Question

Sagml John · Nov 20, 2015

Uh oh, I’m getting a little light headed and treating this place like a confessional. Pubs do that to me. Anyway...

A couple of years ago, I finished--and had my wife proof--a 49K word literary fiction. I liked it and so did she (even though she’s my wife). Being impatient as hell, I painted a cover and uploaded it to KDP. I banked about 3 dollars from that experience and realized that I am as e-social as an Appalachian hillbilly. I did notify my few friends and got the complementary lip service—but that is the extent of my marketing.

I just wanted it to be seen but, no matter how fabulous the abstract (not saying mine was fabulous), it gets buried by millions of books. I finally realized that I should have gone traditional and tried to connect with an agent to begin with. So...

I unpublished. Now the problem. I pumped it up to short novel length and changed the name. I much prefer the old name but I would like to call it unpublished. All of five people may have read this from Amazon (there was a free week). There are two more (about 65K words apiece) sequels. I would like to publish the first one though.

Bad form to try to hide this? Am I worrying about nothing? Return it to KDB, write it off (pun not intended), and make the second one stand alone more?

Aggy B. · Nov 21, 2015

How much larger is the new version? It is sometimes possible to attract an agent or publisher for a book that has undergone significant changes from the self-published version. (Sometimes it possible to do it more than once. Ender's Game was originally published as a short story, a novella and eventually a novel. Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes was a novel-length take on his short story The Black Ferris Wheel.)

I would refer to it as an expanded version of <First Novel Title>, but save the full story of the self-pubbing for a conversation with an interested agent. (The lack of sales may work in your favor in this case because the readership hasn't been saturated or played out.)

That doesn't mean it can't be problematic, but I think it's worth a try.

Jamesaritchie · Nov 21, 2015

In this case, I wouldn't worry about published or unpublished. This isn't the issue, anyway. If it's good enough to make and agent and editor see dollar signs, then it's good enough to be pocked up.

You'll probably get all sorts of first rights gone replies here and there, but first right mean nothing unless another publisher owns them. It should be brought up to good novel length, but don't change the name unless you just want to do so. You still need to tell agents and publishers the history of the novel, they won't care, so why change the name?

Jennifer_Laughran · Nov 21, 2015

I agree with JAR. You're fine, don't fret. (I mean make it A GREAT NOVEL and everything - agents are incredibly picky - but your little foray into self-pubbing is not going to be a problem. No need to bring it up unless you are actually at a CONVERSATION stage with an agent - and even then, say "an earlier novella-length version" - it's no biggie. I mean it's not for sale anymore, right? THIS version was never for sale, right? You're fine.)

Sagml John · Nov 23, 2015

Thank you for your responses to this. I put it up there a couple of years ago for friends and family to beta--just to see if I should do this or not. I think I will go with the original name: "Joe Anonymous". It fits best though a publisher can call it whatever they want. I was just picturing: Would the agent actually google that title. I did. It was down a little ways but it was still there. What a pain! I unpublished it months ago -- it just can't be purchased. It still has the "look inside" bit.

You can un-publish from Amazon but it seems like that entry is there forever.

Question

Sagml John

figuring it all out

Aggy B.

Not as sweet as you think

Jamesaritchie

Jennifer_Laughran

knows what she's looking for when she finds it!

Sagml John

figuring it all out