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is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date.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.
Debbie Young says
Terrific post, Joanna, and your new covers and author page look terrific. I am sure your post will give many authors the courage and confidence to change their covers, as well as the technical know-how. It’s interesting that trade publishers change covers all the time, even for bestsellers with very well known cover designs (e.g. Alexander McCall Smith’s), and I’m sure they wouldn’t make that investment if they weren’t sure of increasing sales. Thank you so much for sharing your experience in such detail. Best wishes, Debbiex
Joanna Penn says
Thanks Debbie – and yes, cover change is very common, as is rebranding an author’s look – I’m not sure how common title change is, though?
Angela Haddon says
Thanks so much for sharing your experiences, Joanna – I have nothing to add, because you pretty much covered everything 🙂 For what it’s worth, I really like your new covers; the branding is strong and consistent, and your books look like a great, fun read. Thanks again for such an informative post!
Joanna Penn says
Thanks so much Angela 🙂 I’m glad you found it useful!
Jane Steen says
I’m going to be the one (there has to be one) who says she liked the original titles better…but since I don’t read your genre you can ignore me. I do like the new covers, though — very eye-catching.
I totally cracked up listening to the podcast when you asked if Roz’s book was a Rapture book and she replied “no, it’s a standalone.” Religion meets secularism…
Joanna Penn says
Thanks Jane – I still like the original titles too – but the fact that you picked up on the rapture reference 🙂 means you have a more religious mind/upbringing/education – so you’re in my original target market (even though you don’t read thrillers!) The new titles are aimed at making the books more mainstream. Glad you like the covers!
Roz Morris @Roz_Morris says
🙂 Roz is clearly so sheltered she did not know what a Rapture book was… Smiling here too.
And great post, Joanna. I’m sharing, as usual.
Cathy Pelham says
Thanks so much for the informative post, Joanna. Your points about titles struck home for me. I know the title for the first book in my series is too arcane and doesn’t fit in with the spirit or rhythm of the rest of the series. Thanks to your post, I am looking at the title more strategically. Also, I was not aware of the availability of free ISBNs so that tidbit was very useful.
The fact that you love Con Air explains a lot. I am i Love Reading, and especially enjoy the way you explore historic sites new to me. It is travel by proxy. I did think of Morgan when I learned of the Nepal buildings destroyed recently.
The new covers and titles started appearing in my Kindle library recently, and they are vibrant and enticing. I plan to re-read the ARKANE books just to see them from the new perspective. Thanks.
Joanna Penn says
Thanks so much for your great reviews, Cathy – that one about destroying buildings is a particular favorite! I’m so glad you enjoy the books – and I’m pleased to be able to help you with your titles as well. A series strategy isn’t something we think about at the beginning but over time, it becomes ever more important. THANK YOU!
JR Holmes says
Just a thought about how to handle things on the physical side of a re-title project like this. Rather than unpublishing or deleting the existing file on CreateSpace or Ingram, consider just making that earlier version no longer for sale (delete all the sales channels). You could still order your own copies on demand, but others would only be able to order the updated copy.
Joanna Penn says
That’s basically what I did – you can’t ever get rid of all the copies because of the second hand market.
Jean Gill says
Very helpful. I’d already decided that in a year or two I will stop and re-brand all 18 of my books, for similar reasons to yours, but also because I now have my own imprint logo and want to use that for all my independently published books. Also, fashions in jackets change – what was beautiful 10 yeas ago is old-fashioned/doesn’t fit the genre ow.
Joanna Penn says
That’s a big job! But I agree about ‘aging’ covers – a new brand exercise can completely rejuvenate sales – have fun!
Dean Mayes says
I think your new covers look grand Joanna and they feel – to me – more J.F. Penn than your previous incarnations. Not that those previous incarnations were bad, just that they now boast an originality, a “signature” that I immediately associate with you.
Jessica Bell says
Thanks so much for this fabulous post! I have been thinking about rebranding my novels (not retitling). Because even though they are all ‘different’ they are also extremely connected thematically. Now to figure out how to portray that thematic link visually while maintaining the right tone for each book!
Joanna Penn says
Good job you’re a great cover designer, Jessica 🙂 You can rebrand all you like! Although perhaps it’s harder with your own books since you can’t be objective at all. But i do think that literary fiction would benefit from this more branded look – even though they aren’t in a series, at least they could look related.
Steeven R. Orr says
Your new covers are amazing. Of course, I liked your old covers. But your new ones tie it all together so making the change made perfect sense.
I’ve not really published anything yet but one novel. I do have a series of books coming, and I look forward to the day I can afford to brand them with their covers the way you have.
One of these days I’ll have a device I can read your books on . . . but until then, I’ll keep listening to the podcast and reading your blog.
Thanks!
Joanna Penn says
Thanks Steeven – I’m glad you like the covers 🙂
In terms of my books, they’re available in print as well – and I don’t believe you need a device for those 🙂
Rob Blackwell says
Very bold move, but I have to say: your new covers scream Dan Brown-ish to me (in a good way), so if that’s what you are going for, they really nail it. Please let us know how this affects sales (if it does).
Joanna Penn says
Thanks Rob – and perhaps bold in one way, but nothing we do with books is exactly high risk, so definitely worth doing! I’ll report back when I have some data.
Devon West says
Hi Joanna, I love the new covers I think they really suit the genre. The colors look great and the images give the feeling of adventure. I’m positive these will attract even more readers. Thanks for sharing the process. I think change and experimentation are valuable tools.
