This Week’s Topic: What's In a Name?
Back when I debuted my One Old, One New feature, I reviewed two books with the same title, and I didn't think it was such a commonality. Fast forward, and we have an episode of "authors behaving badly", when one author accused Nora Roberts of trying to leverage the book's popularity to advance her new release.
And this got me thinking about - what's in a name? How did this same title phenomena occur? Well, let's take a look.
Perusing my "read" shelf, I saw some patterns.
- If you look around, there are books, that leverage common phrases
- Others are titles of popular songs
- Many feature a names
- And still more will have a single word for a title, which represents a significant theme from the story
- I saw a lot of 'word & word' kind of titles too (this is especially rampant with fantasy books)
But, what really motivated me want to do this post was the hope of finding books with the SAME title. Why? Because I am doing the Pop Sugar Challenge, and I need your help! Please feel free to suggest books with the same title for me.
Now it's your turn!
Same title: nefarious plot or coincidence?
Let us know in the comments!
Haha, I am doing the Popsugar challenge too and was thinking about this prompt the other day. You should check out the discussion in Goodreads group. There are so many interesting options but I haven't decided yet what I would choose.
ReplyDeleteHere is the link to the Goodreads thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/19603047-47-48---two-books-that-share-the-same-title
Thanks for the link. Every time I go into that group, I feel like everyone is a little too highbrow for me. What can I say. I like what I like. I did accidentally find another book titled Match Me If You Can, and I had read the Tiana Smith book last month. So, I may be fulfilling this more easily than I thought I would
DeleteI can't think of any at the moment, but I went through a lot of title ideas before coming up with The Brightness of Shadow for the book I'm writing. There's another book called The Brightess of Shadows...
ReplyDeleteThe second book in my series is Shadow's Queen. There's a book coming out called Queen's Shadow (I thought of my title before I knew of this one). I plan on writing a fanfic called The Rift this summer, and there's an unrelated book with the same name coming out (but since this is just a fanfic it really doesn't matter).
I'm curious to find out what Legend 4 is going to be titled. I wrote a Legend fanfic last year that is still in the editing phases that I titled Hero... in a way I kinda want to get the first chapter of my fanfic out before she announces the title in case we were thinking along the same lines... I don't want people to think I was copying her (I came up with the title last summer before I knew there was going to be a Legend 4).
I see a lot of repetition in SFF titles, because they all seem to use the same words over and over again. There was a TTT last year about that, and I was amazed by the lists. I hope Kagawa doesn't use your title.
DeleteIt was Marie Lu and her new book is Rebel, so yay! Her book is focusing on Day's relationship with Eden, which I'm excited to read about. But you probably already know that, LOL.
DeleteIt doesn't surprise me that one word titles have many duplicates. Maybe that's why some authors have really long titles (like Frederick Backman)
DeleteI see a lot of the same titles when I'm looking up books. There are quite a few called Slow Burn but I can't think of others off the top of my head. Looking up a common sounding title on Goodreads is a good way to see other books with the same name!
ReplyDeleteTrue. I just happened upon one on Hoopla, and I may have solved my problem.
DeleteFantasy books drive me insane. Why are their titles so similar! I vaguely remember what a book is called, so I try to find it on Goodreads and come up with 1000 books that have a similar title but aren’t the one I’m looking for.
ReplyDeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
They do stand out, though, I have to admit, romance novels (my faves) have super similar, if not the same, titles often as well. When searching on GR, I often have to put in the first or last name of the author with the title to find the book.
DeleteI know I’ve encountered plenty of books with the same title but right now the only one coming to mind of Beauty Queens by Libba Bray (which I haven’t read) and Beauty Queen by Linda Glovach (which I have read). I’ll keep thinking to see if I can come up with anymore. :)
ReplyDeleteLibba Bray is someone I would read, since I enjoyed the books of her's I have read.
DeleteI think it's a coincidence. I mean, there are only so many ways to come up with a punchy title that fits the plot. It just makes ssense that those titles might crop up more than once. It doesn't really bother me, except for when people are talking about one book, but I think they're talking about another, lol.
ReplyDeleteThis post has a few suggestions of books with the same/similar titles.
