Remarkable Rewrites, Part 1: The Fabulous KLE
What happens when an author decides a book or series they wrote needs a facelift? They do a rewrite and rerelease. But that process is not without its pitfalls. So what motivates a published author to unpublish a book, rewrite it, and rerelease it into the wilds of Booklandia?
In Avery Maxwell’s case, she put her first two novels through a re-edit to enhance consistency and flow with the books that followed after she changed editors. (https://www.brayzensblog.com/blog-3/rewrite-reread-relive) . Speaking with Avery got me thinking about how many other authors have done rewrites with their books, and why they choose to do them. Well, whether by luck or the Universe’s interesting sense of coincidence, I connected with two other authors who had also decided to rewrite some of their novels for republication.
Both Katherine L Evans (KLE) and Claire Wilder (CW) are authors I adore, but truth be told, I found them after they had already decided to rewrite their series. So, unlike my experience with Avery Maxwell, I had no idea what their books were about or how they read before the rewrites. I only even knew about the rewrites because of their newsletters and social media. And their end goals with their rewrites were also very different from each other, and from Avery. Katherine wanted to update her Romance in New Orleans series to take a deep dive into her characters and stories, bringing the reader more emotional connections with her characters, and creating more intense and full developed storylines. Claire Wilder rewrote her Jewel Lakes series to change the point of view (POV) of her first 3 books (originally written in 3rd person) to match the POV of the last books in the series (written in 1st person). Both of these situations went well beyond the re-editing process; in KLE’s situation the stories themselves got a bit of a facelift, not just the technical writing elements. Even though I hadn’t read their books before the rewrites, I still really wanted to know the why and how behind the process. So I asked. And they provided truly insightful feedback to my questions.
Now, I had originally planned to do this as one long blog post, but I was finding my thoughts getting muddied by going back and forth between the replies. So, faithful Bookwyrms… you’re getting 2 separate blog posts this week. Today, you get to hear from Kathryn L Evans, who just released her rewritten book 3 (Back to You) in her Romance in New Orleans series last week (4/14/22). And later this week, you’ll get to hear from Claire Wilder, whose Jewel Lakes series is complete in its rewrite and available for immediate binging!
Oh, and when you see those words between the **...** those are my thoughts sneaking into the conversation.
BB: Why did you decide to revisit and rewrite/re-edit/rebrand and then rerelease your novels?
KLE: There’s this phrase, “Never give up on something you can’t stop thinking about.” That was (is!) me with these books. I don’t know exactly what it was about this group of characters that my heart just wouldn’t let go of. I think it’s because it was the first time I wrote a whole cast of characters that came to life immediately and grew deeper and more and more complicated the more I spent time with them. While that was happening, a bigger story was brewing beneath the surface, one that spanned the whole first six books in the series and then came to an explosive head in a series finale. And I just had a visceral need to tell that story.
So I did, and I thought it was amazing. The series finale and series story as a whole had exactly the effect on my (very few) readers that I’d hoped for, and the way it turned out was like reaching author nirvana. I can’t describe it. But in a nutshell, it made me love these characters that much more, and I believed in their potential to emotionally move more readers so much that I couldn’t connect with other projects. I kept coming back to this one because I knew these were stories worth reading and there had to be a way to get people to read them. So I went on a mission to figure it out.
** When something sinks its teeth into your mind and won’t let you focus on anything else, that’s usually a good sign that you should give it some time. I’m really glad KLE did. Her characters are so deeply developed you really feel like you know them. And the stories she tells around them are emotional on multiple levels. Be prepared to feel really connected to these characters and their lives.**
BB: How long after the original release did you decide to revisit and rerelease your novels?
KLE: The original first book in this series (Return to Me, which is now the freebie origin story), released on November 18, 2018, and each subsequent book released a month later up until the original series finale. The timing of that coincided with us moving, so it had to be delayed. I ended up releasing the finale in January 2020. Once the chaos of March rolled around, like everyone, I was suddenly left with a whole lot of time to just think. And fixing this series was what I thought about. I kept coming back to the second book (which is now book 1 My Favorite Mistake) and thinking of all these beautiful moments that came out in the finale. When I was first writing that book, I knew where it was all headed but decided readers didn’t care about relationships in books that aren’t the main love pairing. So, in the quiet of the lockdown, I started writing out all those scenes that I’d wanted to include but was too afraid to.
So to make a very long answer much shorter, I would say it was about two and a half years when I started thinking about revamping them.
