when does a book cross the line into "previously published?"

If you want readers to know what's coming soon, why not just make a website for yourself? You'll want one anyway for readers and agents alike, and it's much less risk than assigning an ISBN and making an Amazon page for it.

Jeff Bond said:

I know agents prefer to work with manuscripts that aren't "previously published," such that the rights are all intact. When does a book cross into that territory? I've decided to go the indie route with my debut and its follow-up, but I may shop my third book to agents. I'm thinking about assigning an ISBN to this book #3 and potentially listing it on Amazon with a future release date -- to give my readers an idea where I'm going and what's next. I don't want to forfeit the traditional publishing route, though.

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It's "trade publishing", not "traditional".

Why, yes. I am pedantic!

Do either of these steps (assigning an ISBN, listing the title on Amazon) risk making a book "previously published?" What about taking it a step further and making pre-release review copies available through NetGalley? Could I still pull the book back before its official release date and preserve its unpublished status?

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I wouldn't do the ISBN thing. It does imply the book has been published, it won't give your readers anything they can't have without it, and it could cause confusion if you do go on to find a trade deal for that book.

Definitely don't release review copies. Not through NetGalley or anywhere else. If you do find a trade publisher they'll edit your book with you and the finished copy might well be significantly different to the version you put out for review, which could cause confusion; and you would definitely cause problems for your publicist and marketing people by doing this.

In short, I don't see that you'd gain anything by doing the things you're suggesting, and you might make things harder for yourself in the long run.

A book is considered published if it was ever on sale to the public or posted on a public website for people to obtain copies free or otherwise.

It's not always true that agents don't want previously published work. If that book was self-published and sold like hotcakes they would be interested. If it was previously published and flopped like a stone, not so much. If you don't have the numbers to impress then it's best to go with a brand new book when submitting to agents and publishers.

But self-published authors who sell well get offers for their existing catalogs all the time. They sell VERY well though so it's an exception and not the norm.

Also, the ISBN thing and posting it on Amazon makes NO sense. Sorry but this is beyond weird. If you're going to shop the book around, then shop it around and wait and see if you get a deal. The announcing thing would be okay if you were self-publishing this one but you say you wanna try to get an agent so... You don't need to be doing any of this if you plan on submitting to trades.

Why are you acting like you're self publishing your book and wanting to send it to agents? One or the other.

Jeff