"Help! A book close to my premise already sold."
Keep writing, or pivot before it's too late?
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Dear Kate,
Help! What do you do when something very, very, very close to your premise sells before you even get the chance to start writing it?
- Too Little, Too Late
Dear TL, TL,
That bites, I’m sorry. I think a lot of us have had, or are currently nursing, that sparkly idea we’re eager to start writing, and there’s always that back-of-the-mind terror that someone else is going to get there first. Even if it’s the book we’re currently writing, we could be halfway through a first draft — or polishing up a final draft! — and see the kind of deal announcement that makes our heart sink. (I mean, yay for the person actually selling a book in this market!! But one can be happy and devastated at the same time.)
My advice here is kinda the same as a lot of the things I talk about on this Substack, which is that most of publishing — er, all of publishing? — is outside our control, except for the things that we ourselves write. There’s just no way, ever, to have any clue what other people are writing or editing or selling or marketing or what’s going to come around the corner next. I was once writing a frenemies-to-lovers romance novel about a chef + bartender opening a new restaurant together when the head of my publishing company, ie the extremely knowledgeable person whose entire job it is to sell books and ideally champion *my* books, announced very publicly in a large webinar that chef heroes were OVER and didn’t sell. So a) that sucked and made me feel bad, but b) the tides change and foodie romance is HOT right now so like I’ve said before, who even knows, and c) that book is one of my best sellers and I love it and readers love it and I’m glad I wrote it anyway because there may be a million foodie romances in the market but not all of them involve thunderstorms and homemade bitters and all the things that make my book mine and not somebody else’s. #noregrets
All of this is to say that your book will still be your book, regardless of how much overlap the initial premise has with something else on the market, whether that “something else” becomes popular or not. There are very few truly original ideas under the sun, and there’s only so much we can plague ourselves worrying about whether “it’s been done before.” It’s all been done before! But not by you, in your voice, with your ideas, and your personal mark upon the page.
If you were in the middle of writing this book, I’d say without hesitation to keep writing. Keep going, keep working, don’t worry about what anyone else is doing. It’s too easy to get distracted and start to doubt what we’re doing, and then to talk ourselves out of finishing before the finish line is even in sight. But this is your book. Don’t let yourself get derailed. Don’t tell yourself no. Make someone else close the door on you—don’t preemptively do it to yourself.
But you say you haven’t started writing the book yet, so that does raise a few more questions. How similar are we talking? How far along are you in your thinking/planning/daydreaming/outlining/whatever your pre-writing work looks like? You have a premise, but do you have a story? (Hello someone please ask me about the difference between premise and story because now I want to write about it!!) After you’ve taken some time to sleep on it and step away from the initial FEELINGS of seeing “your” book in someone else’s deal announcement, do you still feel like they’re as “very, very, very” similar as you thought? Is there room for a different take? Since you haven’t started writing, can you approach your idea with a different spin that will help set it apart? It will probably be at least a year before this other book come out (the deal might say when publication is scheduled for) and depending on how fast you write and many other factors, it could be several years before your book is ready to go to market. On the one hand, that’s why it would feel lousy to put a ton of time and effort into your story only to hear from agents and/or editors that it’s too similar to this other novel. On the other hand, it’s so much time between now and then and there are so many things that can happen. I know it’s not helpful to hear me say “it depends,” but it depends! If you want to think strategically, then yes, it might be time to pursue a different idea. If you want to write what you love and what you love is this idea, the fact that someone else is also writing a book that overlaps with yours doesn’t mean you have to throw it all away.
And who knows. You could start writing a different book only to find that someone else publishes their take before you, anyway. Like all frustrating things in publishing, all the downsides that this presents are also liberating. You can only control what you write. You can only control what YOU write. Everything else will always be a question mark, no matter what.
If you have an agent, talk to your agent about your idea and the book that just sold. If you’re concerned that you’re bothering your agent, you’re not — this is their job!
If you’re interested in self-publishing, carry on full steam ahead. Your books may land in different markets and have different audiences, and/or having a popular book out that’s similar to yours might actually wind up being GREAT marketing because you have an instant comparison title, and you can say “If you liked X book and want more, you’ll love mine.”
This is true if you’re pursuing traditional publishing as well. If you’re querying agents, you can use this recent deal as a sign that there is a market for books like yours. If this book that just sold is a debut, even better — it shows there’s a market for new voices, not just established ones.
If you do have an agent and would go out on submission to editors with this book, it might be that you wouldn’t submit to the editor who just worked on the similar title, because they won’t want to have to books on their list that are potentially competing with one another. But, again, this is something to discuss with your agent and definitely depends on the genre, the pool of editors, the novels themselves etc.
