Reissuing Your Books: Helpful Tips
To quote the Jackson Five’s song “I Want You Back” circa 1970, (yes, I’m dating myself) that’s how I felt about my first two books. When you sign with a publisher, your contract will contain a term for the publication rights, meaning they hold the rights listed in the contract until that date. Depending on several things, you, as the author, may decide when the rights are available to you to take ownership of the rights for your book. That’s what I chose to do. My first two books, The To-Hell-and-Back Club, and Crazy Little Town Called Love, would become available to me in the summer of 2022.
I knew this, and for the past year, researched a lot on self-publishing—the pros and cons, the time and money—and felt like I’d swallowed a whale.
I’m of a certain age (see above reference to a song I “grooved” to in my youth) and only have so many functioning brain cells left. That said, I wanted to save them to focus on writing, not becoming the publisher of my books.
There are many successful self-published authors, and kudos to them for their vast knowledge. If you are an author, wondering what to do once your book rights are available, here’s the path of decision-making I took.
If you’re happy with your existing publisher, you can stop reading now. (Well, I’d rather you didn’t, but you could!) In other words, don’t fix what isn’t broken. If you’re looking for other options, the first question to ask yourself is, does your book have any life left? What have recent sales been like? How many years has it been out in the world?
My first two books did well and had enough reviews to keep them floating. I hadn’t promoted them at all in 2021, instead wanting to wait until I received my rights back. My third book’s publisher, Red Adept Publishing (RAP), doesn’t typically reissue books, so I worried Lynn, the owner, would pass on my first two books.
After A Life Unraveled came out in March 2022, I waited a few weeks before approaching Lynn to beg and plead ask if she would be interested in acquiring the books once I received the rights. Based on my previous sales and reviews, she agreed to take them on.
Here’s why she agreed to invest in reissuing the books. I had never applied for a BookBub deal, never took out Facebook ads or Amazon ads, and had done very little in promoting those first books. They had done well enough on their own, and so Lynn felt if she reissued them, there was enough potential for future sales through promotions and advertising. And with my third book recently out, we hoped the first two would find new readers who read A Life Unraveled.
Has the process been easy? Of course not. We wanted to make sure and keep the reviews posted on Amazon, and in order to do that, your reissued book should have very minor changes. If Amazon sees the page or word length change more than a little, you may lose those reviews. RAP ran my manuscript through read-through edits for minor tweaks, issued a new cover, and we were able to keep the coveted reviews. It was all transferred on Amazon’s time though, which meant kindle copies were available with the new cover while the print copies still showed the old cover and publisher for about another month. It’s not an all-at-once transition.
And that was the simple part. You never realize how many places your books are available until you have to switch them out with a new ISBN number for your reissued book! Some places are easier to work with than others, and it all takes time. As every writer has heard over and over, it’s another part of the book process that will feel more like a marathon, not a sprint.
Yet it’s a part that needs to be done whether you self-publish or reissue your book with another publisher. But if your book has as much life left as Betty White did in her later years, then the process is well worth it.–
Jill writes heartfelt stories about family, friendship, forgiveness, and fortitude. Perfect book club picks! She lives on a lake in Minnesota with her husband in their rarely empty nest where she is hard at work on her next book. She is the author of A LIFE UNRAVELED, CRAZY LITTLE TOWN CALLED LOVE, and THE TO-HELL-AND-BACK CLUB. When she isn’t writing or reading, you’ll find her running, curling, or enjoying some lake time with family and friends.
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A Life Unraveled
Kindergarten teacher Lily Gallo is a happily married mother of three who considers her life perfect… until the day she’s brutally assaulted while out on a run. When the town’s high school football hero is arrested for the attack, Lily’s family suffers retaliation from local sports fans.
Recovering from her injuries, Lily wraps herself in an opioid cloud. Later, a barely avoided tragedy motivates her to flush the narcotics. But her return to sobriety is overshadowed by unnerving memory lapses and her husband’s growing mistrust.
As unremembered events become more disturbing, Lily is convinced she’s being stalked. Though her attacker started the destruction of her life, someone else is determined to finish it.
Told with pitch-perfect pacing and unrelenting tension, A LIFE UNRAVELED had me hypnotized from the very first page. Anderson’s authentic characters deftly drew me in and yanked me through each breathtaking twist and turn.
Once you begin this unflinchingly honest portrayal of a woman fighting to reclaim her life, be prepared for an up all night, edge of your seat binge-a-thon.
– Heather Gudenkauf ~ New York Times bestselling author of The Overnight Guest
When Lily Gallo suffers a violent attack, shockwaves run through her small town. She struggles to recover, burdened by guilt and dazed by opioids. Whom can you trust when you can no longer trust yourself?
I was mesmerized by this suspenseful story, eager to learn what (or who?) was behind Lily’s turmoil and how she might knit her life back together. Anderson does a stellar job in creating genuine characters, imperfect like all of us. I feared for Lily, and cheered for her, and know you will, too. Revel in this well-paced, heartfelt story about family, failings, and forgiveness.
– Sonja Yoerg, Washington Post bestselling author of True Places and The Family Ship
“A Life Unraveled had me on the edge of my seat. A family drama with heart and soul, infused with a steady feeling of dread and suspense, this fantastic, gripping novel is about courage, communication, and forgiveness.
I instantly connected with the main character, Lily Gallo, as she struggles for normalcy after a brutal attack, and Anderson expertly conveys how violence affects not only the victim but also her family. Layered and believable, vivid and compelling, it’s a novel that perfectly showcases the beauty of an imperfect life.”
Samantha M. Bailey, USA Today and #1 national bestselling author of Woman on the Edge and Watch Out for Her
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Category: How To and Tips
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