If I wanted to write a book about a female wizard similar to that of Potter, would this be considered copyright infringement?

Arguably, The Worst Witch came way before Harry Potter, also set in a boarding school.

@lifeflame I loved The Worst Witch!

There have been lots of stories about witches and wizards set in a magical place. If you do a search at Amazon for “wizard” and limit it to children’s books, you get 2,905 results. There are 833 results for teen books. J.K. Rowling doesn’t have a copyright on the fantasy/magic genre.

That being said, your book would have to be unique enough to stand out from all of the other people trying to write the next Harry Potter series. Even if what you write is different enough to not infringe on copyrights, it has to be special to be successful. Or not. Look at how well those crappy Twilight books have done!

You might want to look at other popular series of a similar nature and see what’s popular and what might be missing.

As long as you do not borrow elements of the Harry Potter plot, you are free to do a wizard book.

Have different spell, different characters, and a very original storyline.
Everyone will compare, so have nothing that resembles anything by JKR.

If you’re inventing a different fantasy world, then it’s not copyright infringement. There are thousands of books and probably millions of stories about wizards.

You may want to avoid doing things that are very similar to popular stories you know of, though, not because you will be sued (you probably won’t) but because it will feel too much like the other story.

For examples:

* A story about a young wizard-ess who lives in a world with magic and who studies at a magical academy and has various adventures and coming-of-age issues could be very unique and would be the same genre as Harry Potter, but nowhere near a copyright infringement.

* If an episode in that story has a room full of flying keys, and the wizard-ess notices one has a broken wing from being handled, snatches it and runs as the other keys start chasing her, and she closes the door just in time, and the pursuing keys all hit the door right after… that also would not be copyright infringement. It would just be weirdly and annoyingly copying a scene from Harry Potter, and would make everyone groan. So you wouldn’t be sued, but you might be disliked, so I wouldn’t recommend that. You could have flying keys though if you wanted.

* If you use the exact same setting, and/or call the school Hogwarts, then you’ll be writing derivative or fan fiction, and would want to get permission, or you might get threatened, or sued if you tried to sell it. So ask or look for permission (or don’t sell it) if that was what you wanted to do.

Unless there are astounding similarities it’s very unlikely it would be considered copyright infringement. There are hundreds of books on wizards, gryphons, magic, tree squids, flammable candycanes etc etc. The human imagination is truly remarkable and we can’t be punished for sharing some elements of it from time to time :)