Dust It Off: The Author's Guide to Book Resurrection

I got my final interior proof for the Amazon Author Formula workbook . It looks really cool and what we're going to do with this workbook is that . So there's a whole lot of fill-in stuff , right , because by nature it's a workbook .

There's a whole lot of fill-in stuff and the designer is going to create a PDF file that is an exact replica of the book right , but where you can go in and you can fill out stuff . So you don't have to worry about making , even if you buy a print book . You don't have to worry about writing all over the book .

You can just access this PDF and fill it out to your heart's content , because there's a ton of like worksheets and all kinds of stuff to kind of get you to where you really understand all this .

You know the Amazon stuff and the mystery and all the kinds of things that we do here at Author Marketing Experts , and I like the idea of the PDF because it it , when it lines up with the book , it's much easier to follow right .

Yes , because otherwise you have all these worksheets and you're like , oh , I have to go , because initially I had designed all those worksheets and so I'm very , I'm very excited about that and I think it's going to be . It's probably going to be out , I would say , in the next , I don't know , maybe even 90 days . I can't believe it .

It's amazing when an idea and I speak to everybody who's listening right now it's amazing when you have this idea . Speak to everybody who's listening right now . It's amazing when you have this idea .

This is something that literally started just with some people , not even connected necessarily to the publishing industry , and I was sort of talking about the book and I really liked the book and somebody just piped up and said you should do a workbook . I thought , oh , I should do a workbook and then a year later , here we are .

So it's interesting when you kind of get that idea in your head and then not all ideas are worth putting on paper . We know that , we've talked about that , but I think this one is going to do really well , segues in nicely to what we're talking about today , which is breathing new life into older titles , your backlist , because we have authors in both camps .

We have authors who come to us . Either they come to us with one book that maybe came out a year ago and they something happened . They didn't do anything with it , life happens , work happens , whatever , and now they're at a place where they can spend focus , put some attention on it , but now this book is a year old and what do they do ?

So we're going to talk about that . We're also going to talk about if you have an old like you may have one older title in it and a new one that just released . Can you do something with that older title ? And you may have multiple older titles , which in publishing is referred to as a backlist , and how can you revive those ?

Because your shelf the shelf that you know all of your books , however many you have , every book can help to promote every other book and I think Amy , I'd love to get your take on this too I think a lot of authors really overlook that right .

It's amazing what you can and we talk about this a lot Sorry , now I'm like all the things , but we talk about this a lot too is that , as you're listening to the show , as you're doing more research , as you're learning , you know , if you treat your backlist not as this or a title that languished like , not as something that you screwed up on , but as a

new opportunity to do things right , you know what I mean . I think that's one of the best mindsets you can get in , versus getting dragged down by what didn't happen .

Or you know what I mean Like we're going to go through some checks and balances to make sure that everything you know a little bit of housekeeping in terms of before you start spending money on marketing or putting time and energy in the marketing . You know we always have your back .

We want to talk about what , the potential roadblocks or what could potentially be holding you back . That's very fixable .

But then treating this like a brand new opportunity and honestly , penny , it's kind of a great way to build your marketing muscles too right With the , with the title or with something that languished a little bit , because it's a great way to get better at marketing too , because it's always scary to think that you're stumbling around for a new release , whether it's

your first one or your fifth one . But putting some time and energy into figuring out some of these great marketing strategies and some of these tweaks that you can do , you're going to learn so much , and the pressure is not quite as high as it is for a new release , you know .

Like we always talk about it all matters and especially if it's already out there , that's your image to potential readers , potential buyers , and so , good , bad or otherwise , we want to see what potential buyers are seeing , because that's the best way for us to give you recommendations , step in , potentially , things like that .

So we talk about it all the time , but you got to look at your book the way a reader does . How is your cover Right ? And I know y'all probably tired of us talking about covers . But if everybody's cover was just beautiful and amazing and made us fall out of our chairs , we'll shut up about it .

But the reality is there are still , and it's not always , and I don't want to say like sometimes it's the author's fault , like I don't want to say it like that , but truly sometimes authors get steered in the wrong direction by other third parties and other people in the industry .

I think , penny , you know like tough love is sometimes so much better than just saying like , yeah , it's fine , or yes , we'll do it , or we've talked with y'all about pushing back if you're using a publishing service or even if you hired a cover designer . If it's not , do your own research and know what's working in the industry .

