Four years is a good in-print run, so congrats for that. I think books go out-of-print faster these days–particularly if the publisher bought electronic rights (sounds like your publisher did buy them if that is how they are available).

I know a number of authors who have had their rights reverted and then put up the e-books themselves with Kindle, Nook, Smashwords, etc. Also, be sure to have a POD option for those who still want it in paper. If you have a following this can work better than you think. I have friends who are midlist and are putting up books they pubbed 10+ years ago and getting decent royalties (decent meaning in the $100-$300 per month range) now with them up on major sites like Amazon, B&N, Sony.

As for the cover, I’d find someone who knows Photoshop inside and out and negotiate a payment to create the cover image. I’ve seen prices ranging from $50 to $200 for cover creation depending on the complexity of the image. Who knows, you may finally get the cover you always wanted.

Good luck with these transitions. I think the whole e-pub route will only bring you MORE readers.

Me, I’m glad my print copy of CR is safely on my bookshelf.

Good topic! And very timely, given the huge changes in the book industry right now… I love the added choice that ebooks give the author. More choices mean more power for the author over what happens to her backlist.

Before, we had two choices when our books went out of print and we got our reversion of rights : find another print publisher or let the book languish in the drawer.

Now, our choices have almost tripled: we can leave the ebook with the print publisher, like you are doing with CR, or we can place the book with an epublisher, or we can self-publish it as an ebook ourselves…

I’ve tried the last two options (not counting leaving the book in the drawer!), and I’ve found placing my backlist with epublishers works the best for me so far. I’ve placed some of my backlist with two respected ebook publishers. Working with them has allowed me to focus more time on my current writing, plus I get the benefits of a team effort.

I have a feeling you will be writing on the topic of ebooks again, Susan… its a subject that seems to be of interest to more and more authors.

Marion, thanks for visiting and for the advice. I’ll keep a close eye on whether my older books go “out of print” as per the definition in my contracts, so I can ask for reversion of rights. In the meantime, I’m very happy that they’re still available electronically.

I hope some do end up in Book Warehouse or some similar store that buys remaindered books. Even if I get nothing out of it financially, a few more readers would find my books.

Returns and remainders are frustrating. Stores send unsold books back. Fair enough. They get remaindered. Fair enough. In a warehouse, somewhere, there are clean copies of my books. Can I get access to them? Nope, that’s not the way it works. I’m sure there are good business reasons for this, but it sure would be nice if we authors could get our own remaindered books to use for promo purposes. Having said that, I’m very aware that I’m on the outside looking in, and it would probably be a logistical and financial nightmare to make that happen. But it’s on my wish list!

My situation isn’t bad at all, having a 4-year-old book go out of print. Many, many books never go to 2nd printings. Some sell out within the first few months after publication, then are no longer available. With the uncertain state of the publishing industry and the economy these days, publishers often reduce initial print runs. Book stores don’t want to take a risk ordering books from relative unknowns; instead they get hundreds of books from bestselling authors. All of which means, for authors who are midlist and below, fewer of our books get into stores – and so there are fewer sales. A second printing won’t happen unless a trigger number of orders are reached – but how do readers even become aware of the book to ask their store to order it?

And then there’s the fact that if an author’s sale numbers are low for her most recent book, the print run for the next book is likely to be lower – or the publisher will decide the author isn’t selling well enough and just not buy any more books from her.

Well, that’s way off topic about out of print books, yet it’s all kind of related too. This is complicated and confusing, and on a bad day it can really get you down. But you can’t let yourself stay in that bad place for long, or it affects your writing.

Seriously – that is a bummer. But hurray for the e-pub option. Your fans will search out your backlist & they’ll want to read through it, no matter the format.