Can I write a book that sounds just like yours?

DTW Q&A 017

Here is a question I just got in my email inbox (paraphrased):

I love your Two Dogs in a Trench Coat books. They are so hilarious! I hope you write more!¹ I am a new writer, and am currently working on a book about two dogs in a trench coat who go out on fun and hilarious adventures. Is that ok with you?

Go for it. Knock yourself out. I certainly don’t have the copyright on a trope.

There are honestly only so many book ideas to go around. Even beyond bedtime books or first-day-of-school books there are books that sound, from the outside, very similar. Or at least the titles are similar enough to potentially cause confusion. My first book was Snappsy the Alligator (Did Not Ask to Be in This Book) and frequently I have had concerned friends send me links to books about Snappy the Alligator, or Snappy the Croc, worried I’m being ripped off. I was accused on Facebook of stealing a book idea, because I have a book about Rick the Rock, and there’s another book (which I didn’t know about until after my book published) about Ricky the Rock.²

So the titles are similar, but the books themselves are very different. (It’s like: did H.G. Wells get mad at Ralph Ellison for titling his book Invisible Man? I bet not! They are very different books!)