Don't completely trust anybody about anything . I think that's really important and I think that's what leads to a lot of mismatched or not so great covers is that authors trust that whoever's doing it is tracking and knows all the things . But that's not always the case .

So you have to be your own best advocate for your cover and really know what's working out there . You know what looks good . I mean , everybody listening , I'm sure you've seen a cover where you've gone . Damn , that's an amazing cover , you know . Yeah , like that's the reaction you want . Yeah , for sure .

I mean , the cover is terrible , the book description is terrible , like all the things like this , literally this , this , whatever this publisher did , did not give this book a leg up at all , and and now this book is older and so this is a really good , this would be a really good opportunity for this author to , you know , basically just revamp all you know ,

revamp all the things and kind of pretend that all never happened Right , I mean because sometimes we just , sometimes books just have a rough start . I mean there's no other way to say it really .

But sadly it can be , because the people that are on the receiving end on the reading end , the buying end they are experiencing what's going on in the world too , and there's no a perfect time to release a book . So we never recommend that authors hold off for the perfect time to release a book , because that really doesn't exist .

Obviously , you could be unprepared or prepared that's a thing . But you can't control everything else going on in the world . So don't rely on that to tell you when to release a book . But the reality is sometimes it's just unfortunate timing and you didn't have any control . There's nothing you could have done differently . Yeah .

You know , like the guy that I talked about , even just changing the cover on that book , I think would really , because the book is quite good , would really help to boost the sales on it .

You know what I mean for like , for nonfiction and for my books , and it's one of the reasons actually that I stopped writing my social media book , because everything changed all the time and it was very difficult to keep up with it .

Okay , but in some cases , with particular to nonfiction like , you may just have like I don't know , mentioning MySpace or something Like . If your book still mentions MySpace , it's probably like super , super old and needs to , you know . But sometimes it's just a matter of like .

Maybe the cover's great and the book did really well , but it's time to , you know , update it to get rid of old terminology that makes the book seem very dated . Yes , because unless you've written historical or historical fiction . It's really hard to get away with , like it's really hard to sound like an authority if you have a chapter on MySpace . I mean .

I realize that's kind of an extreme , but you know what I mean .

You know , and that's another reason why and this is an entirely separate show and we've done shows on this before too but that's another reason why and this is an entirely separate show and we've done shows on this before too but that's another reason we push so hard , especially for nonfiction authors to be an authority elsewhere other than just your book .

You know , your book is a great way to open the door . It's a great way to show that you were in it for the long haul . But getting your voice , your opinion , your unique point of view out there in other ways is a great way to kind of combat the fact that your book does end up being a time capsule of sorts . You know , yes .

Because the other thing , though , too , is that Amazon I know this is a really weird nerdy thing to tell y'all , but Amazon does pay attention to new covers . So something as simple as a new book cover can really help to boost the visibility of your book , because it appeases the Amazon algorithm .

And I always say , when I teach the Amazon optimization classes , I always talk about how the Amazon algorithm mirrors Google , and we know that Google is very image , you know . I mean it's very video driven , but it's also very image driven .

So Amazon's much the same way , and you used to be able to add images to your retail page , and that's unfortunately gone away . Obviously , I'm still talking about it , so I'm still a lot over it , but the new cover it's . I know I'm going to say it's simple . I know it doesn't feel simple to design a new cover , but a new cover can really change .

And , amy , we talk about this a lot with authors who have a series of books where they don't look like they're all part of the same series , right , and that's a really good example of . Here's an opportunity to make them all look uniform .

I always try to ensure authors that this is what we would recommend because we want you to get the most out of your marketing investment . You know and we know what works for readers and for book discovery and things like that , and I let authors know . This doesn't mean we aren't going to help you , but this would help you whether you work with us or not .

And the covers the mismatched cover concepts across the series is a huge one because it matters . You know . Again , like we said , there are every one of us talking , listening right now , has seen a cover that they've been really impressed by , and the same thing happens for a series .

You know there's something very powerful about having a really well tied together series and cover imagery and things like that , and it just skyrockets your level of professionalism as perceived by a potential buyer for sure .

And this is one of the reasons why , when I talk to an author who knows that they're going to write a series , a lot of times I'll tell them have a designer , at least mock up all of the books in a series , Because it's amazing when you start to look at and I've actually seen this with my own books . So we completely rebranded .

