Editing Archives • ideas4writers

This is a follow-up article to How to beat Amazon’s book marketing system. In that article, we saw that Amazon gives your book a thirty-day boost when you first publish it. After that, if it hasn’t done well enough, it sinks without trace. But you can relaunch a failed book or series, and give it a second shot at success.

Why did it fail?

The first step is to think about why the previous book or series failed. It may have been through lack of marketing, or there might have been something wrong with the book or series itself.

Look at your reviews

Reviews are a good place to start, if you have any. Do any of the reviews point out problems? Is the story implausible or full of plot holes? Are the scenes poorly described? Is the plot too predictable (or too unpredictable), or too boring? Is the ending too easy to guess, or a complete let-down?

What about your characters? Could your readers pick them out in a crowd or a police line-up? If not, think about how you could better describe them to make them instantly recognisable. Are they the right characters for the story, the genre, and the market you’re aiming at? Would different characters make a better story or be more appealing to your readers?

NOTE: If you don’t have any reviews, we’ll look at how to fix that in the next article.

Get other writers to help

Have any other writers read your book? If there’s a writer’s group near you, it’s worth going along. The members will read your work and suggest improvements, and you can do the same for them in return. There are plenty of online groups too. If you’re a member of Facebook, search for a writer’s group in your geographic area, or in your genre or subject. Join a group and ask if anyone would be willing to read your book and help you fix the issues. Volunteer to do the same for other members. You might end up forming your own little private group where a few of you read and fix each other’s books.

Another option is to pay an editor to fix the problems.

Your book might just need a quick tidy up, or no changes at all. On the other hand, you might discover that it needs a complete rewrite. Hopefully it won’t take too long to fix the problems.

Fix the title

The next thing to look at is your book’s title. Does it grab your attention like a stunning newspaper headline? Does it make you want to immediately grab the book from the shelf to find out what it’s about? Can you tell what it might be about – or at least which genre it falls into?

If it does none of those things, or it doesn’t do them well, it needs to be changed. Again, a writing group should be able to help you with this. If you’re working on your own, try coming up with some tabloid newspaper-style headlines that describe the story and characters in just a few words. Make those words sensational and over-the-top, and really over-sell it. You can tone it down a little once you’ve come up with something great. (Or, if it’s a comedy, don’t tone it down at all!)

Fix the subtitle

Does your book have a subtitle? If it does, is it any good? Does it clarify or intrigue? If it doesn’t have a subtitle, would it help if it had one?

It’s worth looking at other books in your genre on Amazon or another bookstore to see what other writers have done. Look for books with subtitles and see which ones you like best. Can you give your book a subtitle that’s even better than theirs? Once again, your writing group could help with this.

A new cover

Now let’s take a look at your book’s cover. If you have a printed copy of your book, how does it look when you put it alongside the others on your bookshelf? Does it look like it belongs there? Does it stand out or does it get lost? Is it stunning? Do you feel a desperate urge to pick it up?

Once again, this is something you can try with your writing group. Show them a selection of books in your genre, with yours amongst them. Ask them to choose the one that appeals to them the most. If they don’t pick yours, ask them why. How can you make your cover better than the others you showed them, so they always pick yours?

This isn’t something you can do on your own; you need to involve other people. You might think your cover is fabulous, but your potential readers might be completely turned off by it. You won’t know that, nor how to fix the problems, unless you ask them.

Fix the blurb

So, your new title, subtitle and fabulous cover have convinced someone to take a closer look at your book. What do they look at next? Probably the blurb or book description – the little piece of marketing text that convinces them to buy it. Is yours any good? Does it convince and persuade?

Here’s an easy way to write a blurb. Imagine that your book is a movie and you’re watching the trailer. What would the voiceover say. Listen to that deep, rumbling voice… “In a world where ostriches rule the land and barnacles rule the sea, only one man can save humanity from a fate worse than death. Stan Bean is that man, and these are his adventures.”

Then briefly explain why the world is like it is and who Stan Bean is. Mention a couple of the things he gets up to as he struggles to put things right. Don’t give the ending away, but pose two or three questions that hook readers in. Will Stan succeed, or is humanity doomed? Will he be forced to marry the Barnacle Princess and father their children? Or will the ostriches kick him to death before the end of the first act?

(I just made that blurb up, and I really want to write the story now!)

End the blurb by saying that your book would be perfect for fans of [whatever type of story it is] and authors like [name two or three famous authors in your genre whose stories are similar(ish) to yours].

If you need more help writing great blurbs, follow Bryan Cohen on Facebook. He holds regular free classes – and even Amazon recommends him.

Don’t forget to choose some awesome keywords, as we discussed in the previous article.

Time to republish … but first some marketing

You’re almost ready to relaunch your failed book or series and turn it into a big success. The problem is, if you publish it the same way you did before, you’ll end up with another failure. You don’t want that. So you need to do some marketing before you publish it.

But first, let’s get rid of the old book or series. Sign into Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) or whichever book distributor you used and unpublish it. (Note that Amazon won’t let you delete it, but you can archive it so it doesn’t show up on your bookshelf. It will still be lurking in the background, though, and you’ll be reminded of it whenever delve into your archived books.)

The sneaky relaunch (again)

So, a great way to begin the marketing process is to do what I suggested in the Sneaky Relaunch section of the previous article. Build up a mailing list of at least 300 people before you publish the book, or the first book in the series. If it’s a series, make the first book free if you can. Republish the rest of the books in the series at thirty-day intervals. Make sure there’s a link to the next book in the back of the previous one.

