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is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date.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.
Janet says
Love the new covers. Have changed several of mine, hadn’t changed the titles but think that is a good idea. My question, how do you ever get rid of the old covers. I have updated them everywhere I ever posted them. Still have one group I belong to that helps members push their books. They will not update to the new covers. Almost feel haunted by them.
Anyway, best of luck to you with the new wrappers.
Joanna Penn says
There will always be hauntings 🙂 This website for example is full of my old covers and titles, but I won’t be updating them …
D.L. says
Hello Joanna, This info is super helpful and honest. As a perpetual writing student, I’m pocketing this one for many future references and sharing.
Brent says
I’m going to do the same at some point because when you start out, (I’ve only been going under a year) you don’t have a clue. However, no one has said changing has resulted in an increase in sales and a change of cover and name will do nothing for an ebook’s ranking. It may do that for a print book with a new ISBN as it will be ‘new’.
All good books have changed covers somewhat over the years to be with the times so to speak. I prefer your original covers because they don’t look like everyone elses, but that’s just one mans opinion.
I’m sure we would all be keen to know the results in 3-4 months times.
Keep your your good work.
Joanna Penn says
I’ll certainly be sharing updates, Brent!
Liliane says
Thanks for sharing your experiences. It’s very helpful.
I have published a SF trilogy for kids and now want to put the books together in one volume. Should I remove the individual editions when I do that? I will have to change some bits to remove the backstory I put in so that each book could be read stand-alone. I am also changing the titles at the same time. It will be a new publication and one book will be more economical for my readers than three.
Thanks
Joanna Penn says
Hi Liliane. I would just do a boxset edition and keep the 3 separate as well. Most of us do this now. You just compile all 3 books into one edition and get a new 3D cover and publish that as a separate product.
Marcus Bird says
This is a great post Joanna. I decided about two month ago to rebrand and rename one of my books which I feel didn’t capture the essence of the story in the title, but I haven’t gotten around to it. After reading this post it is a confirmation to me that I should do it. Fortunatley (or unfortunately some would say) I don’t have thousands of sales, so I definitely won’t be annoying anyone lol but thanks for the great post and information as always
Joanna Penn says
Yes, go for it, Marcus!
J.T. Stoll says
Thanks! That was a really fun article. I’m just starting on my writing and branding journey (one book out, with an idea of matching titles and covers for future books), and it was great to get your thoughts on the topic.
Melissa L. Gill says
Thanks Joanna. That’s very helpful. I plan to change my first three covers to coincide with the release of my 4th book. Like you, I didn’t know exactly what would work when I started. I’ve learned a lot from following the trail blazers like you though.
Joanna Penn says
I’m glad it’s all useful 🙂
Brian O'Raleigh says
Thanks for a great article Joanna. I often wondered could one change a title without loosing the 5 Star Reviews on Amazon. My memoir – The Boy in the Boat – which I wrote over 10 years ago has been badly impacted by a book called ‘The BOYS in the Boat’. No copyright on title! Also a work of fiction I completed recently I originally called ‘The Seanachie of Inis Mór’ I had to change taht to ‘The Storyteller of Inis Mór – as nobody understood what a seanachie is and also nobody has never heard of Inis Mór!
Good Luck to you Joanna, you’re helping a lot of aspiring authors. Brian O’Raleigh
Joanna Penn says
Hi Brian – I think you’re right to change the ‘seanachie’ to ‘storyteller’ – these types of words can just cause people to click away – although within the book, using the word will make it better as it gives it that local color.
I’m now seeing rebranding everywhere – it seems to be incredibly common!
Brian O'Raleigh says
Thanks for your response Joanna. So is it possible to change the cover art, the title and also change to a nom de plume, all at the same time. Brian
Joanna Penn says
I think it would be fine technically – but changing everything might be really confusing to readers!
Gerry O'Sullivan says
Hi Joanna
Many thanks for the very interesting article. I had a somewhat similar experience.
I wrote a historical thriller set in 1920’s and 1930’s Shanghai – now called Gangsters of Shanghai – but originally published as ‘Servants of the Empire’.
When the book was originally published I think two people bought it and one of them was me!
But I felt that it was a good story and so I sought the advice of a book marketing professional. As a result of that process I did the following:
changed the title
changed the cover
changed the genre listing
changed the book description
changed the metadata
As a result it went into the top 10 in the ‘thrillers historical’ genre in December 2013. I was on the same page as Jeffrey Archer and Nelson De Mille. Between Amazon.com, Amazon.UK, the other Amazon sites and Goodreads it has generated over 130 four-star and five-star reviews, and less than 10 negative reviews.
The actual story is 100% unchanged.
I did fix up a few typos that had slipped past my editor first time round, but other than that not a word was changed. It has taught me that (assuming the book is good) then the title, cover, and description are VITAL.
I would suggest also that the genre listing is very important because my original listing has me in a somewhat ‘Mills and Boon-ish’ historical romance sector. My book marketing guy pointed out that I had actually written a somewhat male orientated thriller
Sometimes we don’t know what we have written until someone tells us.
best wishes
Gerry O’Sullivan
Sydney, Australia
Joanna Penn says
I agree Gerry – sometimes we don’t know what we’ve written for years 🙂 When I’ve finished my next trilogy in the London Psychic series, I’ll be thinking about rebranding that too. It’s hard when you’re cross genre!