Joanna Penn says
Thanks Devon 🙂
Juli Page Morgan says
Your new covers look great, and I love the new titles! This post is very timely for me since I reacquired the rights to my first book last year from my publisher and am planning to re-release it under my own imprint. I never liked the cover they gave it (not that I could use it anyway), nor the title they insisted on using. My writing group has been asking if I planned on going back to my original title, but I wasn’t sure. Now I am! Thanks so much for sharing your experiences. They’ve helped me so much!
Joanna Penn says
That’s super, Juli! I’m sure you will relish having creative control again 🙂
SR Silcox says
Loving the new covers and titles Joanna. I think they fit your genre and target market perfectly.
I’ve just released my debut novel, which is the first in a series, and I spent a LOT of time thinking about covers and branding so that I could be consistent across all the titles. Though the books are essentially stand-alones, they’re linked by a common theme, so it’s important I think that readers can tell that each book is part of a wider series.
In the end, I did what you did and centred my research around authors in my genre and picked a couple of them to emulate.
I guess the most important thing though, is that it made me realise just how much control we have as Indie authors. If something isn’t working, we can do something straight away to fix it. Would love to hear if your new branding and titles have an affect on sales and engagement with your series.
Joanna Penn says
I’ll definitely report back, SR. I’ve got a BookBub coming up and it will be interesting to see what the download numbers are compared with previous BookBubs using the old covers and titles. And well done for thinking so far ahead with your books – something I probably should have done more seriously 🙂
Lady Jewels Diva says
People getting confused was one of my thoughts as I was reading through the post. I’ve read Amazon reviews of scathing proportions when people realise they bought exactly the same book, just with a different cover or name, and then demand their money back.
The new covers look fabulous and brightly colourful. I quite like that type of montage cover for books.
I “renovated” my early books late last year with new updated covers (they kept their names) but bugger, I didn’t order copies for prosperity, so that was definitely something I didn’t think about. I do have the original proofs but had updated their covers a few years back with only slight changes so it’s not really a problem. I plan on getting copies of all of my print books this year so I have nice “proper” versions instead of books that have pencil, pen and highlighter marks throughout and all say “proof” on the back page.
Joanna Penn says
It’s always good to keep a few of the old ones – I’m anticipating mine to be worth gazillions in years to come 🙂
I’m hoping there won’t be too many confused people. I sell far more non-fiction in print than I do fiction – and since the Amazon ASIN is the same, those people can’t purchase twice. The only concern is actually NOOK as that is a different file and URL – but I sell so few books on that platform, it shouldn’t be an issue.
Dianne Greenlay says
Joanna, this is a wonderful post and absolutely worth the read right through to the end. Thank you for again providing such detailed advice and explanations. You are a walking encyclopedia of both publishing and book business information in general.
Joanna Penn says
Thanks Dianne – I think that sometimes we forget how much we know about all this stuff 🙂
Liz Dexter says
I love the new titles, and think that’s a good idea if people are complaining that they’re not “Christian” books as such. It’s a monumental pain changing everything and I hate how the print ones can never disappear – but as you say, it does all work out in the end. I swapped my non-fic titles around as I was getting feedback that they sounded like books on how to get divorced rather than books on starting a business! It took a while but I think they work better and my sales did increase.
Best of luck with the new look and titles!
Joanna Penn says
Great to hear about your retitling experience as well, Liz. It is indeed a pain but better to bite the bullet earlier – as we all write more and more books, it gets harder and harder to change the backlist.
Rachel Amphlett says
Joanna, thanks as always for sharing your experiences so openly and honestly.
I went through a similar exercise at the end of last year; I overhauled the covers of my series having received feedback from peers that the old artwork wasn’t appealing to female thriller fans, and have since seen my sales increase in leaps and bounds.
It was a soul-searching exercise at the time (not to mention expensive!) but I’m so glad I did it; I have no regrets.
Hopefully other writers considering this course of action will read your blog post and take heart – I know I did, knowing I wasn’t alone in having to go through this important process!
Joanna Penn says
Thanks Rachel – did you blog about your change? Please do post a link to it if you did – I’m interested in the old and new 🙂
Rachel Amphlett says
Hi Joanna – I haven’t yet, but I shall; changing the covers and tweaking a couple of marketing tactics has worked wonders this year!
Graham Downs says
Wow, that’s a pretty extreme thing you’ve just done there, Joanna. I’d be scared shitless – hell, I’m scared FOR you! It’s almost as if you’ve just rebooted your entire career.
I can’t imagine myself doing that. I’ll just write more books, and each book will have a better (as in, more appropriate, truer to my style and identity) cover and title. But then, I haven’t yet written a series of any description, so I can understand why YOU did it.
Still… wow. Respect!
Joanna Penn says
Thanks Graham – I don’t think it is that big a deal though 🙂 They are still the same books and it was only 3 out of 7 ARKANE and 10 fiction in total … 🙂
BeadedQuill says
Joanna, as ever you remain a creative and business inspiration. This write-up provides a most helpful log. About the ISBN change you note, “I gave the change a positive spin.” This positivity resonates throughout the post. Wishing you lots of future fiction sales! BQ
Joanna Penn says
Thanks so much – positive is my middle name 🙂 I LOVE love love this writing life so I’m glad it comes through
Kristina Stanley says
Thanks for the insight. I’m working with a cover designer on my first two novels, one due out this summer and second before the end of the year. Your blog appeared at the best time and has given me a lot to think about.
Joanna Penn says
Super 🙂 all the best with your books!