Guess I Didn't Use the Movie Title First, After All! Toby Young Did!
May 30th 2007 05:31
Well, apparently, I jumped the gun when I wrote my last post, lamenting the fact that Hollywood is planning to make a movie of the same name as the subtitle I used for one of my articles, back in January, '07: "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People."
I'd actually dreamed up this title several years ago--and now I wish I'd paid attention to precisely which year it was, because, as it turns out, an author named Toby Young wrote a book of that same name (copyright 2001) chronicling his adventures working at Vanity Fair magazine in New York City. (I've never heard of either him or his book before today, I promise! If I had, it would have been rather foolish of me to pen my previous post.)
Funny things, titles! When we write them, we're so certain we are the only person to have ever dreamed up that wonderfully winsome way of weaving words together to create the cleverest one, which, in reality, might be nothing more than a naively natural extension of an already existing idea.
I am now willing to humbly admit that the Toby Young book did indeed predate the article I published on Associated Content back in January.
But, to be perfectly honest, I can't say I'm absolutely certain that it actually predated my own original creation of the title and my writing it down, on a sheet of lined binder paper, where I also began, at that very same time, to jot down notes outlining my ideas for the article I would later write. This sheet of paper then went into a box in the back of the closet with my other early writings, which sat for who can say how long?
Regardless of which one of us actually thought of it first, however, the fact that we both did, entirely independently of one another, makes it pretty clear that this title was a natural outgrowth of the Dale Carnegie title from which it sprang, flowing almost perfectly, in both meter and meaning, from the original, and showing that, when two creative minds approach the same idea from the same angle, the artistic spark in each very often confirms the inevitability of the discovery by the other--even if neither one is aware of it at the time.
So, dear readers, I must, at the very least, concede the possibility that Toby Young might just have conceived this great title before I, myself, did. But then again, maybe not. We may never be certain. So, that is where we will just have to leave it.
Philosophically yours,
Jeanne
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Comment by Anonymous
I actually tried selling a book with that exact same title to a few editors and literary agents, at least two years before Toby Young's book came out. At first I was thinking he obviously got my idea from an editor or literary agent who happened to read my earlier book proposal, or someone who happened to hear it from an editor or literary agent who happened to read my book proposal. But as much as I’d like to think that, it's quite probable that he just independently thought up the same reformation of How to Win Friends and Influence People. After all, there are only so many ways to juxtapose words in a meaningful manner -- and very few of them are actually funny.
I even read his book, just to be sure he didn't steal any of my other ideas.
I have, however, recently read somewhere that others have accused Toby Young of plagiarism, so I wouldn't put it past him to steal someone else's title -- especially since you can't copyright titles. Still, all things considered, as much as I hate to admit it, he probably did think of the title How to Lose Friends and Alienate People himself. But that doesn't mean I'm not bitter. (@_o)
-- Len Kennedy
Comment by Jeanne Dininni
Writer's Notes
Thanks for sharing your fascinating story! I find it quite intriguing that yet another author has generated this title entirely independently of the others. (Wonder how many more of us there are out there who have believed we were the first--and only--writer to create this clever transmutation of the Dale Carnegie title.)
My only explanation for this phenomenon--in the case of this particular title, at least--is that its wording is so incredibly intuitive when compared to the Carnegie title and flows so naturally from the original that it would hardly seem possible for a skilled wordsmith not to think of it.
So, alas, it looks as if we'll all just have to accept the fact that there are many other writers out there who are every bit as clever as we've always felt we were--and we'll never really know who created this great title first. (Ah, the trials and tribulations of the writing profession!)
Thanks so much for your comment!
Jeanne