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is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date.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.
clare weiner says
I want to change my covers and possibly even the titles for 2 novels – but don’t use CreateSpace/Ingrams etc – I have done the printing independently so am wondering about files and costs. Far as I can see, although I shall def. need new ISBNs, I don’t need to change the actual narrative files, just get the re-printing done with new covers? It won’t be the same as what you’ve done, in physical process terms. because I’m not linked by production to Amazon etc? . It also means I have physical copies which I can’t sell necessarily … and will have to co-ordinate the Kindle version production presumably …However, you make a very good case for the re-branding, it is probably worth doing. And, I so agree that as we start out, we don’t know (and can’t know) all the considerations, or how a title/cover is going to speak to readers. My books have been thrown into a ‘religious’ or ‘Christian’ slot byAmazon, but don’t necessarily belong there: either of those adjectives belong more to your kind (mysteries) than to mine (contemporary, and not looking to provide for the ‘Bible Belt’ market ) although they deal with the conflict or non-conflict of science/ethics/faith, with no esoteric Kate Mosse-type content. Thanks for this piece, well worth re-reading.
Joanna Penn says
I’m glad you found it useful – although I can’t really comment on private print runs. It’s not something I would consider unless I had guaranteed distribution. In terms of categories on Amazon, that is something YOU choose if you self-publish, or the publisher chooses for you – so you can change that if you want to.
Fiona says
My book also went into the wrong Amazon categories but when I contacted Amazon through my Author Central account they moved them into the right categories within a day. I’m not self published, but I didn’t have to do it via my publisher. It’s quick any easy to do, but you can only pick 2 categories.
Clare Flynn says
The new covers are fabulous Joanna. Really powerful! JDS rocks!
You’re very brave doing the titles too – but, as you say, better now than later!
Really useful and honest advice – as always!
Joanna Penn says
Thanks Clare – I strive to keep things honest – even when I cock up 🙂
Carrie Lynn Lewis says
Joanna,
Thanks for the post. Lots of great information on a topic I’ve only recently started thinking about: cover changes for my three nonfiction books.
The comment that makes the most impact for me, though, has to do with branding. Despite all the talk about knowing your brand from the start, you said very clearly that you didn’t know your brand until after you’d published several books. Even then, your fans identified it for you.
I heard something similar some time ago and it took a huge weight off my shoulders. Since I have no fiction published yet, I realized I could forget developing a brand and just write my stories.
So your comment confirmed that conclusion. For that, I thank you!
Best wishes,
Carrie
Joanna Penn says
I’m glad it helped, Carrie. I also think our brands evolve – as our writing does – over the years. I’m still in the ‘Dan Brown’ niche and I still know the authors I love to read and want to resonate with. So that hasn’t changed – but how I portray myself has. Having a smiley photo for my fiction and thinking of myself as fun even when I am (fictionally) killing people is a big shift for me. All the best with your writing 🙂
P.D. Workman says
I love the new covers. They look so great.
I have recently changed the covers on one of my series as well. But not the titles! They are more mature/gritty now, and the previous covers had been mistaken a couple of times for non-fiction, which I think is really weird. I like them much better now. But it certainly was a big project to get them up.
Rich Leder says
Hi Joanna,
Good post. Thanks for sharing. Your new covers look sharp and the titles are definitely part of a brand, so nicely done.
I write a funny mystery series — McCall & Company. The first two books — Workman’s Complication and Swollen Identity — have been out in the world since September 2014. I’m writing the third book right now. Each new book starts immediately after the previous book ends. Derek Murphy of Creativindie did my covers too (both McCall books and my two standalones), and I love them. But I’m thinking of adding Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3 to the McCall covers (because there is one storyline that moves forward in each book), so that’s a change but not at all a sea change like you’ve just been through. Still, I think the process is the same whether the changes are large or small. I’m curious: Would you launch into the relaunch process for a such a small alteration?
Thank you again for sharing…
Rich Leder
Joanna Penn says
Hi Rich, Changing covers is not a big deal at all – you just upload the new files – certainly for ebooks, it is very easy – and for POD, not so difficult either. But do you want to pay for such a small change? Is it really worth it – or can you make it clear in the title/sub-title?
Rich Leder says
Good point. I’ll take a closer look. Thanks, Joanna.
Kinza Sheikh says
A wonderful post. Who knows when I will need these tips (being unpublished until yet 🙁 )
I really like your new names and covers and I am really happy with your changing your author site. I agree that your fiction although really thrilling, is not dark at all. It is actually fun read, otherwise I would never had been able to read it. Considering I can’t even go past chapter 3 in any of the Stephen King’s novels!
Lastly, I am glad I read this post and found out that you too are a Dan Brown enthusiast. I am a big fan of him, but over my years in internet, I began thinking that maybe I am getting too overboard when it comes to him. I just couldn’t find anyone else who was with me in this religious thrillers love.