I think it's more coincidence than anything else as well, which was why that whole Twitter war had me shaking my head. I often will go on the eLibrary and search the older "available now" books, and I will see titles that are the same as many new releases. Thanks for the link!
DeleteI am not surprised at all. Good thing you can't copyright a phrase or title.
ReplyDeletesherry @ fundinmental
I am giggling and just thinking about cocky-gate and the attempt to trademark the word "forever", that had the romance community up in arms last year.
DeleteSo what is really funny is that I just finished and reviewed a book called Ruthless King by Maya Hughes a couple weeks ago, and then today I finished listening to an audiobook called Ruthless King by Meghan March. Totally different types of stories, one was more of a romantic sports comedy, the other was a very dark romance. I didn't even think anything of it until I went to add it to my spreadsheet where I'm keeping track of all of my reading.
ReplyDeleteNow I could see myself reading those books, so, thanks!
DeleteTitles that are the same or extremely similar are quite common. I think there's only an issue when the plots and cover designs are also freakishly similar... The whole he/she copied me" crap going on at the moment amongst the writing community is getting tiresome...
ReplyDeletePut something like The One That Got Away into amazon and the amount of books you get is insane! Romances, thrillers, mysteries the whole shebang!
I wish you luck on your popsugar challenge. :)
My experience with title repetition is more with romance than YA, and I do think it's more coincidental than anything else. Many are cliched romantic phrases, and I am not surprised to find so many books with the same titles. I think finding the right title can be challenging, because you want something that describes the book, but not a mile long (I am looking at you Backman)
DeleteI'm doing the Pop Sugar Challenge also, but I will NOT be doing the advanced prompts! Haha! I hope you're able to find something awesome that fits!
ReplyDeleteI may have stumbled upon a book with the same title as one I read last month.
DeleteI think just coincidence! There are only so many words to go around, I guess! Sometimes I will be looking up a book on Goodreads and the one I want isn't even in the first few, there are so many books with similar titles.
ReplyDeleteI always come armed to GR with the title and author's name just because of this. And, I agree with you, it's more coincidence than anything. That's why that Nora Robert's thing had me so frustrated.
DeleteOh, interesting! I recently noticed this when I listened to the audio for You by Caroline Kepnes. My library kept finding You by Charles Benoit. There's Wake by Lisa McMann and Wake by Amanda Hocking. Libba Bray wrote Beauty Queens, and there's another book with the same title by Linda Glovach. I'm sure I've stumbled across others, but these are the books that came to mind! I hope that helps with your challenge.
ReplyDeleteLindsi @ Do You Dog-ear? 💬
Tanya had mentioned the Beauty Queens books. Hmmm, it seems the shorter the title, the more likely for there to be books with the same title. It's funny too, because I rarely read one word titled books.
DeleteInteresting! I know I've run across this once or twice, but I'm drawing a blank. This is gonna bug me now though haha, I'm gonna try and think of some examples! :)
ReplyDeleteI think it's awesome that the titles of books you have read are more unique, and that you are having trouble coming up with a pair.
DeleteI know I've come across some but the only ones I can think of right now are Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine and Lisa Unger. I even reviewed both books together on my blog.
ReplyDeleteI read Ink and Bone, but didn't know there was another Ink and Bone.
DeleteI feel like there are a lot of books called City of Bone or City of Bones! And you can probably can find more than one book with the title Pride because there are so many pride and prejudice retellings! I love a good long title for a book :D
ReplyDeleteI read the Cassandra Clare City of Bones. I just went to GR - 8 entries! I do find the long ones a little cumbersome to talk about, though we all go to acronyms, otherwise, I don't mind them, and they do tend to be more unique.
DeleteI am still amazed that you can choose the same title as other authors! As a blogger I had to check that my intended name was free so why don't they do it??? Sorry I can't help you for your popsugar but ....Sophie @bewareofthereader
ReplyDeleteIt does seem like something you wouldn't want to do, but when you think about it, lots of things share names - songs, cities, streets. To me, it creates confusion, and but it I guess you can't copyright everything.
