3 Reasons to Revise & Re-Publish Your Backlist

Neha Yazmin
4 min readJul 13, 2020
Photo by JessBaileyStudio on Pixabay

I revised my published fantasy works in preparation for the release of my new epic fantasy trilogy (finale was released July 3rd, 2020), and it was worth doing.

➡️I was publishing my best work so far (my new trilogy).

➡️My latest published book was doing well.

➡️My new release was bringing in new readers — people that were discovering my books only now.

➡️My latest book was boosting sales of my backlist — thus introducing new readers to my older work.

Basically, I wanted to avoid this scene:

The year is 2020. Reader A loved your new urban fantasy (UF) series about, say dragon-shifters, and has become a fan of yours. They decide to check out your 2013 UF series about werewolves (wolf-shifters), because why not? It’s in the same genre, the books have snazzy modern covers, and intriguing blurbs — kudos to you for updating your covers to keep up with the times!

But wait. This series opener isn’t as good as the dragon-shifter books. Reader A is disappointed in you, their new favourite author. They’re wondering if you’re only good at writing about dragons. A one-trick pony. They remember reading better werewolf novels that came out last year. Do they really want to read future releases by you?

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Neha Yazmin
Neha Yazmin

Written by Neha Yazmin

Writer. Blogger (writing, publishing, life). Mum of 1. UCL Psychology graduate. Former investments professional. Published in The Startup.