When we changed the name from the how to Sell Books by the Truckload , I almost forgot the old name already . I was like tooth and nail right . Getting rid of that name was really hard for me to do , and now I can't even think of it . But when we rebranded those books , I kind of had sort of the same .

I had the same revelation , right that I painted myself into a corner . The restylizing the new cover was not an easy process , but I'm very , very glad that I did . When I look back through some of my older you know some of my older titles I'm like , oh my gosh , part of me wants to redo those covers , but the content is also older .

So that's another decision that you kind of have to make , right ? Yes , exactly , so the older books don't matter as much , and that's part of . Earlier on in this podcast we talked about the deciding factor .

That's the other deciding factor , Because I'm not going to go back and update , for example , my Pinterest book , because I don't even know if we're on Pinterest anymore and literally with everything out there , with TikTok and all this other stuff , nobody even talks about Pinterest anymore . So that's a business decision .

And again , you don't have to necessarily do complete designs if you're doing a series , but just have them mock up what the series might look like .

Because I'm telling you right now , when you look at books , when you have to mimic like you may fall in love with the book cover and then you get to book two and you're like , oh my gosh , I'm stumped , I don't know what to do , whereas if you had left yourself a little bit of flexibility with book one , book two would be .

It would be easier to create something that looked like it belonged in the same family . Does that make sense , amy ? Am I even ? You can just shut me up , because obviously I'm .

If you actually and I think we don't mention this enough , penny is that if you actually think of your own buyer behavior , like what you notice when you are deciding whether or not to buy something , especially from a brand you're unfamiliar with and if you think about it that way as an author , you know , unless you're selling to a pretty healthy size of return

buyers , you're a new brand . Yeah , you know , they don't know you from the next author . And so really put yourself in the consumer's shoes and think about all the things that you consider and what impress you and things that maybe don't impress you .

You know , when you're making buying decisions not just book buying decisions , but buying decisions in general and use that to fuel what you can do better with your own brand , with your own retail . You know presence and things like that , and it really will probably make a huge difference .

You know , penny , I hate to keep using you as an example , but the Amazon stuff , your Amazon books , you could not ignore for two years , realistically , and then go back and try to pretend like everything's brand new because you have time to market it . That's just not the reality of the topic . So there's definitely you have to think about one .

Am I really in a position where I need to update content in order to put the best version of what I have to offer people out there ? Yeah , and Penny , you know much more about the technical requirements in terms of Amazon , so I won't go there . But I know that and this is something also too that anybody listening that really needs to consider this .

I would suggest doing a consulting session or something like that , just to really make sure you have your ducks in a row and T's crossed . I's dotted Because there's different ways to go about it .

I know in terms of refreshing , updating , whether you get into new ISBN territory and things like that , right , so there's really so many different variations , yes , and it doesn't always have to be super extreme , but you should know what you're getting into , as you know what I mean at the start of this , like what's really required versus what can you get away

with with some refreshing .

However you did it , amazon will keep your existing retail page , which means that , let's say , you have 500 reviews or something . You're not gonna lose those reviews . But just like you know , like people always say , well , check with your own counsel before you decide to do this .

I would definitely call Amazon and just make sure that , because Amazon changes , because we've done a ton of shows on Amazon , so you know Amazon changes all the time .

So because if I were going to go in right now and as my workbook is releasing , and go in and update the Amazon author formula , I would be hesitant to do that unless I called them and just said hey , so what's the ? You know where's the line in the sand here ?

Because otherwise you basically have to have a whole new retail page for your book and in some cases that's going to be fine , right , that's going to be fine , right . So I might sit with this for a while and say you know what the Amazon author formula just needs a whole new refresh , needs a lot of work .

I'm just going to get a whole new page and re-release that book , great right . But you kind of have to make that determination . Now for fiction . Obviously , this is different . So we have fiction authors who have older books that are , that have references to like old pop culture things . You know what I mean Like , but not old enough to be cool , yeah Right .

And again , if you're writing historical or historical fiction , that's fine . But if your book is supposed to be set present day and you're referring to Oprah Winfrey having her talk show , that's a problem . You know what I mean , because she had that talk show and whatever . So I think that it's .

You know , we did the book bundle show and I want to say that it landed last Friday , but it may have landed the week before , I don't know .

But if you missed that , go back and take a look at that , because the book bundling is another way to update your content , to update your , your library , to pay some attention , give some love to your backlist , that kind of thing . Yes , absolutely . Um , did I miss anything on on that ? Because , again .

