Post-Publication Revisions? Not So Easy...

As we all know by now, I've redone The Quest of Dai: The Eroe.

Some day I'll write about everything I learned in this publishing process, but for now, let me tell you what happened in the last couple of days. I reached out to Outskirts Press, the publisher I used for The Quest of Dai: The Eroe, and ordered their post-publication revision package. I was ecstatic.

A very, very nice woman e-mailed me back with a Word document template asking me to fill in the line I wanted to replace with the new line to replace it with.

I responded and said it would be impossible for me to fill out that template, as I had revised the entire manuscript, and needed the entire book reformatted and revised.

To which she responded and sadly told me that I wouldn't be able to do that in the post-publication revision--I would need to order another package.

I quickly asked if I would be able to remove the existing version from print and make sure it was no longer available, and she said yes, as soon as my new book was ready we could get rid of the old one.

However.

Having the old The Quest of Dai: The Eroe available and out there does not make me feel good. I don't mind paying the package price to have it replaced--that's fair. They have to do the work all over again. But what worries me is having to get a new ISBN for a book of the very same title, because that means the old book still exists. The old book is still out there. The old book will still be SOMEWHERE. Can they guarantee it will disappear from Amazon? Or will it just say, "Not available"? Can I still use the same title?

I don't know. But I am definitely not ordering the package until I know for sure. Outskirts (they're so awesome!) credited my account with the money I had paid for the revisions package and said I could use it to purchase a package. I e-mailed my author rep/publishing team and asked them for some additional info. I'm not spending $1000/$600 until I know for sure that the book will be gone for good. (I'm not exactly sure what my other options are, but I'll think of something I guess?)

I'm not going to say it was depressing, but it was kind of a bummer. At least the Outskirts team is always insanely nice to work with.

Also--and this is kind of funny... I was actually about to purchase the package, and I couldn't make myself hit "confirm." I kept flipping back to the manuscript and reading and re-reading the first few pages. Panicking. Wondering if it was good enough. Asking myself if I was REALLY SURE this time.

Turns out I wasn't, because that was when I e-mailed the publishing team.

And now I'm going to go read the manuscript one more time. Because I can't let go.