DeleteThere are definitely a lot of titles that are similar to one another, but coming up with ones that match exactly is much more difficult. I think looking for one word titles will be your best bet. I can only think of Cat Winter's The Uninvited and Sophie Jordan's Uninvited and also Ruined by Amy Tintera and Ruined by Paula Morris.
ReplyDeleteThere does seem to be a lot of same, singularly tilted books, but it was surprising to find longer ones that were identical too. Yesterday, I stumbled upon an older book - Match Me If You Can, and I had recently read a new release by the same title.
DeleteI think similar titles are just coincidence. It seems like an author wouldn't want their book's title to be so similar to another's but that said, just thinking about the long lists of similar results I get when I do a search on Goodreads, I guess it would be mission impossible to try to come up with one that was unlike any other.
ReplyDeleteI am not a suspicious person by nature, so when I read that whole Nora Roberts mess, I was shocked by the allegation. I agree with you, that it coincidental. Why would you want your book to be mixed up with someone else's?
DeleteI saw the drama around the Nora Roberts book and thought it was incredibly silly. I don't think Nora Roberts needs to use another author's work to become more popular. Her name sells all on its own. I have been trying to add my books to goodreads and have come across several identical titles. None that I can remember right now, of course, but still.
ReplyDeleteNo, Roberts does NOT, and she had the book written prior to the other one, so there was that too.
DeleteHaven't been to your blog in forever! Truly sorry about that. I'm actually blog hopping like for the first time this year. It's the first weekend when I feel alright enough to do it :D which is great.
ReplyDeleteIn this day or age, I think it's really hard NOT to name the books the same. There are just so many writers and so many stories, after all. Especially if, like you say, they use a common phrase.
Can't think of two books with the same title though, right now! I'll let you know if I do :)
You have a point. There are SOOOO many books out there, and the number of releases have grown due to the increase in number of ways people can now publish their work.
DeleteIn high school I picked up the wrong book because of similar titles. I couldn't remember the author but I knew that title was Invisible Man. Well I picked up H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man instead of instead of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man because the word "the" was very tiny on the cover.
ReplyDeleteI have actually read both of those, and I think I thought we were reading the Wells book for my class, when we were actually reading Ellison's book.
DeleteOoooh that title drama was a MESS. Especially since they are such common words/phrases in book titles in general. And like, I don't really think they run in the same circles? (The authors, I mean.) Plus- do authors even have final approval over titles? I thought that was more a publishing thing. The whole thing was pretty gross tbh. Like if you think someone wronged you, don't you just bitch about it in a DM and move on? Just me? I can't think of any titles that are exactly the same at the moment, but there have to be some! Especially the one-worders, just Goodreads search some that you've read recently and see if a duplicate strikes your fancy hahah.
ReplyDeleteI never quite know what say authors do or do not have on big press books, but yeah, I filed that under authors-behaving-badly and the two words + conjunction is so, so common. I have been finding dupes, but I need them to be books I have or have access to AND something I would want to read. That's a lot of boxes to check, but I do think I found one on Hoopla that could work.
DeleteI can't think of any title but I do know a lot of self published books use the same photos. Well, I haven't seen to many lately but at one time I felt like everyone had the same covers. I didn't know who's book I was reading. It was so weird. Now, I see that they are not doing that as much. It's weird how these titles are like this. Isn't it the publisher who finalizes these things? If it's self published I get it but a publisher knows don't they? They should have research teams or something. Maybe they did this to get publicity to get sales up too.
ReplyDeleteMary
I did that whole deja vu cover post, and was amazed by how many are similar. This is especially true with romance books. I am not sure who gets to make what decisions, but it is funny to see so many books blending in, when you would think they would want to stand out.
DeleteGood luck finding your same-named books. I have a feeling it won't be hard. :-)
ReplyDeleteNicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction
I actually found a few that sound interesting to me.
DeleteI figure as long as the covers are different then who cares about books with similar titles? Same name books are actually easy to find... not that I can think of any off of the top of my head. They definitely exist, though, right?
ReplyDeleteI don't have a major hang up with it, but if I wrote a book, I would want my very own, special title. I get mad when someone else in the room has the same name as me, so you know I want my very own title.
Delete