OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
I've just been through a massive rebranding process: re-titling and re-covering the first 3 books in my ARKANE series, and updating the back matter for all the other books.
A hefty amount of work!
Here's why and how, just in case you want to go through this sometime. It's quite a long, confessional style of post. I'm ‘fessing up to my mistakes, so be gentle with your comments!
First up, here are the awesome new covers: Stone of Fire (previously Pentecost), Crypt of Bone (previously Prophecy) and Ark of Blood (previously Exodus), designed by the wonderful JD Smith Design.
So, why change my fiction book titles anyway?
Basically, none of us know what the hell we're doing when we start writing 🙂
Here's how my first book title journey went.
In November 2009, I joined NaNoWriMo in an attempt to write something fictional. Amusingly, I videoed the process – here's Day 1, and you can follow the whole journey here. The working title for the book on Day 1 was Morgan – and Morgan Sierra is still the name of my main character and alter-ego, so that hasn't changed.
Then I started to incorporate aspects of Carl Jung and psychology of religion into the book, and the working title became Mandala, after the patterns in Jung's Red Book which I was reading at the time. As I continued to write and edit over the following year, the title changed again to Pentecost – based on the pillar of fire that (in my story) empowered the stones of the Apostles.
I have a Masters in Theology from Oxford University, and although I don't adhere to any religion, my interest in all things religious/supernatural/paranormal/spiritual/psychological drives my writing. Oh yes, and my favorite movie is Con Air, which explains why I blow so much up in my books 🙂
“From the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona to Castle Houska in the Czech Republic, no one destroys landmarks better than Penn. Despite her penchant for demolition, Penn's
GATES OF HELL is a must read. I enjoyed every page.” Amazon review from i Love Reading
I then decided that I would write books with titles that began with P in this series. So the next book was Prophecy – based on the prophecy in Revelation that a quarter of the world must die … (cue dramatic music) … and then I wrote Exodus, which doesn't even begin with P … you're getting the idea now that I didn't really have a clue back then!
At the time, I didn't do any kind of market research into the niche or my audience, or what the covers might look like, or what my target market would expect. I just ‘had a feeling' about the type of books I wanted to buy and read, and I buy anything with faintly religious sounding titles.
Back then, I knew a lot about non-fiction marketing, but nothing about how to market fiction.
I published Exodus in December 2013 and I started questioning my titles at that point. I was getting some 1 star reviews saying that the books weren't Christian (they're not, even though they are respectful to all religions). I wanted to target the Dan Brown market – but I should have realized that his breakout book was called ‘The Da Vinci Code,' NOT ‘The Jesus Code.'
While my books are based on biblical history and archaeology, they are about as Christian as James Rollins, Simon Toyne, Steve Berry and others who write mainstream conspiracy thrillers/action-adventure. I have a lot of Christian readers who enjoy the stories, and I am respectful to all faiths in my books, BUT I am not a Christian and I don't write books that are specifically Christian.
So the next book I wrote was: One Day in Budapest. A much more mainstream title that encapsulated the fast pace and also the geographic element of the book. I've continued to write ‘Day' novellas and am very happy with those.
I make up titles for new books as I am getting ideas, and usually change them at least once before publication. For example, Day of the Vikings started out as Ragnarok. Gates of Hell started out as Inquisition.
I changed my ARKANE covers again in March 2014, after a number of articles about using people on the covers convinced me to do the same.
We added a Lara Croft style figure on the first 3 books, and also changed Desecration from a white, artistic, literary cover to something more befitting a crime thriller (as below).
All of this demonstrates how hard titles and cover designs can be when you do this alone.
As for the title change – essentially, I've been considering a change since Exodus came out and recently I signed with a new agent. We have lots of ideas for potential foreign rights markets and changing the look and feel of the series now will help with pitching. So I bit the bullet, made the changes and despite the pain, I'm really happy with the result.
So, what's the conclusion from all of this?
It takes time to get to know your own voice as a writer
It takes a few books to really get to grips with what you're writing, who you want to be as a writer, how you want your brand to look and also what your books even mean.
