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Author Ruta Sepetys' debut novel was titled "Between Shades of Gray". It came out in 2011, and did modestly well, until a few months later a book came out titled "Fifty Shades of Gray". Ruta told the kidlkit community with a bit of a laugh that she sold many a book to a mixed up customer, and that helped launch her best-selling career. So it's not always a bad thing.

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Interesting story! Didn't know this. :)

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Great piece! When I was a book series editor, I was constantly explaining the competing titles section of our proposal requirements. Many authors thought "uniqueness" was important when in fact we needed evidence of an existing market.

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Exactly. It's a common misperception.

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So helpful. Always.

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Perfectly put.

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I learn something valuable from every one your pieces. My takeaway from this is to as much as possible "stay in my own lane," focusing on making my work the best in can be while having a realistic perspective about the tough market all of our books enter.

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An insightful piece. Thank you!

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Such good advice & quite comforting (because this is something I've worried about).

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Interesting! It’s a relief that readers don’t care about similar titles or designs. I’ve used my own photography for book covers (obvious choice when writing about my life with my dog), but I’m considering using a stock image for the next one, hoping that it’s not already out there. But now I wonder if I should even worry about it.

Thanks for this. Your posts are always so helpful!

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If you have something unique that's great. Especially if it's memoir. We do use tons of personal images, and it's mostly about creating a mood.

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The timing of this post was perfect. I recently found out an acquaintance of mine is also publishing her memoir, coming out in June 2025. Both of our stories are about how a passion for rivers and whitewater adventure helped us overcome childhood trauma and dramatically changed the trajectory of our lives, and we know of no other memoir quite like ours, so we are the first in a niche womens whitewater paddler memoir genre. But our stories are definitely not the same, and we just discussed last week finding some opportunities where we could do some events together. I really feel like this timing may help amplify both our books. Her book is titled the Rivers Daughter, and mine is RISK (with She Writes Press) and our covers our very different (I like mine better, thanks SWP!)

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What is different since Mark Twain's quote are the voices who are being heard. Your writing makes you a part of today's current chorus. Without you, the song is not the same.

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Great advice Brooke. Thank you!

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As a new author, I appreciate this sage advice. Great examples too.

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So helpful. Your equanimity has brought my blood pressure down. Those "identical" covers! But you give us context. Thank you.

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“Approach the situation from abundance rather than scarcity, and see what outcomes might be possible.“ Great Advice.

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. . . for everything.

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Thank you for this. I always enjoy reading your articles!

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So thoughtful as always, fabulous advice. Make friends.

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❤️ Always!

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Keeping us in the high vibrations instead of the low. Bless you for it, Brooke!

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