Room For Us All

Whenever I do a “Breaking Into Publishing” event, aspiring authors invariably ask me whether they should worry about sharing their ideas with others before their books are in the marketplace.

I understand the fear behind this question. We’ve been taught that there’s only so much space on bookstore shelves and, worse yet, that there are individuals out there trolling for good ideas, just waiting to steal ours.

Frankly, I don't worry about such things. I truly believe that there's room for us all. If you write well and your words resound with truth (granted, those are big ifs), you will find an audience. Just as no two snowflakes are alike, every book is unique. Each one of us has our own voice, our own take on any given topic.


A case in point: Back in 2000 when I titled my book Defying Gravity, people kept telling me to copyright the name. Sounds like a smart thing to do. The only problem is that book titles can't be copyrighted.

Fast forward eight years. A woman named Carol de Giere contacted me last summer to let me know that after much anguish she'd decided to call her book--a biography of Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz--Defying Gravity as well. Far from being upset that she'd "taken" my title, I was philosophical. I knew that some of the attention she garnered for her work would also call attention to mine. (A number of people have already told me they came across my book while searching for hers.)

Which brings me to the photo of the tire swing I posted a few entries back. As I mentioned at the end of that entry, the person who took that picture is a childhood friend of mine. What I didn't say is that the newspaper running the photo had scheduled someone else to do the shoot. As it turned out, that photographer had taken pictures of Carol for an article on her book the week before. Not imagining that there were two Defying Gravitys, he figured he'd already shot what he needed. When he didn't show up, the newspaper running the piece sent along my former classmate to do the shoot instead. I hadn't seen him in 36 years!

Needless to say, I wouldn't have reconnected with this person had Carol not titled her book the same as mine.


Note: Seated at the table in the above photo are the members of my "Breaking Into Publishing" panel. (Click to enlarge.) From left to right are Denise Marcil, President, Denise Marcil Literary Agency, Inc.; Nina Nelson, author of the young adult novel Bringing the Boy Home (which has just been named by Smithsonian one of its Notable Children's Books for 2008); myself; Lucy Hedrick, a five-time nonfiction author; and Jessica Bram, NPR commentator and author of Happily Ever After Divorce: Notes on a Joyful Journey.