Can You Use a Book Title That Has Been Used Before?

I often get this question from aspiring authors.

Let's imagine you want to write a book. You have a perfect title in mind. Then, you stumble on another book with the same title. Or you search online and find it's already been used by another author.

There are over a thousand writers and authors in the world, so there is a possibility of that happening. It also happens with movie titles.

Can you still use that title?

Does it count as plagiarism?

Book titles are not copyrighted. So, you can't plagiarize a book title. There are many books with similar or the same title. What differentiates them is the Author and Content of the book.

A typical example is Children of Blood and Bone. Same title was used by two different authors; Nora Roberts, an American Author and Tomi Adeyemi, a Nigerian-American Novelist. The books were published in different years.

Even my book, Write Like A Boss. Weeks into the production, I stumbled on the same title online. It was used for a book coauthored by two American writers back in 2017. You can imagine how I felt. I wished the title was mine and mine alone.

While using the same title as another author has no serious consequences, I would advise you give your book a unique title. For two obvious reasons:

1. You never know if the book title is trademarked. Trademarks protect words, phrases, symbols, designs, and name of products/services as an original intellectual property.

If a book title is trademarked, then it is out of bounds. Some popular bestsellers or titles used by popular authors who are recognized as a brand could be eligible for trademark protection. It's best to stay off such titles. If you must use that title, then do your due diligence.

2. Using a unique title gives your book a unique identity. If you use the same title another author has already used, it could create confusion in the marketplace. Your readers may mistake both books as the same, especially if they are within the same genre or geographical location.

That's why it's best to have different book title options. If the first title is already in use, you switch to the next.

I hope this guides you in choosing an ideal title for your book.

Your writing paddy.

Nancy Legacy💜