Ever hear the saying ‘take the bull by the horns’? Sometimes
you have to do just that in order to make your dreams a reality. This post is
about publishing a backlist of books that have gone out of print with your
rights reverted back to you. Remember it is your career…no one else’s. It takes
a tough skin in this business and you have to have initiative and passion to
make it happen. No matter what rejections or delays come your way, know this—your out of print books do not
have to languish in obscurity.
Back in the early 1990s, I began writing after my cousin, a
world famous romance writer, handed me one of her books. I read it and the
desire to write stories rekindled in my being. First I wrote a novella, just to
see what I could do. Then I wrote my first full-length novel, and I was so wet
behind the ears that I had no idea about word count and ended up with a 150,000-word
manuscript.
In 2001, The Rebel’s
Pledge went to a print on demand company, and was out of print by 2005. I
went on to write and publish six more novels, and in the summer of 2011, I set
out to revise The Rebel’s Pledge according
to publishers’ guidelines, but had to set it aside for a time to work on The Daughters of the Potomac Series. My
then agent presented the idea of publishing my backlist of books, three in
total, to Kindle and CreateSpace, since I now have a following of readers. When
I discovered that well known authors, such as Robin Lee Hatcher, Kathi Macias, MaryLu
Tyndall, and Lena Dooley, were reissuing
their out of print novels, I was even more intrigued.
Late in the spring of 2012, I finished my revisions and
tightened up the book to 93,000 words. I decided to go ahead with it, with the
help of my husband Paul. He uploaded and formatted the file. My son designed
the cover. When I found a Charles I gown on a website made by a UK designer, I
emailed her and asked for her permission to use the gown on the cover. She was
more than happy to oblige, and I gave her credit in the book.
Now, with Kindle
they have templates you can use that will upload your title onto the one you
choose.
One piece of advice. Before you approve your Kindle copy,
upload the book to Create Space for paperback. Order a review copy, and check
your front and back cover, and inside layout. Sit down with red pen in hand and
carefully read through your hardcopy, circling anything you want to change. You
can go back to your book and make corrections before you approve it.
Here are the nuts and bolts of Amazon Kindle. Authors upload
their book, cover, and go through the steps toward approving their book for
Kindle. They set the price, although with Kindle Publishing Select there is a
low and high end price you can go. You own all the rights but with KPS you keep
your ebook version exclusive to Amazon Kindle. Authors received a 70% royalty.
Amazon has the Lending Library, and for each time your book is acquired through
LL, you receive a royalty depending on the amount Amazon has in an overall pot
and how many books are loaned out that month. Authors are given a 90-day window
to belong to KDP Select. During that time, you are given 5 days to offer your
ebook for free. What? Give it away? That’s right. Your ebook will get into the
hands of hundreds, maybe thousands of readers. You have a greater chance readers
will want your other books. The Rebel’s Pledge
hit the bestsellers list in its genre through this program.
I am now exploring Amazon’s audio book program. It would be
thrilling to have an audio version of The
Rebel’s Pledge. It is astounding to me but the ebook version of The
Rebel’s Pledge is out selling my other novels. It could be the price and word of mouth. It's only 2.99. Who knows?
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