I know we have this is a long show , but we also have a ton of notes , I know .

She is lovely and she , based on some reviewer feedback , was actually you know , she could have just been devastated , but she said you know what she's like , I was excited to get this book out there . It was my first book and she had , I think , two more books ready to roll . You know what I mean .

So she was really ready to get out there and this was her first one and , based on some reviewer feedback , she kept a good attitude and she said you know , they're probably right . You know what I mean . She's like it was my first one . I think the two that I have ready to go now are even better than that one .

And she said I think I am going to go back through it and just do another read through , get back in touch with my editor and just do that , because she's like I love . She loved the story , she believes in her story . The reviews were actually pretty positive , other than some technical stuff .

You know what I mean Like they love the concept , but there were some technical things to fix . And this is a really great time to ensure , if you're going to give your book a second chance or if you want to revive some interest in it , like everything else we've mentioned , just make sure it's really the best version that you're putting out there .

And this is a great time to say , okay , I was ready to go with or I put this book out . I was ready to go . It was out a year ago and I didn't do anything with it . And I'm ready to do something with it . But why not ? Before you start drawing a ton of attention to it and investing in marketing , just do a double check .

That is absolutely the best version of that content or that story that you're ready to put out there . Again , once you start telling people it's there , you can't unring that bell . They're going to see it , they're going to read it , they're going to review it . You know what I mean and this is not a cross your fingers moment , you know .

So sometimes this might be the silver lining of a book not taking off right away or getting ready to dig back into your backlist and see how you can revive interest in those is a chance to do things better , you know , and this in your content is another one , right exactly .

This is really the exercise of do I need to update ? Am I going to update you know and all and making all those decisions . This is really the fun part , in my opinion .

So , create , you know , adding , make sure that your Author Central reflects not just the fact that you uploaded this new book , but make sure that your bio on Author Central reflects the book you know new book title if you changed it .

Whatever your social banners , your website , all your you know your social media channels I think I said that already , but those kinds of things are really fun , they don't take a lot of time . But I think once you get to that point , you're like , oh yeah , and it you know , and then you can .

You can plan your you know , plan your launch , you know , plan your launch , your relaunch and and I think you'd be really surprised at how well the book that , the book or books that you wanted to give up on are actually doing , once you , you know , kind of breathe new life into them .

You know because it's there , it's created and it's you know what I mean . It's plugging along , but it's amazing how often authors forget to update their website . And that's another one kind of like covers . You know what I mean . The bar does get higher as people get more tech savvy , you know , as more is done online .

So a website that was created , you know , five years ago , but definitely 10 years ago , could probably use a little bit of the makeover or some housekeeping , just because there's . It's amazing how simple it is , especially if you work with somebody that knows how to get in or do that stuff .

I realized if you made your own website the first time , you're thinking I don't want to do that again , don't Hire someone , let them come in .

But it's amazing how easily , with a few tweaks , you can take a website that looks maybe a little dated or unloved and get it looking really sharp , and it's not about making it more complicated , it's just about keeping it up to date and modern in terms of what the market expects to see , if that makes sense .

I mean , I think if you're going to go , if you're going to go out and you're you know , if you're going to re-release these , if you're going to do , if you're going to go through all this work , then make sure , and you know , if you're going to re-release these , if you're going to do , um , if you're going to go through all this work , then make sure , and

you know , update all these collateral pieces , and I think that you'll be really glad you did . Uh , just , let's , just let's breeze through , cause I know we've been talking for a while and and I um , I know I hope hopefully everybody's seeking copious notes , creative add-ons for extra buzz . I love this . We'll just take them one at a time .

Companion workbook I'll take the first one . Sorry , amy .

I am telling you right now , if somebody loves your book , they're going to love your workbook . And especially if you have a topic , that where you can create some deep dive experience of that experiences for them , the workbook is a great idea .

The workbook that I created and this is not an advertisement for my book , cause it's not even up for sale yet but the workbook that I created was specifically created not just to be a companion book but also to be its own . It can potentially like if you don't want to buy the first book , that's fine .

It's a standalone book that addresses not just the stuff that I , you know in the Amazon author formula , but then dives deeper into other elements , right , and I think that's really what a workbook should be . So workbook should to some degree mirror as a companion book , but then it should also be its own like .

It should have its own kind of oomph to it , and that's that's where I think these the workbooks can do really well .