BB: What was the most difficult part of your decision?
KLE: Honestly, I was fretting most about the lost reviews. Just because reviews are so hard to get in the first place, but also that I had so few actual readers that the reviews meant EVERYTHING. I loved these books so much, and I just wanted other people to love them too, and these reviewers did. That sort of thing is priceless to me.
** If you’ve ever wondered if your reviews are important- they are. If you’ve ever wondered if authors read your reviews- they do. And if you’ve ever wondered why it’s so important to leave those sparkling complimentary reviews- now you now. So please, when you love a book, leave a review. They really do matter to the authors, and are free, quick, and surefire way to make an author feel loved. Reviews can also drive new readership for an author. What better way is there to help your favorite authors succeed than to provide a great reason for someone else to read their books? **
BB: Did you let readers know your plans? If you did, how did you get that information to them? If you did not, why did you choose to keep that information private?
KLE: When it got close to when I was about to hit unpublish, I reached out to a handful of readers/friends to let them know what I was planning to do and if they would pretty please consider reviewing again. I mentioned it conversationally a number of times to my newsletter subscribers, but I was also in the process of building my list and developing a new relationship with them. Everything in my author life was changing at the same time, so I just decided to word-vomit about exactly what was happening on my journey basically in real-time.
** I love this! Being transparent with readers is such an important part of being an author. And asking for readers to resubmit reviews is another wonderful way for an author to remind their readers of just how much they value those reviews. But it can also be really, really scary to ask readers to do that. So huge SNAPS to Katherine for making that big ask! (the fabulous KLE hands out snaps in her group as marks of high recognition, so they are definitely fitting here for her. If you’re interested in joining her reader group, you can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yasqueens/) **
BB: What has been the general reaction from readers and other authors who know you are planning to rerelease your book(s)?
KLE: As far as readers, they love the new versions as much as the originals. Beyond that, I think they’ve enjoyed going on this journey with me because I get excited and that makes them excited, and it just becomes a big excitement feedback loop. I’ve also seen other authors taking the plunge into re-releasing recently. I won’t claim to have any influence on that, but based on things they’ve said to me, it feels like my doing it wound up on their subconscious radar and possibly helped them feel like it was okay to do it, too. Nobody wants to be the person who blinks first in the staring contest! But I will happily be that person if it can make somebody else feel like it’s okay to blink (or try again).
** Sometimes it just takes seeing someone take that plunge into something you’ve been considering to give you that permission to do the thing, too. It’s a hard step to take, so knowing you’re not alone can be very reassuring. **
BB: As part of your rerelease, are you making other changes not involving the actual text of the book? Title? Cover? Something else?
KLE: The bare bones of this series are and have always been amazing. I had a product packaging problem! You’re supposed to be able to tell what you’re buying from the package, right? And I had these absolutely beautiful packages (book covers) that didn’t tell anyone what the product inside was (is this even romance?? Nobody knows!). I had an amazing cover artist who followed my vision for the original covers to the letter, but my vision was all wrong because I didn’t know what I needed to be visualizing. There’s a lesson in there! Through a lot of trial and error and thinking about what this series really was, I figured out the correct genre and hired a cover artist who knew the expectations.
Additionally, the wild and crazy series finale is going to be split into separate books. Originally, this was a single 750-page book! I didn’t want to split it in half because it would leave people with the world’s worst cliffhanger. I plan to remedy that this time by only waiting about a week between the release of part 1 and part 2, and they’ll also be discounted a little.
Finally, I got to go back and add all those rich-with-emotion scenes I thought I wasn’t “allowed” to include in romance novels. And that felt like a win-win for everybody. New readers get all those beautiful extra scenes from the get go. My re-readers get a ton of bonus new scenes. And I finally feel like this series is living its best life.
** “And I finally feel like this series is living its best life.” THIS! Yes! I absolutely love that Katherine finally wrote the books she really wanted to write, not the books she felt others expected. There’s something inherently better in a book that is written to the author’s honest vision. It rings with a different level of authenticity when all the things are there. KLE and I have actually talked about this concept of writing your story, your heart, into a book and allowing the right readers to find it. Not every book is for every reader. And when you try to write a book for every reader, you risk losing your true audience. I’m reading the Romance in New Orleans series as a brand new KLE reader and I am fully and emotionally invested in these characters and their stories. And, I’m also fully and emotionally invested in KLE. She’s a phenomenal author and storyteller. But even more significant to me, she is a truly incredible human who lives for and loves to support the people in her life.**