It also takes time to understand what your readers think about your books. Who do THEY compare your work too?
My VA, Alexandra, and I recently went through over 1000 reviews on my books to work this out. My readers compare my ARKANE series to Clive Cussler and Indiana Jones, as well as Dan Brown & Steve Berry – with a hint of National Treasure, James Bond, Daniel Silva, Matthew Reilly and Kate Mosse. I'm happy with that 🙂 and so we used those authors as models for the new covers.
Surprisingly, the whole process of working through what the ARKANE brand is has made me more comfortable in my thriller writer skin. Taking a step back has enabled me to evaluate where I am, where I'm going, what I want to write next.
Although I've talked previously about my shadow side coming through in my fiction, about how I am two people, I am finally feeling that I am becoming a more integrated soul. To illustrate this, I've just changed my JFPenn.com site and made the whole thing a lot more smiley. My books are actually really fun – yes, a high body count – but pacy and full of adventure. Just like Con Air 🙂
It's time I embraced the entertainment side of being a writer and stopped being so serious! (I'm going to blame Oxford and my literary upbringing for that!)
So how does all this apply to your author journey?
Best practices for book titles
For non-fiction – unless you are super famous/have a platform and people will buy anyway – use SEO/keyword research for some part of your title, either the main title or the sub-title. Read more on this here, when I retitled my first non-fiction book and sales jumped 10-fold.
Also, listen to this interview with Tim Grahl about using PickFu to test titles. This is also a great article on the truth about picking non-fiction book titles.
Fiction book titles are really difficult – so difficult that there are very few blog posts on it on the internetz. Fiction titles need to:
- Communicate a promise to the reader – which is further aligned to the cover images – which mesh perfectly with what the customer expects in the book. If there's anything that jars the reader in any imperceptible way, they won't buy.
- Resonate with genre – for example, literary fiction author Roz Morris commented on our podcast interview about a book she was originally calling Comeback, but actually that title was more like a thriller movie featuring Liam Neeson, not a literary masterpiece. So she changed it to Ever Rest.
Ultimately, the title, cover and description are your primary marketing materials for your book.
Yes, you need to write a great book. That's always the first thing. But if you don't nail those 3 elements, no one will pick it up or download a sample.
This is one of the mixed blessings of being an indie author – creative freedom means you get to title and cover your book how you want. And yes, you might get it wrong. Luckily, we get to change things if we want to.
One other thing, there is no copyright on book titles in English, so you can use a title that others have used. But I wouldn't publish a book called The Da Vinci Code or Jurassic Park. There is copyright on book titles in Germany and potentially other countries, so be careful with your titles in translation.
OK, let's get into the nitty-gritty details.
Won't changing the covers and titles confuse readers?
Readers can't download the same ebook twice, so as long as you keep the same numbers on the various stores e.g. ASIN on Amazon, then there won't be a problem. Also, you can add ‘Previously published as …' in all the important places.
The main issues have been print copies, as they require new ISBNs – but I gave the change a positive spin and did a giveaway of signed First Editions to my fiction email list (signup and free book here!) It was really popular and I got lots of positive feedback about the new covers and titles too.
Yes, you may end up annoying a few people but to be honest, I'm only 40 and I have many, many years of writing ahead of me. I want to position myself for the long term so I needed to do this now as I have more coming in the ARKANE series. Better to do it now rather than later, when of course, I become a 10 year overnight success 🙂
How to change ebook titles and covers
You don't lose reviews or rankings if you keep the same ID numbers on the various platforms e.g. ASIN on Amazon KDP. Just change your source files and metadata and republish. Add in an extra line ‘previously published as' so people don't get annoyed.
If you have lots of books, you will have to update the back matter and sales descriptions of all the other books as well to reference the changed books. It took me several days to do all this and it was extremely painful – BUT hopefully worth it! I also took the opportunity to add teasers about the next book in the series so hopefully that will also increase sell through.
Here's some more specifics per store.
