Leap of Faith

Almost five months ago, I spend many an hour thinking about my writing career. I had dabbled in self-publishing my epic fantasy series that I'd required the rights back from Medallion Press. My heart wasn't in the commitment needed to be successful as an independent publisher of my own books. A chance comment overheard at my local writers' meeting led me to Musa Publishing. After some investigation and contacting an author I knew personally who had a book reissued through them, I submitted the first book on The Futhark Chronicles. Shortly thereafter, an editor asked me to send her the complete series before they made a decision. A contract for each book in the series followed. The professionalism and organization of Musa impresses me every step of the way. The first book will be reissued in February of next year and the others shortly thereafter.

I also had one romance novel with an excellent publisher while all my other romance books, including two in that same series, were with New Concepts Publishing. That single book with the other publisher had earned very small royalties from the very start to my disappointment. Though NCP doesn't normally do reprints, I contacted them and asked them to take on this book and reissue it. To my great delight, they not only took it on, but also decided to reissue the other two books in the series with new covers.

New cover for reissue

In today's publishing landscape, it is important to take charge of your career. In my first example, I evaluated my strengths and comfort and realized I would be happier if my books were with a small publisher even if I didn't earn the high percentage royalties as I would if self-published. When my book wasn't doing well at one publisher, I made the decision to take back my rights and then trust the book to another small press. In the second example, I retrieved my work from a place where it languished with virtually no sales and put it with a publisher where my books have had moderate to bestselling success.

The amount of relief I felt after taking that leap of faith to pull my books from one venue and entrust it to another can't be described. My books were being given a second chance at life and success. There are so many options for writers right now, it is important to keep searching until we find the best place for our books' success. I could have allowed my books and all the work I put into them to wither and be forgotten while I continued to work on new novels, but the effort to find them new homes was more than worth it.

Have you ever had a book reissued? Do you work with more than one publisher? I only have three now and that's enough for me. Have you ever taken your rights back from a publisher and for what reason?

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