Chris Fox - Relaunch Your Novel: Breathe Life into Your Backlist

5,000 Words Per Hour

Lifelong Writing Habit

Write to Market

Launch to Market

Six Figure Author

Relaunch Your Novel

,000 Words Per Hour, my first book for writers, came out in June of 2015, just over two years ago. When I wrote that book, I worked at a startup and wrote on the side. I rode the bus to work, cranking out as many words as I could while I bounced around in my seat .

That habit allowed me to produce eight books in sixteen months, not easy with a 60+ hour a week day job (something many of you can relate to). It was one of the most brutal things I've ever had to do, but in the end it freed me. I've been a full-time author for a little over a year, and I make more money than I ever did with software .

That's only possible because I now have 22 books in my backlist. An author's backlist is the lifeblood of her career, the constant stream of revenue that will keep her rent or mortgage paid while she works on the next big release. It's the money that keeps coming in when he takes a year off to sail around the world, or if he takes time off from writing .

Unfortunately, as far as I could tell, there was no book out there teaching backlist management. I've read stacks of books for authors; while a few offer some general tips, none present a comprehensive system for turning your backlist into a money factory .

So I wrote one. Within, you'll find everything I know about keeping my books afloat, and about relaunching titles that never received the right kind of opportunity for success when I first launched them. The beauty of being an author is that your intellectual property can be used however you want, and the fact that a book didn't do well on the first go around doesn't mean that you can't still sell thousands of copies .

I use my own backlist for many examples, but have also included case studies from other successful authors. These authors write in a variety of genres, but there are commonalities in their relaunches that will help you get your backlist producing the kind of income you want it to .

That, folks, is the holy grail. I know the title of this book is Relaunch Your Novel, and you're absolutely going to do that. But the real takeaway, the one that will make you money for the rest of your life? That's the Breathe Life Into Your Backlist part .

As in all my books, I try to keep me out of it. But, inevitably, some people want to know a little about the author. Please be advised that the next several paragraphs may contain pompous windbaggery .

Who is Chris Fox and can he really teach this stuff ?

I published my first novel in October of 2014. At that time, I had the advantage of working at a San Francisco startup. Not only did this pay me very well; it also meant I was on the bleeding edge of technological development .

This allowed me to predict where publishing was going to go, and to get out ahead of the rest of the crowd. I funneled several thousand dollars into launching No Such Thing As Werewolves, and the book paid back those production costs by January of 2015. I was floored .

My little book had made over $4,000 in a single month, due largely to the audio release. The lightbulb went on in my head. What if I had ten books out? Or twenty? How much would I be earning every month ?

Unfortunately, at that time I didn't understand the concept of a book launch. I assumed that sales would remain steady for many months, possibly even years. I didn't understand that yesterday's hot new release is today's bargain bin leftovers .

I eagerly cranked out a second novel, and then a third. I ventured into non-fiction. By late 2015, I understood how the sales curve worked, and knew that fiction has a big burst at release, then fades into a long tail. So I focused on releasing as many books as possible. I cranked out a fourth novel. Then a fifth. As of this writing, I have 12 full-length novels out .

At some point along the way I got tired. It felt like sprinting on a treadmill, always rushing to get the next new release out. If I stopped, even for a moment, my income fell sharply. I found this out the hard way when I didn't put out a novel for six months .

And yes, I realize some of you are goggling, thinking that putting out a novel every six months is faster than light speed. Go read Six Figure Author if you want my stance on that . = p

I figured that there had to be a better way. Why did my old series stop selling? What could I do to keep them selling? Facebook ads? Kindle Countdown Deals? Permafree? What was the solution to ensure a stream of sales ?

I didn't know, so I started experimenting. I did all the things. Some worked moderately well. Most didn't work at all. But every once in a while something would just click, and I'd sell a bunch of books. The more I experimented, the better the results. Eventually, my backlist income stabilized. I was still having 5 figure months, despite not having put out a new novel for half a year .

I cannot stress enough the significance of this change. The single largest thing I wrestle with as an author is the constant pressure to crank out books as quickly as possible. The knowledge that my backlist lets me slow down to a manageable pace reduced my stress by about a million percent .

Today, I'm still a six-figure author. I'm still cranking out a ton of books, and most of those books are written to market. But, more than ever, I'm more concerned about my backlist than I am about my new releases .

After you read this book, I hope you are , too .

- C hris

I f you're reading this, you should have at least one book out (a novel, or a non-fiction book). Maybe you have ten. Or twenty. But you need to have at least one. If you don't, your money and time are better spent elsewhere. I have five other books in this series, all of which will probably help you more than this one .

The goal of this book is to transform your backlist into an automatic money-making machine, whether you're the one-book guy or the ten-book gal. So you kind of need that backlist to get started .

In both cases, the following scenario is probably very familiar :

You launched a book, you had some sales, and then the book slowly sank into oblivion. Sales decay over time; it's a sad fact of author life. Now, if you don't run a promotion, your once mighty book moves barely any copies at all. The older it is, the less that sales line moves .

Orand this is far more likely for most of usyou launched a book and didn't have any sales. A few of your friends bought it at 99 cents, you ran a couple promotions, and now you have eight reviews and a seven-figure rank on Amazon .

In both cases, those books are not pulling their weight in your backlist. For most authors, we simply ignore those books. They were flops, and we reason that our time is better spent working on a new release with the potential to sell better. Subconsciously, we dissociate ourselves from books that fail. Focusing on new releases lets us avoid past failures .

I'm not suggesting you shouldn't be working on that new release. You absolutely should. What I'm saying is that you should do both .

The beauty of this industry is that you can experiment constantly. A few simple changes might breathe life into all your books, turning two or three sales a day into twenty. Or a full relaunch might give it a chance to break into the Amazon top 1,000 .