Lorraine Reguly says
I totally love the new covers. I really like the colours, too! Congratulations on your accomplishments, Joanna! 🙂
Simon says
I have to admit, I had always assumed you were writing Christian fiction, so stayed away. And that was based purely on the titles of those first three novels. So I think you’ve done the right thing to change them, for sure.
Joanna Penn says
Thanks Simon – we live and learn 🙂
Carolyn says
Great job! I do wish more authors or cover designers would refrain from using images of people on their covers. I want my imagination to go to work on that one. I think it speaks to how well the author describes and develops her character(s).
Princess Kick-ass says
Brilliant as always, Joanna. Thanks for sharing! Really useful information!
PS: Con Air was awesome.
Francois Houle says
Hi Joanna: First off I want to say I’ve read your first 2 books so far and really enjoyed them. I need to make time for the others. I thought your original covers were great, but these new ones are fantastic. I truly see a brand now so I think this was a great idea. My first novel just came out this year and I don’t see myself changing the title because it does capture the essence of the story, but potentially somewhere down the road the cover might see a facelift of some sort (after a few more books are published though). I’ve been following you for several years and you continue to be a resource and a source of inspiration. Thank you so much.
Joanna Penn says
Thanks so much – I’m so glad you like the books and also think that the covers work 🙂 I’ll be sharing results when I have them.
Michael W. Perry says
You’ll get spotty results when you change a cover. Search Amazon for one of my titles, Chesterton on War and Peace, and you’ll see two covers. One looks washed out with the title blurry. That’s the actual book cover and it looks fine as a book cover. But I discovered that on webpages the shadow behind the title looks awful. The result was a revised cover with a much easier to read title. But alas, some Amazon web pages got changed while others did not.
A better solution it to give each revision a new ISBN. That’ll make it new to retailers and ensure they display the new image. You can have Bowker link the two so those asking about the first ISBN get passed on to the second.
Also you should make clear, perhaps on the cover and definitely in the description that this is the same book under a new title. You don’t want fans getting ticked after paying a second time. I’d also suggest taking this opportunity to make improvements, such as maps, so you can call it a second edition. Some who like the first may buy the second.
Covers like those above are quite the fad now, although I find them too dark and cluttered, even if the theme is dark and cluttered.
I’m taking a different approach. I search through stock photo services and find just the right photo for the front and back, trying to prefigure the contents with them. Those images fill all or almost all the cover, reducing the need for clutter. That means I need to choose a picture that has the space at the top and bottom for the title and author. Also I choose appealing pictures, ones that are distinctive and that people will be happy carrying.
Here are my three most recent covers, front and back:
http://inklingbooks.prosite.com/221883/2467804/gallery/my-nights-with-leukemia
http://inklingbooks.prosite.com/221883/3271857/gallery/lilys-ride
http://inklingbooks.prosite.com/221883/2467790/gallery/hospital-gowns-and-other-embarrrassments
If you can’t afford a professional to do your covers, check out using inexpensive but professionally done stock photos. They’re not that expensive at business-oriented sites such as Deposit Photo and Big Stock Photo. Then try, try and try again to get a design that looks good. Ask friends for advice too.
–Michael W. Perry, Inkling Books
thomas greanias says
Kudos for honesty and self-reflection on presenting your fiction.
Some titles just work, like Raising Atlantis did for my first NYT bestseller. Others, as you point out, just don’t for some reason or another. Taking the long view and changing to a better title and not just a different one is wise counsel.
It’s also gutsy, because you really won’t know how the new title flies until it’s been out awhile.
One key metric I’d suggest, besides, is keeping an eye on any new (and helpful) “similar” authors begin popping up with the new title. Big clue if you’re going in the right direction with branding.
TG
janet, says
Thanks Joanna, Angel, Gerry, and all the rest. Guess if I have angels in some of my books, I can stand yo have a few ghost covers as well. Appreciate you Joanna, you’re my roll model. Happy writing to all.
Felicia says
Conveniently enough I was just going to change four titles in my series. How thoughtful of you to be so psychic. I wasn’t terribly worried about the actual title change so much as the appearance of an author that requires a title change. Nice to know that others are making similar changes. Yay for being human!
Joanna Penn says
I’m seeing it everywhere now 🙂 Trad publishers seem to do it all the time so don’t worry 🙂
Adrian says
I have been plagued with bad edits in my first 3 books. I have some books in a genre that need to go in another subcat. I have a lot of reviews though and maintain 4 1/2 stars on all of them.
I want to take these long mystery type books and break them down into novella’s and then do a complete box set of the novel. Taking advantage of Amazon’s new short reads.
Do I dump the pen name also to do this drastic change?
Thanks Joanna… I have followed your literary rise and wish you well.
Elyse Salpeter says
Wow, this was a great post and something I’m grappling with for my dark fantasy series. First book I ever self pubbed and I really want to change the covers of the series. I love the new covers you’ve done and appreciate the transparency on how they went. Did you change your blurbs as well? Just curious, because I plan to.