KINDLE – It takes a couple of days for the cover to update even though the interior files will update really fast on the store. This meant that there were a few days where the title didn't match the cover and I held my breath expecting bad reviews. No way to get round that though and everything was fine. My author page looks awesome now 🙂
KOBO – No issues at all. Changes went through fine.
iBOOKS – No issues at all. Changes went through fine.
NOOK – The key field is on title, so you'll need to ask for their help. My sales have been so low at NOOK recently that I just went ahead and lost my history and reviews. If you have a huge audience on NOOK, then this might make you think twice about re-titling, but re-covering is no issue.
SMASHWORDS – No issues at all. Changes went through fine.
How to change print book titles and covers
Unfortunately, a title change means new ISBNs which means new files. You need to unpublish the old ones. Make sure you order a few copies for posterity. You never know, they may be valuable one day!
I use Createspace and free ISBNs so I created new projects for all 3 books, changed the interior and cover files and republished.
Link the new versions through Amazon Author Central and ask them to unlink the old ones. You can never get rid of the older editions in that they will be available as secondhand, but you can make sure the new books are linked to the Kindle version with all the reviews on.
I also updated the print files for all my other fiction books with the name changes as part of the series in the back matter and took the opportunity to update my Author Bio and other small things while I was there.
How to change audiobook titles and covers
My audiobooks are published through ACX and it has been a bit of a pain. It should be simple enough. Contact the help at ACX and ask for changes to the projects. Send them the updated cover, opening and closing credits and that should be it.
Unfortunately, because I sent 3 at the same time, the helpdesk got confused and loaded the wrong title and cover to the two of the books. I'd suggest this wouldn't be an issue with just one book – and it worked out fine in the end.
Was it all worth it?
Yes, indeed, although I suspect I will be updating links on this site for years to come. I needed to take a good look at my fiction brand and the new covers and titles give me a good base going forward. As the first 3 books in the series, they are super important and STONE OF FIRE is my permafree title, so it needs to look good. I'm confident that my agent will be able to take these to foreign markets and overall, I am super happy with the changes.
What do you think? This has been a megapost, so please join the conversation and let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Thanks for this article, Joanna. I’m thinking of changing a title and you’ve answered all the questions I wanted to ask. Very useful.
Glad you found it useful 🙂
Hi Joanne
Thanks for sharing your experience. I’m the author of twenty books in fourteen languages; I’ve been focusing on my book Living with Loss: Meditations for Grieving Widows for the past few years. I’ve recently adapted the book for grieving widowers as well, and of course, as is always the case, what started as what I assumed would be a simple gender edit turned into an almost 30 percent updated and revised version. We all know what a nightmare it is to have to confront the work you wrote ten years ago, but in the end, you have a far superior book.
I decided to retitle the book and have a new cover made. I am planning to give the book to CreateSpace (it was originally published in 1999 at Dell Books, I reverted the rights and self-pubished it and have been selling it as a third party seller through Amazon Seller Central since updating it in 2006, so this is actually the third publishing). CreateSpace told me that since the cover of the book says REVISED VERSION of Living with Loss, it would not require a new ISBN. But if I’m understanding your comments, it sounds as if any trade paperback versus an e-book, requires a new ISBN. Can you possibly clarify this for me? Thanks so much and continued success on your work.
Warm regards,
Ellen Sue Stern
ellensuestern.com
ella88220@gmail.com
612.910.9126
Hi Ellen Sue – I don’t use ISBNs for ebooks – it’s not necessary. I use free Createspace ISBNs for print, and you need a new one if the title changes or the contents are more than 10% different. I can’t really advise any more than that – you’d be best off going with whatever Createspace advise.
Hi, Joanna. I’ve now put all your advice into action and the change was just as easy as you said. It’s effective too – Alien Sheep is selling much better than The Green Sheep ever did. Thanks again.
This was SO helpful! I was wondering if I could just change the title or if I had to re-launch it as a brand new book. I didn’t want to lose my great reviews, and didn’t want to confuse readers. Reading about your experience helps to clear things up about changing the title.
