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As I contemplated the reasons for relaunching a couple of my novels, I came across an article by Jane Freidman listing 6 reasons an author may consider relaunching one of their books. I’m happy to report that I qualify in all six categories.

Following are the reasons she gave, along with a bit of commentary from me. 

1. Revise and Re-release

Jane mentioned an author who had learned so much, he was sure his book would have done better the second time around. She suggested making those changes he wished he’d done before. I can’t say either of my books needed many changes, but in terms of how they were marketed, there definitely was huge room for improvement.

2. You have your rights back.

Check. Sometimes a publisher believes that a book has lived its usefulness, because selling more books would require a major effort, and they’ve got a whole list of new books that need their efforts. The author, on the other hand, may have the ability to give the book the fresh attention it needs. It IS their baby after all.

3. Your Book Needs a New Cover

Oh, Holy Moly Yes. So much so that I won’t even publish the old covers. I will say that both were beautiful, but not in keeping with the tone of the book. That falls into the “live and learn” category. And, by the way, enough cannot be said about the importance of a cover to a book.

4. Relaunch a Brand

Absolutely. That’s what this relaunch is all about. When I published ExtraNormal, it was supposed to be the first in a series of three. Those other two are still outlined in my head, but my health caught up with me and I wasn’t able to continue. I continue to receive requests (sometimes demands) for those next books, and it’s been a constant nag at the back of my mind.

“This relaunch allows me to put out books 2 and 3, with book one given a fresh start. It also allows me to put both my books of different genres into the same brand. Win, win, win. ”

5. Poor or No Promotion the First Time

Oh yes, check. Here’s how it went down. My first published novel. Oh, happy day – a published novel! Was released just a few months before being diagnosed with breast cancer. So not only was I an unknown newbie with flailing marketing skills, but I was in crisis. Book two, ExtraNormal, was the result of pure inspiration during my cancer treatment. Basically, it was in a new genre, (a fun genre) and it kept my mind occupied during treatment. Once I got my strength back, a wonderful community rallied to help me get it edited and typeset and ready to self-publish. And it did remarkably well (became an Amazon best-seller). But soon after the release I felt like a marathoner who had reached the end of the race. To put it bluntly, I knew that if I kept writing that cancer would come back. And so it all came to a screeching halt.

That is until I came up with the idea of re-branding and re-launching and even adding in the coaching I’d transitioned to. And I couldn’t be more thrilled. What about you? Have you re-branded? Re-launched? Or do you know of a book that has?

Share your thoughts in the comments.

 

If you’ve followed me at all, you may have heard my story about writing a fictional book, then finding out people around me had the same crazy powers as the characters in my book. Since I keep getting asked, I thought I’d share how it all went down.

First, let me explain that I’m about as normal and scientific thinking as a person can get. Or at least I used to be, until all this happened. Although I guess I should also clarify that even though I like things to be explained by science, I also have a huge imagination (hence the whole fiction-writer thing). Maybe the combination of being both practical in real life but fanciful in my imagination gave me the ability to put all the pieces in place?

How about I tell the story and you can decide?

First the book. The main character, Mira, is a girl who visits earth from another planet. Very much humanoid, except that she is telepathic and empathic. (Those were not the words I used to describe her though, since I didn’t even know the meaning of that second word). Jesse is from earth, but not like the other boys. In addition to being a loner, he’s musically gifted. He hears music in his head. Sometimes it torments him. But he’s able to create hauntingly brilliant music.

The snippets from this scene describes Jesse: (He’s setting up the sound system at a dance, and brought Mira to see.)

____________

“That’s your stuff?”

“Yeah, it’s usually in my room. Along with my sound mixer, keyboard, drums, guitars…” He smiled wistfully as dancing lights streamed across his face. “There’s hardly any room for my bed. I wanted to show you yesterday. But we never made it that far.”

“I had no idea.”

He shrugged, embarrassed, then took a wide step to the side, dipping me slightly. “It’s just what I do.”

“But if you’ve been in here today, why didn’t Camille and Lacey see you?”

He shrugged. “I tend to be invisible. Even to them.”

My heart ached for his loneliness. “This song,” I said, “it’s yours, isn’t it?”

“I worked on it this summer, while trying to stop the noise. I didn’t really understand it, until I saw you that first day.” He touched my chin with his finger, drawing my face up to his. “I knew immediately it was for you.”

[…] (Skipping some spoiler stuff here)

The room circled around us, lights falling across our intertwined bodies. The rich musical notes surrounded us in full crescendo. The world and all the forces pulling against us fell away in that bright, singular moment.

I imagined him in his bedroom, tormented and desperate, composing and playing each of those harmonic parts separately then blending them together. Even on my world he would be considered brilliant.

____________

So that’s Jesse. He’s kind of awesome.

But here’s where it gets weird. I wrote all that when my son was 13 and a pretty normal kid. A year later though, he started to struggle. Grades & friends both dropped out. Then one day he asked me if he could learn to play the piano. He sat down to the piano for the first time, and I spent about ten minutes showing him around. Then I left for about four hours. When I got home, he was playing better than I could even dream of playing with my decade of lessons.

It wasn’t long before his room looked just like Jesse’s – filled with all kinds of musical equipment. He’d disappear into his room and churn out the most haunting lyrics. But he never wanted anyone to hear. And the rest of his world didn’t improve. So, I found a lady who is kind of a counselor for musicians and asked her to help me figure out my son.

After her first visit with him, she told me that he’s empathic. Now you might be thinking, “Of course he is.” Or you might be like me and have no idea what that means. When she explained that empaths feel other people’s emotions like their own, my response was. “That’s not real stuff. That’s fiction. I should know.”

And there was more. Not only does he sense emotions, but he HEARS other people’s energy like a song. The things he plays are just the sounds he hears.

Holy crap. Where have I heard that before?

At first I just laughed and decided we’d wasted a few coins on psycho lady.

But no. It was true. Once we knew what to look for, we could see it as plain as day.

And while I love that he can create hauntingly beautiful music with almost no effort, it was tormenting him, just like it did Jesse.

So I went in search of solutions.

What I learned is that he is not unique. There are people all over the world who seem to know things they never learned. And who have unbelievable skills.

In fact – you’ve probably figured this out, but it was years before I did a head thump and went, “How did I know something that didn’t yet know?” (Yes, even I have some super powers).

Turns out it happens all the time. People who sense things before they happen. Or are hyper aware of their surroundings and other people’s emotions. And the numbers are increasing.

The cause? There are a ton of theories. I have mine. I’ll save those for my next post.

For now though, that’s my story.

Super powers are real guys. There, I said it. And so is kryptonite. Because when things are too powerful, or confusing, you can literally shut down.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering. My son is doing much better. He works at a music studio and volunteers his time working with young people. And when I’m really lucky he’ll play me a song.