It also just kind of comes down to you. How attached are you to writing this particular book? Do you have other ideas floating around that you might be inspired to focus on instead? Would you always be unhappy that you didn’t try writing your idea and see what happens? Would you always be unhappy that you DID write your idea if people down the line wound up calling it “too similar”? Do you care what these amorphous “people down the line” think? Maybe you could spend some more time digging into your idea and really get a sense of what YOUR book would be about, and how it might differ from the broad strokes you read about in the deal you saw. You’ll never really know until you try.
There are no wrong decisions here. Good luck!
Kate
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Excellent read! I think if you are really passionate about your story, message, characters, keep going. Even if there are similarities: Your own book could still evoke completely different feelings. The other is deep, philosophical or tragic? Yours can be light & humorous (targeting another audience).
A few examples, including movies:
"Pope Johanna" (the Female Pope), I think there are at least 3 different novels out there. But as we know so little about her, the only thing in common are the protagonist & the historical setting. Everything else is pure fiction. It's up to the reader which one is most entertaining. There's even a movie, I think that one is based on Donna Cross's version.
47 Ronin (or 47 Samurai), based on a real historic event from Japan: A story about loyalty, dedication & revenge. There must be dozens of novels, theatre plays, poems, comics, history analysis (maybe even PhD dissertations), and of course movies out there. Including the Hollywood version starring Keanu Reeves, which added Fantasy elements to it, and is clearly targeting the U.S. & European audience. In spite of all these works, I'm sure there is still room for a new novel or play: It can focus on different aspects, or be narrated from someone else's perspective.
"The Seven Samurai", another story from Japan. The plot from the original Japanese historical drama film (1954) was remade several times, most notably as a Western movie, "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), and as a Science Fiction movie, "Battle Beyond the Stars" (1980). Same story, differnt settings & genres.
The movies "Planet of the Apes" (1968) & "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" (1970). This is a really odd one. The 1st movie, "Planet of the Apes", is based on a novel (published in 1963) by French author Pierre Boulle. The movie deviates from the novel, but still captures the message. The big twist at the end is the climax and doesn't require any sequels. The movie is very philosophical and conveys a strong message, wrapped in a Science Fiction setting. The movie was big success, so the studio execs decided to make a sequel (because $$$, why not). They first wanted to hire Pierre Boulle (the original novel's author himself) to write a sequel. But they didn't like any of his ideas (which is kinda odd). So they hired someone else to write the sequel. And now comes the really odd part: When you start watching "Beneath the Planet of the Apes", for a long time you keep wondering, what the hell am I watching here: The 1st half of this movie is almost identical to its predecessor, "Planet of the Apes". The same premise, the same events, happening almost in the same order. Only little deviation from the 1st movie. The 2 movies are so simlar at the start, it's kinda uncanny. Even the actor playing the protagonist resembles Charlton Heston (who played the protagonist in the 1st movie). And the other characters are the same from the 1st movie, doing & saying almost the same things!! And then, about half way through the movie, comes a similar plot twist as in the 1st movie (but not exactly the same). And you think: Wow, is this it? So what's the point of all this, I already knew! But then the story continues, turning into a wild mix of SF, Fantasy, Body Horror, action & drama. So in the end, it takes a totally different turn, even if it started out very similarly.
"Beverly Hills Cop" (1984) and "Cobra" (1986). We all know Axel Foley, the reckless, funny, but competent & experienced cop who doesn't take anything or anyone too seriously. The original script was written to be a staight up action movie without much humour. But the studio wanted a comedy, so they had it rewritten. At some point, Sylvester Stallone was supposed to play the part. He didn't like the script though, and rewrote it from action comedy back to a serious action movie (with excessive violence). When he presented it to the studio, they rejected it: Stallone's version would be too expensive because of all the over-the-top action scenes. Stallone left the project, 2 weeks before principal shooting was supposed to start. The studio recast Eddie Murphy and rewrote the script AGAIN back to comedy. And they could finally produce "Beverly Hills Cop". Stallone took his darker, more brutal version of the script and produced "Cobra". Both movies were box office successes.
So... Even If you THINK there's another one out there, that is very similar to yours: There's still a lot of room, the market is big enough, and the audience is diverse enough for both of you. Just do your thing, give it your all, and miracles might happen.
Great advice! I think you write it because you “have to write it.” If you have passion for the premise that’s what really matters, markets be dammed. And, you can never tell exactly where your strong goes until you get there.