A book published years ago exists in several versions and you probably can't say which is authoritative. There is your last working draft, the file you uploaded, whatever the retailer converted, and the print interior. For a reissue, only one of them matters: the one readers have.
The order of work
- Obtain the published text. Buy your own ebook; it's the cleanest source.
- Compare it against your working file to see what changed after your last draft.
- Decide which differences to keep. Most are corrections you want.
- Extract the terms from the published file, which is now your canon.
- Update the back matter, which is certainly out of date.
- Check every link, which is certainly dead in places.
- Update the metadata to current conventions.
- Reformat from a current tool, since standards have moved.
Step five is where the commercial value of a reissue mostly is. The also-by page, the newsletter link and the next-book link in a five-year-old book are all wrong, and fixing them is worth more than any change to the text.
What has drifted
| Element | Typical state |
|---|---|
| Back matter | Several books out of date |
| Links | At least one dead |
| Author bio | Stale |
| Metadata | Series fields that no longer match your others |
| Cover | Dated by genre conventions |
| File format | Built to older standards |
| Your memory of the text | Approximate |
Re-establishing the canon
The Novel Kit reads the published EPUB and returns its proper nouns and unusual terms with counts: the definitive record of what the book names, produced from the version readers actually have. For an author writing a sequel to a backlist title, that list is the canon, and the notes are not.
The broader reissue process is in republishing a backlist title.
A practical next step
Buy your own ebook and open the back matter. Everything wrong in it has been wrong for years, and fixing it is an afternoon.
Sources checked
Frequently asked questions
Where do I start?
The published file, not your working copy. Corrections were made after your last draft and they exist only in what shipped.
What has drifted?
The files, through conversions and rebuilds; the facts, through your memory; and the metadata, through platform changes.
Is a reissue worth it?
Often, for a new cover and updated back matter alone. The text usually needs less work than you fear.