Similarities with recently published work

Hi all,

So, I have a question for you guys; how Earth-shatteringly gigantic a problem is it if one of the main ideas of your novel is pre-empted by a big name?

Here's the thing, for the past two years I've been working on an idea for a series, and writing the first book. Now the book is starting to get into the shape where I'd be happy to query it, but there's a pretty big snag. In the two years I've been writing it, a big-name author seems to have had an aesthetically similar idea, written and published the book.

Now from what I can tell (not having read the other work), the tone, style and storyline of the two works are very, very different. The details of the settings are also different; while one focuses on magic and fantasy races, the other focuses on forgotten technology. But the broader aesthetic similarities of the two settings seem like they could be close enough to be problematic, and the timing such that it looks like I've straight-up looted the idea from someone else.

So here's the main thing I'm worried about: Will querying this be a problem? Should I acknowledge the similarity in a query if not? Or should I just resign myself to flushing away two years of work because a professional full-time writer beat an amateur part-timer to the finish line?

Cheers

Jonny

Steampunk, cities above the clouds, warring empires, etc. I didn't want to be too specific really, but a similar idea seems to have popped up in a few places in the time I've been writing - and it's probably a trope by now, much like a medieval Europe-like setting is with high fantasy.

The big similarity I was talking about is with Jim Butcher's The Aeronaut's Windlass and the accompanying Cinder Spires series.

There are some VERY big differences too, mind. My cities are on mountaintops rather than artificial spires. My world contains no magic or races other than humans, whereas his contains intelligent cat-people. Mine is "post-post-apocalyptic", with civilisation having been rebuilt from scratch in the thousand years since an apocalypse (being deliberately vague about whether this is in fact Earth), and from what I can tell Butcher's setting does not look similar in this regard. And the tone is considerably different - while it doesn't really go for grimdark, there's probably too many references to brothels, poverty and child abuse for it to be a fantasy romp.

In terms of it being a steampunk series regarding warring empires on a world cloaked in mist, featuring Horatio Hornblower-inspired airship battles and so on, I'd have thought there would at least be enough of a similarity to raise the question, though.

Even if the details are substantively different, I'm still not sure if my best course of action when querying would be to point out that I'm aware of the similarity (and indeed, if there is something of a trend, try to use that to my advantage), or if I will suffer a case of the too-similars if I don't address it.

Re: The world cloaked in mist, no I can't remove it. It's an integral part of both the setting and the plot. Though, from what I can tell, my mist works in a very different way to his - mine is corrosive and toxic to the point that at one point a character slips into it for a few moments and his legs are reduced to corroded stumps. The only way to go beneath it is with special, chemically treated sealed suits.

It is something I have seen on a couple of occasions to various degrees, though (several Final Fantasy games use a similar "mist-cloaked world" device, as does Cherie Priest's Clockwork Century series to a more limited, localised extent). It usually follows a similar format too, in that the mist itself is mostly dangerous because it contains/creates monsters. Mine will just reduce you to a charred skeleton in moments.

As I said above, I'm beginning to think this might also be one of the conventions of the genre, simply as a contrivance to justify extensive use of airships rather than land/sea vessels.

For the record, I haven't copied mine from Butcher's; I was (unsuccessfully) shopping around a couple of short stories set in this universe in January of 2015, eight months before The Aeronaut's Windlass was released. I had been developing the world for around six months before that, too.

cmi0616 said:

Arguably, if the books similar to yours sold well, it might actually help you with querying. Agents have an easier time selling books when there's a tangible market for them. If the books tanked, you might have a harder time finding representation, but either way, it shouldn't be a major cause for concern. Like others are saying, finish the book. Especially if you've spent two years on it, it doesn't make sense to trunk it just because someone else has published a novel that might or might not be similar to yours.

Click to expand...

That had occurred to me.

I'm wondering about querying at the moment - if it's worth acknowledging the similarity, or using it as a comparison. I'm not sure if that would work in my favour in terms of establishing that there's a market for it, or just make it look as if my own work is highly derivative.