But you know , anytime you go to an author's author central page just to see what they've put out there , it always you are going to generate more interest if you show that you've been around a while or that you're there to stay and that you're a sure thing . So this is not to make debut authors stressed at all , you'll get there , but it really does matter .

So when you think like , oh , do I really need to make debut authors stressed at all ? You'll get there , but it really does matter . So when you think like , oh , do I really need to make you know a print edition if it was ebook only , or vice versa , maybe you thought initially no , people typically like print .

If you know my market likes print , why not make an ebook ? You know it's not expensive ? Like , just do it . And then large print is another one . There are a lot of demographics where large print is very much welcome and people seek it out . So do your research , see if that's another option for you .

But what's great about these extras that we're talking about is that it's a new release . New release , you know , yes , you're refreshing your old one , but you're going to have a brand new . You know publishing date If you have , if you haven't released a print edition or an ebook previously , or a large print edition yeah , that's what's really fabulous .

So you kind of get a twofer you're . You're breathing new life , you're fixing things , you're making things better for your backlist or for a title that languished , but then you also have an opportunity to release a different edition of that .

Then you're kind of coming at it from both angles , with both a version with a new release and a version that's better than the first version that went out previously .

And an example of this is like a coffee table book which you're like oh my gosh , penny , you're not going to do a coffee table book in an ebook . That's silly , I get it . But owning more Amazon real estate is only going to benefit you and your reader may not want the ebook , they may like , but they could stumble on it .

And you have a lot of we have done shows on this , so I'm not going to belabor this , but you have lots of opportunities to promote an e-book that don't necessarily support promoting a print book , like doing e-book deals and things like that . So just some that's kind of food for thought , something to think about . Audiobook is the next thing , right ?

So in terms of just creative add-ons , I realize audiobook is sort of an expensive creative add-on , but you know you could also just refresh the intro or change the narrator .

We did a whole podcast on , because I'm such an audiobook nut we did a whole podcast on you know bad narrators and sometimes things happen and you maybe you you know couldn't afford , or the guy , the person that you wanted wasn't available and now is maybe a chance to revise that . Or , like I said , you can just refresh the intro .

But I mean , I think that's very beautiful , like if you write in a genre that is very popular with book clubs , that is such a cool concept to have an actual book club edition where you have a lot of extras built into the actual structure of the book .

But you know again , doing more for your potential readers and having more to offer them is always going to be appealing , would like , or that it fits in with what book clubs typically gravitate toward .

Then make sure you've had some really great discussion questions created , whether it's on your website , something you share on social media , something you share in your newsletter . There's so many great ways to do it . But doing that little bit extra that shows you're invested in the reader's experience will always benefit you .

They want to create like a collector's edition of the book , like maybe , let's say , you have a series and the series is finished and now you want to release the final one and you want to have a special collector's edition . I think that's a great . I think it's a great idea .

Special anniversary edition is probably more applicable to the majority of the folks who listen to us , because we've all probably been writing for a long time and so maybe a book that you wrote 10 years ago you're going to re-release it .

Right , you're going to re-release , you're going to update it , you're going to redo all the things that we talked about and then maybe create a special anniversary edition from it , which I think which I think is a really fun idea too yeah , very cool . I just think that you know you're sitting your backlist , even if it's just one book .

Like backlist oftentimes , oftentimes implies like multiple titles , but even if it's just one book , these are all hidden assets . They are goldmine for you .

Maybe , you know , don't a lot of times , authors that I talk to get really like oh , I didn't really do that good on my first book , and you know , it's one of those things where we learn as we go because there's also so much information . And sometimes I'll talk to authors like , oh , I wish I had known this .

X , y , z , whatever , you know , now's the time to implement that and release these books , and we really hope that this show has been helpful to you . The other thing I wanted to mention is be sure to subscribe to the show . If you just stumbled upon us , welcome . We're so glad you're here .

Yes , all of our shows are a mishmash of Amy and I just going back and forth , talking about all the things we used to do them like in year one , I think , and maybe even in year two . We used to do them very scripted , but I don't know .

This just feels this whole free-flowing back and forth just feels a lot more authentic and I think you get a lot more information out of it . So if you're a new listener , welcome . Be sure to hit the subscribe button . That way you'll get notified every time we release a show . We love reviews wherever you listen to podcasts . If you can't you know ?

If this system is giving you a hard time to upload it , we understand that . Then you're welcome to email us the review . We will put you up on our podcast website and thank you all so much for listening . We will see you next time . Bye-bye .