Joanna Penn says
Hi Kinza, thanks so much for your kind words and I’m thrilled that you find my books fun 🙂 My ARKANE series certainly are – although perhaps you should avoid my London Psychic series! I’m definitely a Dan Brown fan – although I think he needs a better editor to cut out some of the extra material. I hope he keeps writing though 🙂 All the best with your book!
Kinza Sheikh says
Thanks for the wish, and the heads up about your London psychic series. 🙂
K. S. R. Burns says
Thank you. Thank you, thank you.
You have validated my experience and made me feel less crazy/more normal! Since my novel, “Rules for the Perpetual Diet,” came out I have been agonizing over the title (and cover). Some people hastily conclude it’s a diet book, even though it says “A Novel” right on the cover. A problem! I feel I should change it but as yet don’t know what to change it to. And I am not in love with my cover design either.
But YOU made it clear that this is all part of a normal process of searching and refining and defining. I will take a deep breath and get on with the sequel…… You do a real service here. (Did I say thank you?)
Joanna Penn says
I’m glad it helps 🙂 I would agree that your book sounds non-fiction – the only fiction title with rules in that I can think of is “Cider House Rules” which is quite different. So many people want rules for a diet, I do think you need something else. Brainstorm a load of stuff based on theme – and also read through the book again – for fiction, sometimes the title is within the work itself … all the best
K. S. R. Burns says
Sigh. But thanks for your input….!
K. S. R. Burns says
Burning question: My novel received very good reviews from Kirkus, Midwest Book Review and some newspapers. Would I lose all those if I changed the title?!!
Joanna Penn says
You wouldn’t lose the reviews but the name would be different – so if anyone wanted to read those reviews, they might not associate it with your book. But if they are reviews on your Amazon page, you won’t lose them as the ASIN is the same
K.L. Woolerey says
Thanks Joanna. I was looking for advice on re-branding my Afro American Christian romance series. I haven’t had any complaints about the covers, as they’ve done pretty well. But as I published Book 1 in 2013, I was wondering if it’s time to redo the covers and update them a bit. A part of me wants to go ahead and do it, and the other part of me wants to leave them as they are. I’m going to give it some serious thought. So I’m glad I read this post.
All the best and thanks again for your invaluable advice.
Shelina says
I have to say, it’s been a long time since I’ve read such a well written article on the subject of branding. This is something that alludes a lot of us in the beginning. I’ll be more prepared than most going into this thing with all this fabulous information. I can’t wait to start picking out my own covers. To be honest I picked titles that I thought would be good for the kind of series that I write, but I sort of always thought that an editor or someone would come along and change them. So glad that, re-branding is a viable option. Thank you so much for sharing such valuable insights JP.
Joanna Penn says
I’m glad you found it useful, Shelina 🙂
Aleshia Robinson says
I am in complete agreement with you Joanna. This writing career is a journey. I am so pleased with your changes on your books as well as your personal site. I get a sense that you are coming into your own and not as nervous or people pleasing which is the only way to successfully be yourself. Individuality is what the world is waiting for!!
I, too, have made changes to my brand. Who would have thought when writing book 1 to search for a model with 5 different looks for 5 different book covers??? I most certainly didn’t. And when I started designing book 7, I soon discovered that my model from books 1 and 2 didn’t have enough good photos for books 4, 5 and 7!
WHO KNEW???
So I had to redesign book 1 using my model from book 7 and swap books 2 and 4 covers all to make the tattoo progression leading up to book 7 legitimate and believable.
Not to mention that I had no idea my protagonist’s best friends would each have their own novella.
I also simplified my website. I am not using myself as the brand rather the series and realized since 2011 how much I hate PAGES! I think too many pages clutter the site and choke out the story. They are absolutely unnecessary unless you have something really important to say. So now my site is one page and captures the world of my protagonist.
Also realized that ALESHIA is too difficult for people to spell so now I use a pen name: A.R. Robinson.
All this to say: I completely feel the need for you to re brand your Arkane series. You do better when you know better.
Joanna Penn says
Thanks Aleshia – and thanks for following my journey. I do feel less apologetic these days – and also less people pleasing – is this just a female problem??!! I like your covers – and I understand the issue with models for a longer series. That’s why HM Ward and some of the other romance writers are using exclusive photo shoots now. Not something within everyone’s budget – but as I write ARKANE #8 this year and I see your series continuing as well, I do think other authors will get into this over time.
Aleshia Robinson says
I actually held a professional photo shoot for book 1 back in 2011 to which my second book designer was like “Why are you holding a photo shoot? Why not just use stock photography?” That is when I learned that stock photos existed! But interesting to see the successful indie authors are using that method as well. I am on the right track of thinking then. lol. I probably will revisit that method for my next series.
(P.S I will spend more money on the photographer next time. You do get what you pay for! Nevertheless, a great lesson learned and fun experience.)
