea for a book, and the title and did a little research to see if I might have the same problem only to find out the title was already used and a sci/fi book as well, only the one I saw was a sci.fi romance for women and not a YA novel at all, so ya never know.

Good luck with your story ideas.

Hi. There is a reference book called Subject Guide to Children's Books in Print. It's not the sort of book you'd want to buy (over $400) but if you have a large library you'd hopefully have access to it. My library system, unfortunately, is too small so I haven't been able to check it to see how user friendly it is.

As previous posters have said, for straight fiction it's probably not worth worrying about since your take on something is automatically going to be different from any other author's. But it could be quite useful for nonfiction or even historical fiction to see what else has been written about your subject so you could claim you're filling a gap in the literature by having either a brand new topic or a new take on the topic.

Oops -- looking back I see that the OP was more about verifying the originality of a title, so my reply isn't completely relevant. That's what I get for trying to do this while my 5 year old is bouncing around nagging me. Anyway, I agree that the title of any published work that has had any success ought to show up with a google search. And if it was such a poor seller that it doesn't show up on google, it's not worth worrying about. And I realize that "concepts" are harder to look up than subjects. But still, plain old google or amazon ought to give you a good idea.

Titles can't be copy written. Unless a book is super popular, it doesn't matter if you use the same title. Actually, go ahead. Maybe lots of people will get your by mistake and upon reading they'll love it. Google "books with similar titles" and you'll see that this happens.

If you aren't self publishing, let the publisher worry about the title. Titles are often changed as part of the process.

Making sure your manuscript is a unique spin can be valuable. My library has an online catalog. I do a key word search in it. Read the books that come up. They may still be very different from your own idea. I also use Amazon and B&N.

No two people will execute the same idea in the same way, so don't let a similar idea slow you down. Write your version as best you can.