I published a book a while ago, should I go back and edit it now?

[Chris]

I know its a weird question, but I wrote a book when I was in highschool and published it a year after my senior year. I obviously put a lot of effort editing it and had others help me, but I'm 100% sure I can improve it now. I'm hesitant to even bother, it sold only 300 copies and 99% of those were free so it obviously doesn't have a following. I'm leaning more towards saying screw it, set it as free or remove it completely because I'm just worried about it having a negative association with my name. At the same time it has no negative reviews and the occasional site it is reviewed it is rated 5 star, so I'm hesitant about just removing it, which loops me back to the editing it idea. Editing it will be a major time sink, which I don't really have a lot of.

[Tomas, Wandering dreamer]

Not sure what exactly is "a while ago" but I've seen authors editing months after release. I've also seen books with a good story but poor or no editing at all and while some will surely point it out, there seem to be many readers that are willing to forgive mistakes (grammar, typos, ...) if the story is good. I am one of those.

I don't know how severe the reason for editing is. How much in-depth would it be? Just fixing a few typos and such, or full-scale rewriting of paragraphs for better flow? Probably try to think about this, consider the time investment versus the potential result.

I'd not remove the book, it's not like you could lose something for having it on sale.

I hope I helped at least somewhat.

[Anna]

If the book, even if well edited again, is something you would rather not be associated with for your future career, then I'd pull it and keep it, maybe diarise it to take a look in a few years' time.

If you could edit it to the extent that you would no longer be embarrassed (or whatever) by it, I'd say 'edit, edit, edit'. Editing could include evaluating the structure and settings and so on.

I left a book for almost 4 years and wrote another and published that first. In 2014 I published the first book I wrote after much editing. And I might carry on editing it! With modern technology you can reupload and call it 'second edition'.

Over to you.

[Chio]

It depends on what you want to edit. If it's typos and grammar (and it's a lot) and you have the intention of making more effort to sell it, then you can go ahead and edit it.
If you want to add a bit of detail that you think would tie your story neatly, then you can edit that too.

But if you want to make a heavy change to the story or the structure of the story, then you should first look at what the story means to you. If it's something you're passionate about but just didn't deliver what you were trying to say, even if the work is a lot, then you can edit it. But if it's not a story you are actually fond of there is no point working on it. The problem would be between leaving it up or taking it down completely.

Also, consider that the great ideas you want to implement might just mean you should write a new book. It's possible that if it's a lot of new ideas, focusing it on an old book might limit your creation process.

[Phillip]

Chio wrote: "It's possible that if it's a lot of new ideas, focusing it on an old book might limit your creation process."

Excellent point.

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

Actually, this is a question that has come up before, so it's not weird. Further, becoming unhappy with something you've published a while back is probably more common than most of us would care to admit. You published it because you believed in it at one time. Now you're not sure. This is actually a good thing. It shows you're growing as a writer.

If you're thinking of going through and fixing up the punctuation, spelling and maybe a few little details, I'd say go for it. If you're unhappy with the book all around, you might be better off either leaving it alone or unpublishing and if you're serious about being a writer, it might be better to focus your time and energy on a new project rather than investing too deeply in an old one.

Many years ago before all this self-publishing stuff, I wrote a novel that I absolutely loved. I wrote it by hand as I had no typewriter or computer at the time. I still believe it was a fantastic novel (although a bit melodramatic in places). I was scouting around trying to find a place to publish, trying to learn the process of publishing when - oops - the manuscript vanished. Well, I had been dragging my feet on learning how to get it published and by this time I had a computer. I made numerous attempts to rewrite the book, but never captured the magic and feel of the old manuscript. The more I tried, the more artificial the book felt. Maybe this isn't always the case, but I fear that if we devote too much time and energy on one project, we can't help but ruin it eventually. So, edit for spelling and punctuation, yes. I would not recommend trying to give it a major overhaul.

[Graeme]

It's perfectly valid to edit prior work.

When ever I bring out a new book, I will update the front matter of my previous books, for example 'other books,' lists.

Since that means I have to compile my files, make ebooks, update on kindle, and recheck the file... etc, etc... I will also roll in any updates to the text.

I'm not modifying narrative, that's 100% stable. What I do is update misspelled words. For example, I recently discovered I'd used 'lift,' instead of 'left,' in my first book, and never noticed it...

So, now it's fixed.

I'm with Dwayne, if the story needs major rework, I'd unpublish it first and then rework it, or, put it aside and start a new project. Use it as a learning experience.

[Graeme]

Chris wrote: "Editing it will be a major time sink, which I don't really have a lot of. .."

And there's your answer.

Writing is a big job, if you don't have enough passion for this particular project to prioritize it, put it aside, and move on to a project that will demand your time.

[William]

Absolutely. I have just updated my autobiography on Amazon, written over 3 years ago. The only problem was, that they didn't include the page numbers.

[Haru]

I think the correct answer lies within your feelings. I go with what Graeme said in post #8. You don't seem to me like you're very enthusiastic about it.

The first book I have out is a second edition. I pretty much rewrote it after I noticed the constant repeat of words, excessive use of punctuation signs, and the fanfic writer's stereotypical problem, lack of descriptions. But--I was stark passionate about it. It barely felt like a "time sink" at all, but more like "I love this story. Now that my skills have improved, I am making it even better by beautifying it!". If you can't get in a similar state of mind, I suggest you move on.

[Andrea]

why not? edited it because is something to have better text.

[Alyson]

I mean, it would not hurt. I've had some books that I've downloaded on kindle updated and it's actually helped the book. Just make sure to let your readers know that you have updated your book. :)

[D.]

Chris, you can add an intro in the beginning of the book explaining when it was written and that it was your first published work, etc.