Israel Sanchez says
Thanks for this info, Joanna! I am actually about to go make major changes in one of my books. I’m going to change the cover and title. Also, I plan on adding a bit more content and make it more into an actual novella (instead of a short story). Do you think that part will be a problem, the adding more content part?
Also, loved the Con Air reference. Hadn’t thought about that movie in years! It was pretty awesome!
Joanna Penn says
If you’re *significantly* changing the content, I would think it is a different book – you’ll have to decide what significant is.
And yes, ConAir is awesome – I love the John Woo movies
Mark McGinn says
Great post Joanna. It resonated with me particularly after I had some feedback from a New York agent about my 4th novel. She said my title “Greed” didn’t reflect my genre, which is ‘legal thriller’. And now I look at them, while the first 2 covers in that Sasha Stace series designed by by Derek Murphy are great, neither covers nor titles convey the genre. The descriptions are fine but incongruous with the covers and titles. This is a powerful point you make.
Joanna Penn says
I’m glad you found it useful, Mark. I think this is a topic more people need to talk about 🙂
Ron Vitale says
Thank you for this great article. I went through changing my book titles in my Cinderella’s Swcret Witch Diaires series and it was a lot of work.
One thing I’d like to share is that I put the latest version date of my book on the copyright page. Amazon has a known issue that when you delete the book from Amazon.com/MYK and then repurchase that you’ll most likely need to contact customer support to have them send the latest version to you. This can be a bit of a pain if you’re doing multiple books at once. Thanks again for sharing this. Great info!
Judith Sansweet says
Sharing this great post with my clients Joanna.
I really appreciate the growth you promote!
A B I G Thank You!
Angel Haze says
I’ll be honest. I was uncertain of your books at first because the title were super religious sounding which overrode the action factor. I love your new covers. I took down my books a couple years ago (I published a thriller and a YA fantasy). I published them too fast without any knowledge of marketing, publishing or online connections. My husband and I have spent the last four years studying marketing and writing the next books in the series. (We want to have five ready to go before the first one comes out. That way we can be ahead of schedule and publish about every six months.) The books have received a major overhaul, including new lore, more world-building and a change in title, and we are also in the process of getting a professionally designed website which we hope to launch in the next couple months. It’s still going to be another year and a half before the first two books are released.
With all the changes and learning experiences, I can totally get where you are coming from. One question, do you regret your mistakes? As much as it sucks that we no longer have any books out and are starting the whole process again, I don’t fully regret publishing them too fast. Firstly, we received an amazing response from readers and our YA fantasy placed in two of Amazon’s Top 100 categories: Epic Fantasy and Teens and Thrillers, selling 2000 copies in the first six months. (which I think is pretty good for not knowing anything about marketing or epublishing). This response sent our passion into overdrive and has since driven our fantasy series to a whole other level with massive world-building and lore . . . BUT I wouldn’t have learned so much without the first attempt or met the amazing readers, authors. and bloggers or learned what marketing techniques are beyond time consuming and therefore not necessarily worth the effort.
So don’t be embarrassed of how you started or the mistakes you made or be sensitive in the comment section lol. This is how your books came to be!
Joanna Penn says
I never regret my mistakes – but I sometimes regret sharing them 🙂
But I am super committed to being transparent on this blog. Only by being honest with each other will we be able to help each other!
All the best with your new books.
James Thoenes says
I really like the use of color on the new covers. It really makes them look like a series when they are together. In fact, there is a lot I like about the new covers.
Joanna Penn says
Thanks James!
Massimo says
Hello, Joanna.
Thanks for sharing these hectic moments with us. I might have to do the same but for a different reason: I became a hybrid author.
I signed with a publisher in Seattle and I have an author-published science fiction trilogy in my bag, and a fourth YA urban science fiction novel as WIP.
Starting with book one, there will be new titles, new covers, new blurb, additional work on the interior as well, and a whole new adventure.
Luckily, I’ll not be doing all this by myself.
Fiona says
I love the new covers, they are much more colourful and really stand out. Plus I think both the covers and new titles depict ‘action’ much more than the old ones. If I was browsing action books on Amazon yours would jump out at me now with the new covers. I’m sure it’ll be well worth the hard work.
Annie Patel says
Wow! Your new covers look really great! I have thought about changing the title of my series as well, but I didn’t know if that was an appropriate thing to do, so thank you for the information. I have been following you since self-publishing my first book and am close to publishing my second one of the series. Although I sell a couple of books a month (if I’m lucky), I love writing and having creative control of my own work. I am changing the style of the cover for book 2 and will redo book 1 after. I am curious to see if it will help sales. Thank you for always sharing with us your invaluable information. Today is Mother’s Day in the U.S. I don’t know if you have kids, but you are a mother to your books and business and to all your followers, so Happy Mother’s Day!
Chris Syme says
Thanks much for this. I am going through this with a client right now and I like that fact that you did this as a massive effort at one time–not dribbling the changes out over time. I know it will be a huge undertaking but like you, I believe the end result is well worth it. Thanks for the how-to.