However, one reason I considered re-launching and publishing as a new title is because I heard that amazon prefers new books over 1 year old books. What do you think about starting over and re-launching a book? Have you tried that yet? -or- What about keeping the old book with the old title and publishing the same book again with a new title? Have you had any experience with this or heard of anyone else’s experience with this sort of thing?
Thanks Joanna! You Rock!
On the newness of books, I think that might be true for non-fiction in that customers will often seek more recent titles, but for fiction, I’m not so sure. Most of us with series will always promote first in series, even if the book is older, as it gets people in the ‘funnel.’
That was helpful and interests.I changed a cover in Jan to try and reflect my brand and genre. You made me think even more about what type of writer I am.
Unfortunately, I’ve come to the conclusion that I must change the title of my second non-fiction book, since sales are 1/3 of the first (same niche), but I expected it to be the other way around.
I thought my play on the “What to Expect” books was genius for title of a first-of-its-kind guide for parents of kids with ADHD, but it turns out it’s quite confusing.
I have figured out I need a new ISBN for print, and I am bummed. I have sales data and good reviews. You said though, “you can make sure the new books are linked to the Kindle version with all the reviews on” — how do I do this exactly? Will it work when changing the Kindle title too? Can I change the kindle title without a new ISBN for that version? I won an award on the old title too, but I’m running with it, since I’m only changing part of the title (WAS: What to Expect When You’re Not Expecting ADHD”, WILL BE: “What to Expect When Parenting Children with ADHD”).
I’m finding this whole process incredibly overwhelming, especially changing it with LightningSource, since I have books on the shelves of some BN stores and a few others. Do I have to submit to their small press division all over again?
Yikes!
So glad I found your article and know it can be (and should be) done. The positive spot is that my cover art is fantastic and doesn’t need to change.
To link new versions to your Kindle book, just log onto Amazon Author Central and email the Help that way – you can get a response within 24 hours once you give them the Kindle ASIN and the print ISBN
Thank you!! This article couldn’t be more informative. I’m about to go through the same process with my spy thrillers. My marketing ideas, while unique, were pretty self-indulgent. I may be able to write for myself, but I need to market for my reading audience and I didn’t do that. So, I’m having a change of heart. I’ve already come up with some new titles and plan to get them re-edited and develop entirely new covers. So, I really appreciate you sharing your experience. It will certainly save me a lot of headaches in the coming weeks.
Great stuff on changing titles. I just published sever books on Amazon Kindle, all part of a series, and have been considering changing the titles already. Your insights have been a big help.
How about your books and reviews on Goodreads? What effect does changing your titles have there? I wouldn’t want to lose the reviews my books have on Goodreads.
Philip, I am actually having a bit of a problem with Goodreads….have just changed my book title/cover (all went well with Amazon transition, kept all my reviews). Also retained my reviews and ratings on Goodreads, BUT they have kept the old title/cover as the sort of “default.” In fact, I have not been able to run Goodreads ads because when I try to make an ad it shows the old book…….have asked GR for help but received no response so far.
K.S.R. Burns, I just had that same exact problem with Goodreads. And my suggestion is to keep pressing with Goodreads until you get a response. If you’re a librarian the quickest way to get a response is to leave a change comment at the bottom of the edit details page. I got a response the next day. What they did for me is set my new cover as the default for all versions so now it shows up on my author profile and elsewhere. But that has to be done in the background. NOW, my problem is getting the old paperbacks de-listed from amazon/createspace. I’ve sent emails and they are still listed. What a pain.
Ah, good to know I’m not the only one, K. L. Brady! The funny thing is that Goodreads just sent me one of those “how did we do?” surveys, asking me to rate my experience with their service. Hilarious, as they never even responded to my query! I will continue to try….. Thanks for cluing me on the right words to use (set the new cover as the default). Changing title and cover can be harrowing but I’m hoping it’ll be worth it.
Thanks, Joanna! I just need to change my cover images and back matter on three fiction novels, and this has been helpful.
