Back in Print: When Your Book Goes Out of Print

Republish as a POD book

Usually, Indie Kids Books is for people who are interested in starting a small business to publish their own books. But today, I’m writing a post for legacy published (traditionally published) authors whose book has gone out of print and they want to republish it. When would you use this option?

• Book 1 of your series goes out of print.

• The publisher has passed on Book 3, but you want to complete a series.

• When your favorite book (the one that sells when you do school visits) has gone out of print.

The print-on-demand technology makes this simple! It makes sense to set up your book as a POD for sale on Amazon. In addition, you can order author copies for school visits or other speaking events.

PAPERBACK ONLY - KDP ONLY

Let’s assume you just want a paperback reprint. The best way to start is with an Amazon KDP account, so the book is easily available on the Amazon bookstore.

1. Rights reversion. The first step is to ask for your copyright to be reverted to you. The paperwork may take time, so plan on that. You may or may not be able to use the exact layout for your book. For a picture book, if the illustrator did most of the layout, you should be fine. But if the publisher added back matter, did a special layout and design, or anything unusual, ask if you can replicate that in a new addition.

   Sometimes, the rights aren’t reverted because the book is still available as an ebook. It’s just not available in print. In that case, you could ask to license the book to do a short print run. I know that sounds weird, to license back your book. But I know of at least one person who did this because the book had a highly designed layout. Just getting rights to the text wouldn’t do her any good.

   Whichever way you do it, make sure the legal stuff is done before you do anything else. If you are an author or illustrator, you’ll also want to decide how to split profits on the reprinted picture book. I recommend that you consult a literary attorney and put that financial arrangement into writing. You’ll want to include how to split expenses, profits, and how to dissolve the project.

2. POD capability. Check trim sizes available in POD (NOTE: Every POD service offers different trim sizes. This is the link only to the KDP—Kindle Direct Publishing—service.) Will your book work with the available trim sizes? Can you use the same trim size, or modify the files to work? For example, if you have a 10” x 10” book, it could be adapted to the standard 8.5” x 8.5” format. Check the costs with this KDP calculator. It’s good to calculate the pricing now! Notice that you’ll probably need to raise prices from your publisher’s price. They offset print large quantities so they can price lower. POD mean you print one book at a time, and that costs more. I usually try to price to earn $2 to $3 per sale.

3. Prepare print ready files. To print, you’ll need a print-quality pdfs for the interior and the cover. (See the trim sizes and templates here.) Read more about print ready files. As long as you’re redesigning the interior of your book, you could add some marketing material. These are optional.

   1. Signup for your mailing list.

   2. List of your other titles.

   3. First chapter of next book, with links to buy.

   4. Links to the author and/or illustrator’s websites or social media.

   5. Other marketing material.

4. Business Stuff. When you publish a POD book, you will have an income stream coming from KDP/Amazon. That means you (and the illustrator) must pay taxes on the income. First, decide on a publisher’s name! Yes - you are about to become a publisher. Use this anywhere or anytime someone asks for the publisher’s name.

   1. Sole Proprietorship. There are several ways to organize a business, but the easiest one is to be a sole proprietor, for the purposes of income tax. It just means that on your personal taxes, you’ll add the profits from book sales on a Schedule C for a small business. You use your personal social security number for tax purposes. If you want to move past that to a LLC (Limited liability corporation) or SCorp, please check with your accountant for information on how to do those, and what documentation you need.

   2. Separate bank account. It’s wise to have a separate bank account for your publishing company.

   3. Register your business with the state. Check your state’s Secretary of State office about registering your business, or consult a local accountant to see if this is required.

   4. Business license. Your city may require a business license. Please check.

   5. Sales tax. Will you pay sales tax? (You’ll have to pay income taxes on your profits; but, you’ll also pay sales tax when you sell a book.) If you ONLY plan to sell on KDP, you don’t need to register to pay sales tax; instead, Amazon will collect and pay the sales taxes. But if you sell books during school visits or at other venues, you’ll likely need to register with your state to pay sales taxes.

5. Establish KDP account. KDP will require your banking information so they can deposit money (Did you open that business bank account?) If you are sharing the income with an illustrator, whose account will you use to receive funds?

6. Prepare your metadata. When a legacy publisher publishes your book, you don’t have to worry about metadata. But when you republish it you’ll need full metadata information.

   1. Buy an ISBN. In the US, Bowker is the only authorized agency to sell ISBNs, so there’s no bargains here. In Canada, ISBNs are provided free. Check the procedures in other countries. An ISBN is assigned to a particular format of a book. Therefore, you need a separate ISBN for each format: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook. However, you do not need a separate ISBN for a Kindle ebook, Nook ebook, or Apple epub. Some people suggest that you do this, but it’s standard practice to just provide one ebook ISBN.

   2. Write description. This is the marketing copy that you would find on a book’s sales page, and it’s important sales copy. It can be 250-4000 words! It’s recommended to put a great review, a tag line or something interesting to the read as the first lines, and make them bold. Use short paragraphs, bulleted features and other techniques for making it easily scanned. For easy formatting, use this tool.

   3. Decide on Amazon categories. To understand Amazon categories (which are different from the BISAC categories, fiction or nonfiction), read some of these Kindlepreneur articles.

   4. CIP block. On the copyright page, legacy publishers add a CIP block. One librarian told me that books are naked without this block of information. I use this service to generate my CIP blocks.

7. Upload book. Log into your KDP account and follow instructions to upload your book and its metadata. Fill out the metadata forms and then upload the pdfs.

8. Proof copy. I recommend you order a proof copy! If needed, modify and re-upload files. OR, approve the book for sale.

9. Monitor sales. When some event happens, you can modify the metadata and/or the files whenever you like. For example, in 2024, I updated the metadata on my book, ECLIPSE, to talk about the April, 2024 US solar eclipe.

10. Order author copies for school visits. You can choose what to charge! You’re the publisher now, so it’s your call how much profit you want to make.

    HARDCOVER ONLY - Ingram ONLY

    If, however, you want a hardcover copy only, you’ll need to go to Ingram Spark for your POD. Ingram Wholesale is the largest book wholesaler in the US. If you POD with their sister company, Ingram Spark, your books are automatically listed in the Ingram Wholesale catalog, which means your books are widely available. They can be ordered from educational distributors, Amazon, or any one who uses Ingram Wholesale. In addition, you can order author copies to sell when you speak.

    Basically, repeat the steps above, except set up and use an account with IngramSpark.

• Login to IngramSpark.

• IngramSpark’s calculator (includes trim sizes).

• IngramSpark File Creation Tools.

This is a quick discussion of how to put your book into print. It’s meant to be a brief how-to guide with links for legacy-published authors who just want to get a book back in print. Hung up on something? Search this website—there’s likely a longer answer.

This blog is dedicated mostly to those who want to create a small business publishing children’s books and I invite you to look around! Here’s a good place to start.