2T Repeat Performance

In December 2016, the lovely Magical Musings crew decided it was time to close down their blogging shop. I had three wonderful years with them. I thought you might be interested in seeing those posts now.

Everything Old is New Again -- Guest Lori Handeland--Originally posted September 25, 2014

I'm a huge fan of Lori's books, so I was thrilled when she agreed to be my guest. Lori is a NYTimes/USA Today bestseller/Multiple RITA winner. Please welcome Lori!

Readers may be wondering what's up with books they've read being re-released with new covers (and in some cases new titles) all over the place.

It's called reversion of rights and where once there wasn't much for authors to do with a book when their rights reverted from the original publisher, there is now. We call them e-books and print on demand and self publishing.

I asked for the rights back to every one of my titles the instant they were available, long before there was anything to do with these reverted works. When my publisher asked what I planned to do with my reverted titles I said, "Anything I want." And now I am.

When the rights to a book revert to the author, she needs to have a new cover designed since the cover design belongs to the publisher and the artwork/photo to the artist/photographer.

I am re-releasing the New Orleans trilogy of my Nightcreature Novels. Here are the original covers. At the time, this was the paranormal romance look. It is no longer.



Here are the covers I had done. Love them? I do.



As for titles, I usually keep the original titles because I want readers to know if they've read the book before, and that's the easiest way. However, I did change the title on one of my reverted books. I titled my first contemporary series romance COACH MOM. It's about a teacher and Little League coach being a mom and a teacher and finding romance, of course. Harlequin changed the title to MOTHER OF THE YEAR. I never much cared for that title, but the book sold well and I've learned over twenty years not to get attached to a title. But that's another blog.

When the rights reverted to me, I released the book with several covers and the same title. Sales were meh.



One of my friends had retitled one of her category books and had great success. I figured I'd try it. I was going to go with COACH MOM, but my cover artist thought it should be something sexier. We went with this. She was right. Sales went way up.

I wrote in big letters on the blurb and in the file that the book had previously been published as MOTHER OF THE YEAR. That seemed to help.

Are you like me? Do you go into bookstores or surf online sites and look at covers? For me they're artwork and I just adore comparing and contrasting. What are you favorite types? Clinch, guy only, heroine only, still lifes, landscapes? Where do you stand on the retitling question?

Lori's online! Visit her web site at: www.lorihandeland.com For up to date information join her newsletter: http://www.lorihandeland.com/full_moon_club.html Follow Lori on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LoriHandeland