When you’ve been writing a while, you will reach a point where magic happens when publishers return your rights to you.

It’s a magical opportunity.

It can also be daunting.

Here are four questions to ask yourself when you’re deciding what to do (if anything) with your backlist.

1. Do you want to become a hybrid author? It can seem like a simple question. You’ve already written the book. It’s already been edited. Readers have already found it. So why not put it back up? There’s an array of skills you will need to acquire or outsource. The first question though remains do you even want to self-publish your backlist? What is your why? If you don’t know your why, you can spend a lot of time and money spinning your wheels and growing frustrated. For me it was simple: I loved these books. I also had someone who came alongside me to get me started (Thank you, Lacy!) and that helped immensely.
2. What skills do you already have?
   • Marketing: Are you comfortable creating marketing images in canva, photoshop, or other tools? Do you love at least one area of social media? Do you have a network of editors and more you can turn to when you need help with something (editing, proofing, creating covers, audiobooks, etc.)?
   • Formats: What formats do you want your book/s available in? Ebook? Print? Audio? Is there another format you’ve wanted to try? Each type of book has a different set of challenges. Uploading the print book in KDP is simple until I get to the cover…don’t ask me why , but that is one aspect that always takes me longer. If you want to do audio, will you royalty split or pay upfront? Will you do Audible exclusively or also use Findaway Voices?
   • Advertising: Are you just going to post the book and see who finds it? Or will you try advertising? Where? How much? When? Etc.
   • Editing: Even the best book needs one more look. Contemporaries may need to have technology updated. Historicals may contain elements you want to reconsider. Maybe your writing style has grown and changed.
   • Covers: Covers make or break books. I choose to pay to have covers created. Many of my friends have the ability and eye to create their own. Which bucket do you fall into? Do you have the budget to pay someone?
3. What skills will you need to acquire? See the list above. You can choose to do these skills yourself. Or you may outsource them. But you’re going to need to acquire them to successfully relaunch your book. Know what your budget is and what you can or are willing to invest. For me, I took one year and invested a chunk of money in audiobooks because I could tell from my traditionally published books that my books were doing well in audio. Then I had to choose how I was going to do it. I chose to pay the narrators up front. Many of my friends took a royalty split. You’ll have to decide what works for you. I switched out of Audible only because I wanted my audiobooks available in libraries. That may be different for you. Either way you need to wrestle with these questions and decides what’s right for you and your book.
4. How does republishing your backlist build into your overall plan? I was very intentional in rereleasing my backlist. I had two purposes:

• • Fill traditional publishing holes. I had some gaps between books, and this allowed me to continue to roll out content for my current readers with books that were new to them.
  • I also tested if there was a market for WWII novels I still want to write.

Be intentional about knowing your why and how republishing your books fits into that plan.

I’d love to know how you’ve used your backlist if you republish it.