Don't authors (or their publishers) take steps to avoid stealing book titles?

First off, you can't copyright a title.

Second, the swipe is usually inadvertent.

I plead guilty with Nightworld -- I'd forgotten that years earlier Robert Bloch had written a novel called Night World.

BTW, Cussler's Black Wind has a completely different plot.

i'm guessing it was just a coincidence, and that they've never heard of fpw's black wind.

[QUOTE=Alan]The SOB has gone too far this time.:mad:

I am probably about to get pounded here, but I saw this book being advertised just prior to its release and didn't really think twice about it....this was only three days after I had just added a 1st ed/1st pr mint hardback of FPW's Blackwind to my collection. I had read the synopsis about Cussler's Blackwind and thought, "Okay same title, about Japan, different plot"......no big deal.

After I read this thread this morning (before FPW's reply), I thought, "Okay, FPW shares the same title with Robert Bloch...no big deal there, either."

Then I remembered that FPW and H.P. Lovecraft both have published books called "The Tomb" (although, the publisher forced the title on FPW)....again, no big deal that the titles are the same....at least to me.

Am I missing something larger here?

I am probably about to get pounded here, but I saw this book being advertised just prior to its release and didn't really think twice about it....this was only three days after I had just added a 1st ed/1st pr mint hardback of FPW's Blackwind to my collection. I had read the synopsis about Cussler's Blackwind and thought, "Okay same title, about Japan, different plot"......no big deal.

After I read this thread this morning (before FPW's reply), I thought, "Okay, FPW shares the same title with Robert Bloch...no big deal there, either."

Then I remembered that FPW and H.P. Lovecraft both have published books called "The Tomb" (although, the publisher forced the title on FPW)....again, no big deal that the titles are the same....at least to me.

Am I missing something larger here?

No, Flyboy, I don't think you're missing anything here. I think what's more important is the story. If the story was lifted, then there's cause for alarm. But what's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, to misquote a genius.

The SOB has gone too far this time.:mad:

John Keel, who's been a professional writer since the age of 16, once told me that the convention is to avoid lifting a published title for 3 years after the original publication. I don't know if anybody knows, or cares, about this courtesy anymore.

The SOB has gone too far this time.:mad:

John Keel, who's been a professional writer since the age of 16, once told me that the convention is to avoid lifting a published title for 3 years after the original publication. I don't know if anybody knows, or cares, about this courtesy anymore. In any case, Clive doesn't too severe a beating for this one.

Don't authors (or their publishers) take steps to avoid stealing book titles?

Naw. There have been plenty of songs called "Love," for example. It used to be that you couldn't even copyright ideas, just the arrangement of words used to express them. But Murray Leinster got a nice piece of coin from the producers of the film ALIEN for ripping-off his story BLACK DESTROYER (or so I've heard...) BLACK DESTROYER was Leinster's first published fiction, so maybe he felt a little propriatorial about it. So I guess I should think twice before submitting my THE CRYPT manuscript, featuring Handyman Hank, to a publisher...

Naw. There have been plenty of songs called "Love," for example. It used to be that you couldn't even copyright ideas, just the arrangement of words used to express them. But Murray Leinster got a nice piece of coin from the producers of the film ALIEN for ripping-off his story BLACK DESTROYER (or so I've heard...) BLACK DESTROYER was Leinster's first published fiction, so maybe he felt a little propriatorial about it. So I guess I should think twice before submitting my THE CRYPT manuscript, featuring Handyman Hank, to a publisher...

Seems like we are getting off the initial comment. I don't reallt think that any of the titles "Blackwind", "Night World" or "The Tomb" are rip-offs, infringements etc of any of the writers associated with them. All three of these examples cited may have the same title, but that is where the similiarities end. All of them have different plots, wrtitng stles etc....

[QUOTE=Alan]The SOB has gone too far this time.:mad:

I am probably about to get pounded here, but I saw this book being advertised just prior to its release and didn't really think twice about it....this was only three days after I had just added a 1st ed/1st pr mint hardback of FPW's Blackwind to my collection. I had read the synopsis about Cussler's Blackwind and thought, "Okay same title, about Japan, different plot"......no big deal.

After I read this thread this morning (before FPW's reply), I thought, "Okay, FPW shares the same title with Robert Bloch...no big deal there, either."

Then I remembered that FPW and H.P. Lovecraft both have published books called "The Tomb" (although, the publisher forced the title on FPW)....again, no big deal that the titles are the same....at least to me.

Am I missing something larger here?

No, I'm just a bad comedian. I saw the book at Target last night and thought it was funny.

No, I'm just a bad comedian. I saw the book at Target last night and thought it was funny.

Excellent ! (read it like C. Montgomery Burns would say it)