Thank you for your transparency. I’m just getting started, having self-published in October, and I’m contemplating changing my novel’s title because of it’s difficulty. People love the book. Don’t know how to pronounce it. (Like you said, none of us know what we’re doing when we first start writing:)
I’m assuming that, since I’ve not provided any companies with my print ISBN number yet, I can simply rename the book, redesign the cover, and use a new ISBN. However, I’d like to know if you noted on your revised back matter the previously published book names? If not, where did you note the change?
I just put Previously Published as … inside the book 🙂
Great to read! Currently, I’m in the process of doing the same thing with my first book now that I have a few more in the series.
Hi, Joanna! Your post came just a fraction late and would have been super helpful a couple of months back! I also write books with a religious theme or premise but which aren’t really religious at all. My books are science fiction and I have a female lead (not Lara Croft, but close!). I’ve just changed the covers (which I now love) but only tweaked the title. I wish now I’d looked a little deeper into that aspect. I get some wonderful reviews and the odd one-star which used to upset me, but doesn’t any longer, but sales are muted. Ah, well – back to the drawing board!
Thanks for publishing this.
Your article was the reinforcement that I needed. Thank you…
Exactly!
I have always known Joanna to be exciting but this is just over exciting ?
I was most interested to read this since I am contemplating re-doing covers for my first three books–a trilogy. After perusing the genre I came up with a simpler design–all 3 the same just with slightly different colors–and the title will be changed as well to one word (original title of trilogy) and then book I book II book II and so on to allow me to go on with the series which was originally three book titles and a trilogy name–do you think having it just be under one name and different book numbers will work?
great stuff and thankfully a wonderful soul referred me to these pages at just the right time. Many thanks
Thank you so much for the valuable information. I am in the process of changing my title and cover and this is very helpful!
Once again, I Googled a fiction problem and got your website as a solution… 🙂 and if it’s nonfiction I get Joel Friedlander–you both title your posts in such a way they nail the issues to be solved. Thank you a hundred times over.
This article is an example in point. Five minutes ago I decided t o go ahead and change the title and cover to one of my books. I knew changing covers was no issue–but the actual title? Yet the current book was getting no traction–it had to change. So I typed into Google “Can I change the title of of my Kindle ebook?” and voila–this page appears. You were the fourth entry down–the first three being Amazon KDP, none of which addressed the issue directly or helpfully. (That’s out of 1,520,000 responses… )
Now for the exciting part of seeing what change results I get… 🙂
Thank you again.
That’s because Joel F and I did the same blogging course back in 2008 and learned about SEO (search engine optimization)! It pays to use SEO titles on books and blog posts 🙂
Joanna, you are very generous for sharing your journey with us. Although I’m not in a position to change any book titles – none published yet – your story has given me valuable insight into the process of choosing both my planned series name and the individual book titles and a few hints on cover design.
Thanks for this. I’m considering doing exactly the same thing. I need to rebrand and change some titles. I’m glad to hear that someone like you did it.
This is exactly what I needed, Joanna.
Two questions:
How do I handle retitling the Spanish version of an English book? When I published it, I used a literal translation of the title. I had some apprehensions about it, and they’ve been confirmed. The title is long and confusing. So I’ve since changed it and I think I have a winner.
How do I handle the advance reviews inside the book? Just change the title? Contact the advance reviewers?
Thanks for your help, Joanna.
Daphne
Thanks so much Joanna!
This is just what I need…… Everything about this article speaks to me and I am so happy that I found it now that I am considering changing the title of my second book.
The fictional book is on girl child education and being a Nigerian and with the “religious boundaries” my target audience would consider before opting for the book, I have been advised by those who wants to help me push the book into the educational curriculum to change the book title. Good thing is, I just launched the book and yet to order bulk print, though I have sold hundreds of the print copy.
The book cover is awesome but I have come to understand that the title and subtitle, won’t go down well with the Muslim scholars in my country.
Thanks once again for this wonderful piece that’s taken care of all my fears!