Re-releasing when old versions still exist. Help.

AuthorSamantha

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Hi, I have a tiny issue. I had been with a publisher for the last 3 years and decided not to renew my contract and instead self publish my 2 books this time around. They pulled my books from Amazon, as I expected, but there are paperback versions of the book still listed on the site due to third party sellers. So now when I click on my author page on Amazon, it's going to look like I have 4 books, and the old ones are projects I'm not all that thrilled with (looks wise).

I can't get it removed because they are technically my books (that's what Amazon told me), so I was curious if there is a way to fuse them with my new versions, but have them not be at the forefront. Basically I would want the readers to click on my book pages, see the new versions of the paperback, but maybe somewhere lower is the "other edition" and you'd see the old versions (like Goodreads). I want these third party versions of the book to be tucked away someplace so I don't have to have them on display. I want readers focused only on the new editions.

Hope I was clear.
 

cmhbob

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Once you release the new editions, Amazon should automagically merge them. You might have to contact them if it doesn't happen after about a week.

At that point, the older editions will be tagged as being a previous edition of the work.

As part of the merge procecss, your reviews and such should move over. But be prepared, and copy all of them beforehand, especially the editorial stuff that appears with your book description.
 

AuthorSamantha

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Okay, thanks. I figured as much, I was just afraid that if I linked the books together that the outdated book would sort of override the new version of it.
 

M. H. Lee

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Also, once you have the new books out you can go to Goodreads and upload the new cover and change your books over so that they default to displaying your new cover. You can never get rid of the old versions, but at least you can have the new versions be the primary one that displays.
 

AuthorSamantha

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Yeah, I did that on goodreads a few days back. So if Amazon uses the old version in the same way Goodreads does, I'm happy.
 

Sydneyd

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I'd warn you to be prepared to prove your ownership of the re-released work. They may get pulled for suspected copyright infringement and it can sometimes be a PIA to prove to Amazon you own your own work.
 

cmhbob

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You should receive a letter from your publisher reverting your rights back to you. If you don't have that yet, ask for one. That should be all you need to prove ownership. When Booktrope shut down, I think fewer than 5% of the authors had any problems putting their books back up.
 

AuthorSamantha

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Thankfully they gave me a letter with my rights back almost immediately, and so far both of my books are on Amazon for pre-order and I've had no issues.