Why should you consider relaunching your book?

Books go through several versions in the course of their lives. My books often look wildly different from rough drafts to finished products.

But once the book is out there in the world, the revisions might not be finished. Often different versions come out of the same story. For book collectors like me, this can be infuriating. I think we all have a few books that we consider to have ‘definitive’ versions. And sometimes those versions are just impossible to replace if something (cat) happens to them.

Or you get a copy of a book, and then you find out there’s another version that is so much cooler. But you already have one copy, and do you really need multiple copies of the same book? Then you decide it doesn’t hurt to have a few copies, and this is how you end up with five copies of Christmas Carol and not enough shelf space for this kind of foolish behavior.

There are several reasons a book might relaunch or come out with alternative copies. Some make a lot of sense, and some are regrettable. And if you are a self-published author, it’s something you might want to consider. Let’s talk about why.

Commemorative copies

Everyone loves anniversaries and milestone moments. Ten, fifteen and twenty-year anniversaries are a great time to relaunch a beloved book with a new forward, new cover, or extra content. Fans of books eat this sort of thing up, myself included.

While I wouldn’t necessarily do this for every book every ten years (that would be a lot) it can be a rewarding project for you to republish a book that’s meaningful to you on a big anniversary.

Movie and TV show tie-ins

I’ll be honest, this is my least favorite reason to relaunch a book. When content gets made into a show or movie, some wiseass in the promotional department usually suggests they relaunch the book with a new cover inspired by the new iteration. If I ever stumble upon a version of the Giver with the movie poster for its cover, I might set the damn thing on fire.

But, if you like the book and the movie, this might be fun for you. And if your story gets picked up for a movie or show, this could be fun.

New covers

Of course, sometimes covers just need to be redone. There are lots of reasons for this. While I love my covers for Seeming and You Can’t Trust The AI, they don’t match the rest of the series. Unfortunately, the fantastic artist who designed them wasn’t able to finish the series. And so I will, eventually, be relaunching that whole series with new covers that all match.

The other issue could be that the original covers are just bad. This isn’t usually anyone’s fault. I think we all want to give our books the best covers we can. But as we learn more, we can and should do better. I loved the cover for Station Central when I made it. But I think we can all agree that the one for Nova is a lot better.

Then, of course, there’s a situation like the one I’m in right now. I’m relaunching the Woven series, and one of the best things about that is giving them the new covers they’ve deserved for years.

And yes, a cover announcement is coming soon.

Expanded versions

Sometimes when books are traditionally published, they get cut by the editors because they’re just too damn long. Or maybe some scenes are perfectly fine, but offended someone’s sensibilities. Whatever the reason, sometimes good scenes get cut from books.

And sometimes, the writers this happens to get enough clout and respect to go back and correct those mistakes. This has happened with at least two books I enjoyed, The Stand and American Gods. I’ve read the original, and I’ve read the expanded versions. And I can honestly say I like the expanded versions better. But of course, when a book is good enough, it’s always too short.

New publisher

And of course, books will sometimes change publishers during their lives. Or international versions will come out under different publishers. Sometimes that means that someone else owns the artwork on the original cover. Sometimes it just needs updating for any of the above reasons and it’s just a convenient time to get it done. And sometimes the new publisher just wants to put their mark on the book, which is understandable. Marketing is important, after all, and building a brand is boring but crucial work if you want your company to continue to, you know, survive.

I’m sure I missed some reasons why a book might be relaunched. I’d love to hear about them in the comments. Or, if you know of a book that has one definitive version, let us know that as well.

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