weird book title coincidence

I'd keep the working title, honestly. Titles aren't copyrightable and, frankly, if the book published 4 years ago had been a big bestseller that people would get the two titles confused, you'd have already heard about it without the search. I wouldn't mention it, just sent it in. Having the same title might be a positive to get the agent to read further, just to see how alike the books are, after all.

If there's to be a change in the title, let it come after representation/contract. If it's the perfect title, then you shouldn't deny yourself.

That sounds like great advice to me! There are lots of books with the same title. And if you were working on the title for a year, then you really went through a few, and thought about it vigorously!

Good luck! and Congrats!

Don't worry about it. Coincidences like this happen all the time. It's not going to get in the way of publishing your work.

If you don't believe me, read Nicola Morgan's excellent blogpost on the subject.

Four years ago, in a different genre or different audience, and it's not a problem. It could be a nice lead-in to your query, though, if you feel like personalizing it, and can do it with a light touch.

I had to deal with this issue recently. My working title was "Nursing A Grudge," which really worked, because punny titles are popular in cozy mysteries, and the victim was a nurse, and the sleuth was cranky and really disliked the nurse, so it all fit.

And then another cozy mystery was released a few months ago with the same title. Sigh. It would have been okay if it had been more than a year ago, or in a different subgenre even. Then I could have told people it was the cozy mystery released in 2014 or the cozy mystery, not the hardboiled mystery. Or something like that. But a recent release plus exact same subgenre (not even overall genre, but subgenre), and we had to change it. Sigh.

I'm still waiting to hear the final verdict on the new title, and while the possibilities are all fine, the waiting is making me crazier than I normally am.

Like GinJones, my novel's title was changed. Originally written as Tell Me Lies, a phrase intrinsic to the story and which I picked straight out of my hero's mouth. However, it was changed by the marketing team because Jennifer Cruisie has a book out with the same title. My book is also a contemporary romance, so no matter how I tried to keep my title, my publisher didn't budge. The title didn't hamper my publisher from taking me on though, so if I were you I would keep it for this agent.

I think you need to worry about your story. That's what going to be getting the agent's attention.

If they love your story then the title becomes an easy issue to deal with.

tko said:

So, after a year, I found the perfect title for my novel. Not just an evocative title, but one that references a government issued warning in the country I'm writing about. Strong enough to help set up the query and make my reviewers take notice. Did a search, found one novel with the same title published 4 years ago, but probably a different target audience.

So now I'm querying and (thank god for the internet) found one of my dream agents represented the author of the book with the same title, and she loves him.

Should I 1.) change the working title for this one agent 2.) explain I'd be willing to change the title and why, showing I'd done my homework 3.) back peddle as quickly as possible and find an all new title, no matter how much I love the old one.

Click to expand...

I would change it for the one agent only.

Acknowledge the issue, show you've done your homework, and then let it go. Title is a lot less of an issue than the MS itself.