by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I’ve written on rights reversion a couple of times and each time I’ve received emails from traditionally published authors concerned about one aspect or another relating to the process.
The biggest concern appears to be keeping those hard-earned reviews after a rights reversion.
ISBNs do need to be changed in some circumstances, most notably when the content of the book is changed. These changes are due to significant alteration of the book’s content, not fixing typos, etc.
But ISBNs do not need to be changed when changing a book’s cover, for example. Or when changing publishers. With no change, those reviews are not in any danger.
This is fresh on my mind because I’ve just recently received the long-awaited ebook rights to the first Myrtle Clover book from Midnight Ink (as of July 1).
Here is US ISBN agency Bowker on changing ISBNs:
If an author gets the publishing rights back, does the original publisher’s ISBN remain?
No, they do not have to be assigned, but they can be.
But, of course, the most important feedback comes from Amazon. I wrote Amazon for clarification for all of us on retaining reviews after a publisher change. Here is the reply from Amlan Jyoti P. with Amazon seller support:
1. I would like to inform you that since the publishing rights will be transferred to you for the ASIN : B002WJH2I0, hence in this case you do not need to update a new ISBN for the product , the old ISBN will do.
Here, we can just change the publisher name to your name since you will have the publishing rights.
2. Please know that since in this case, the ISBN does not needs to be changed and only the publisher name needs to be changed hence the reviews will not get removed. The ASIN will contain all the reviews that is currently present on it.
I appreciate your efforts for reporting these corrections and in helping Amazon maintain data integrity to create a positive shopping experience.
Other retailers operate much the same way. If the ISBN remains the same, the author name is written exactly as before, and the rest of the metadata is the same, they’ll merge the two editions of the book. I haven’t run into any issues at Apple, Nook, etc.
I simply uploaded my own version of the book with a new cover (the cover art, at least in my experience, is never reverted to the author), myself as publisher, and the same metadata as before (lowering the price substantially from the publisher’s price) and then the retailer transferred the reviews to the new edition. It usually took 24-48 hours for the previous version to disappear from the retailer and the reviews to transfer.
I’m hoping this puts the fears of traditionally published authors to rest and that more of them will explore asking for their rights to be reverted to them. More information on obtaining those rights in my post here.
More information on ISBNs in general in this post by Giacomo Giammatteo for the Alliance of Independent Authors.
Have you requested rights back? Did you run into any issues?
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If the ISBN does change, Amazon is still good about keeping the reviews with the book if you contact them.
That’s good to know! They’ve been very responsive the times I’ve contacted KDP support.
Thanks for your thoughts on this, Elizabeth. I got my rights back on one of my novels, and didn’t have any problem. But I know that some people have run into issues. It’s good to be reminded of what Amazon says about reviews. I think it’s also good that a lot of reviews are now also in other places, so that as you’re making a transition of rights, you can at least carry some of them with you, so to speak.
It’s especially nice because, frequently, these will be older books with plenty of reviews.
This is all really useful info, especially since I didn’t realize that I needed to think about it. Thanks so much.
You’re welcome, Natalie! Hope you have a great week!
Thank you for this information. I have two books right now that the publisher has returned my rights. I really had no idea what to do with them, but I would like to republish them. Now I have an idea.
I would definitely check out the Authors Alliance link on rights reversion….their PDF is incredibly helpful. Good luck!
Congratulations, Elizabeth, on getting your rights back!!!
I am so happy for you!
I hope this will expand the number of opportunities you have to market your Myrtle Clover series.
The new opportunities would also be a blog topic I’d love to read about :)
Thanks so much! And you’re right–good blog post topic!
That’s good to know – reviews are so important! :)
They sure are. Have a good Wednesday!
[…] Reviews are vital to book sales. Craig Tuch explains how to optimize your book review process for the best reviews and the most value. Helena Halme shows how to change a book’s title without losing reviews, and Elizabeth S. Craig walks us through keeping your reviews after rights revert to you […]
Thank you for this information! I just found out I’m getting rights back for my first novel so this information is beyond helpful.
Thanks again,
Laura
Wonderful! Good luck with its re-release!