Once you’ve republished your book (or the first in the series), and announced it to your mailing list, it wouldn’t hurt to do some advertising. My advice would be to advertise it heavily for a couple of weeks to give it a big push. We’ll look at advertising in more detail in another article.

Get lots of reviews

Another thing that helps sell books is reviews – you want as many as possible. Over a hundred, ideally. We’ll look at how to get more book reviews in the next article.

More great tips

Would you like some more tips, ideas and advice on how to launch a successful book or series? I have a book! Check out The Fastest Ways to Edit, Publish and Sell Your Book.

Editing and proofreading are vitally important, but they can also be expensive. You could do it yourself, but I don’t recommend it. You’re too close to your writing and you’ll see what you think is there, not what is actually there. You need the help of other people. If you’re not yet making a fortune from your writing, you might struggle with this. But don’t worry; in this article you’ll learn how to get free proofreading by real people.

Errors are bad – really bad

We’ve all read books that are full of typos and formatting errors. You might even have come across a few plot holes in novels, and other things that didn’t make any sense. Clearly, the impoverished author (or publisher) saved money by not employing an experienced editor or proofreader.

This reflects badly on the author (even if it was the publisher’s fault). One or two typos might be forgiven, but too many will turn readers off. Some will give up on your book right there and then. Others might persevere to the end, grinding their teeth every time they come across yet another mistake. Either way, they’re unlikely to read anything else you write.

Those who bought Book One in your series won’t come back for Books Two, Three and Four. Once you get a few bad reviews (which you will), you’ll also notice a decline in sales for Book One (even if it’s free). So basic errors can seriously harm your book sales.

Even if you write a new series, employ the world’s best editor, and move to a better publisher, your sales might never be as good as they could be. You might even get some one-star reviews for your new series – even if there are no errors in them. If you look deeper, you’ll notice the reviews were left by people who haven’t read your new series. They’re still talking about the mistakes in your previous one. Nevertheless, reviews like this will put new readers off.

Some of your previous readers might have been planning to give you another chance. But when they see the reviews for your new series, they think, “Oh, his books are still full of typos, I’ll buy something else.” Even if your new series is word-perfect.

What can you do?

There are two ways of fixing this:

1. write your new series under a different name

2. don’t release a book with so many mistakes in the first place

How to get it right

No matter how good a writer you are, you will make mistakes. Your spelling should always be spot-on, thanks to the spelling checker in your word processor. But you’ll also need a decent grammar checker to spot when you’ve misused their, there or they’re; its or it’s; or to, too or two. The grammar checker in your word processor is not up to the job.

I’ve tried most of the more advanced grammar checkers. The only one I recommend is Pro Writing Aid. You can get started for free, so it’s worth giving it a try, but if you want to use it on all your writing projects you’ll have to pay. Pro Writing Aid isn’t perfect. It’s the best of the bunch in my opinion, so it will help. But it won’t catch everything. People are better at this kind of work.

But what if you’re impoverished and you can’t afford their fee? Or you can’t afford to pay for Pro Writing Aid. (Or you have an aversion to spending money, like me?)

That’s what friends are for

You might not be able to write perfect text, but you can certainly publish it.

Before you release your first book, ask some of your friends and family to read it and mark any mistakes they come across. If you don’t have any friends or family, ask other people:

● your colleagues
● neighbours
● librarians
● shop assistants
● waiters
● your dental assistant
● the garage receptionist
● your kids’ teachers
● or your neighbours’ kids’ teachers

You’ll be able to think of someone.

You can even bribe them: tell them you’ll pay them for every mistake they find.

(Warning: only do this after a few people have already read your book and found most of the mistakes. There’s no point in throwing good money away.)

The second time is better

One or two of these people might turn out to be really good at finding mistakes, so you can go straight to them next time.

You might even offer to pay them if your first book is selling well.

If your first book is selling really well, I strongly advise employing a professional editor for your next one. Reedsy is a good place to find professional editors. All the editors on their list have been vetted and have a great track record in the industry.

But this article is aimed at those who can’t afford to hire a professional (yet).

Recruit your readers

Another thing you can do is to put a message in the back of your book, near the link to the next book in your series.

Say something like:

“Hey, Dave here. I realise there might be a few mistakes in this book – sorry about that. I could really use your help. Please tell me about any mistakes you find – no matter how small. In exchange, I’ll send you an exclusive bonus story called … that only goes out to my VIP readers.”

Give your email address so readers can contact you with any mistakes.

Thank them … and rope them in!

If someone reports a mistake, make the correction and send them a reply like this:

“Hey, thanks so much for telling me about the mistake in … I’ve fixed it now. Here’s that bonus story I promised.

Would you be interested in joining my VIP readers list? You’ll get all the other books in the series – for free! – at least a month before they’re published.

All I ask in return is that you let me know of any mistakes you find within two weeks of receiving each copy.”

Your VIP team

You shouldn’t have too many readers in your VIP team: around ten would be a good number. That should be enough to ensure your books are error-free by the time they’re published. It also allows for the fact that some of your VIP team might not respond in time.

Don’t expect your VIP team to remain constant; members will come and go. Some might not respond when you send them your next book, or they might reply too late. If they do this once, you might decide to give them another chance. But if they do it twice, I would delete them and give their place to someone else. There should be no shortage of volunteers. You want an active, highly engaged list of avid readers who are massive fans of your work, fast readers, and really good at finding mistakes.

And that’s how you get free proofreading by real people. So now you can publish perfect text every time.

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Would you like more editing and proofreading ideas, tips and advice? I have a book!
117 Painless, Efficient and Awesome Ideas for Editing and Strengthening Your Writing.

Category: Editing

How to Relaunch a Failed Book or Series