Hi Everyone!
I posted last week that I was working on a DRM-Free version of The Guardian. I wanted to give you an update and talk briefly about "unpublishing" an ebook.
Based on my limited research, I determined that my ebooks would be better served if I listed them as DRM-Free (you can read the full post here). Cross My Heart was published as DRM-Free from the onset, but The Guardian was not.
How do you get around this?
First of all, it's important to weigh the pros and cons. Previously, The Guardian had been selling 5-8 copies a day. Though it was published in December 2010, it has taken MUCH LONGER than Cross My Heart to take off. I was ranked and had a few reviews, but I ultimately decided that I was in a place where it wouldn't hurt *too much* to unpublish The Guardian and re-publish it DRM-Free.
When I was researching, though, there wasn't much out there on "unpublishing." The few cases I read mentioned "phantom" books linked to the author's account. The last thing I wanted was for The Guardian to be linked twice, and for one of the links to be corrupt. I didn't want to cause more problems for me or my readers.
HOWEVER, the unpublishing process went smoother than I ever could have imagined. On Friday night, I finished editing/formatting The Guardian (now with chapter/page breaks!) and uploaded it with the title THE GUARDIAN (NEW DRM-FREE VERSION). By Saturday, someone had already purchased it. Though it wasn't linked to my account, if you performed a direct search, you could access it.
By Sunday afternoon, both the DRM-Free and traditional versions were available on Barnes and Noble and Amazon. At this point, I tested the samples, and went in and "unpublished" the old versions.
The two versions were temporarily linked on Amazon (so that you had to click on the first version to gain access to the DRM-Free one), but within two or three hours, the link vanished.
The original version is still available on my BN and Amazon "dashboards." For BN, it's listed as "off sale." On Amazon, it's in "draft" status.
It's incredibly easy to unpublish a book on these platforms, and even though I had two titles listed at the same time, I had no trouble getting the DRM-Free to replace the old version. (After this, I went in and changed the title, removing the "DRM-Free" notation.)
*DISCLAIMER* This doesn't mean that other people won't run into some kind of trouble. This is based on my experience only.
So . . . the Guardian ebook is now DRM-Free for your reading convenience. I did lose my ranking and reviews, but again, I felt the pros outweighed the cons. If you've read The Guardian and feel inclined, I'd love to start building them back up. No pressure. Ever. :)
I'll be paying close attention to see if re-publishing The Guardian has any effect on future sales.
In the meantime, we have two days left of Amazon's THE BIG DEAL sale. I bought the books I wanted; I hope you have, too. Now . . . I will be glad to see it go.
Also, I'm still on pace to release VENDETTA the first week of August (fingers crossed).
*back to editing*
