I think a character of mine got stolen, or is is a coincidence?

Question

A character in a published post-apocalyptic book (mine is also apocalyptic) has the same gender, same initial letter of my character's name, with mostly the same letters, and has the same external goal as my character in the apocalypse :S (I didn't read the novel, but I heard someone describe her like that, so those are at least, the similarities I found out about. There could be more)
Is this a coincidence? I had done a huge mistake that I am aware of once, and sent my novel to a self-publishing house, but then I refused to publish it there.

Additional Details

WAIT: I forgot the most important similarity: She's named after the same thing my character is named after, except say, she's named after a certain rose, and my character is named after a certain garden of roses)

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

Although there is a slight possibility that somebody stole it, the possibility is quite remote. I would thing it's coincidence. You may be surprised to find that there are many similar submissions to agents and publishers. And, I'm talking entire manuscripts. It's like those who see something advertised on TV and say, "Hey. I thought of that too. Why didn't I do it?"

Everybody "thinks" pretty much the same way. Creators, such as writers, think along the same lines. Aside from that one published book, there could be many manuscripts that weren't published that contain similar. I wouldn't be surprised to find similar in at least one of the millions of books published.

Let me also say that I find publishing stories on those sites where you upload stories to is the worst thing you can do. It's fine if you are just playing writer. But, if you are serious about your writing an want to get it published--don't do it. For one, if you read their terms, they most often own rights to whatever you post there. Therefore, if you want to publish that story, they have a right to a good portion of it. Not to mention, no publisher will publish something that is already available online for free.

Answer 2

it's just a coincidence. if this character had a unique personality, and this got stolen to, then its not. But the name isn't that hard to come up with, so it can easily be a coincidence and as for external goals, that's really all you got, and i'm sure there is loads of character with the same external goal as others. no need to worry, besides the external goal goes with the story, so unless they stole the story, the name of the character doesn't matter to much

Answer 3

The only way you can find out if your character was stolen is if the author of the book worked at that self-publishing house. If not, it is probably just a coincidence. And maybe your idea is common, and not as unique as you thought? Don't stress out too much over it. It's not a big deal as long as the books aren't the exact same.

Answer mine please!
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Answer 4

I would advice you to change up your character. If not you might have a law suit on your hands

Answer 5

change your character or demand that the other person changes their's or else you're going to sue there ***!