Hello! So I’m currently publishing a story right now, but it’s also in the works on a rewrite/edit. I want to finish posting up the first draft for current readers to finish, but when my second draft is done, I was wondering what I should do? Should I post as a new book, or paste over the first draft, or unpublish my first draft and republish with my first draft? I have a few goals I wanna achieve: (1) I don’t want current readers to be spammed with updates, (2) I want to draw in new readers and appear on the newly updated charts, and (3) I don’t want to lose my current stats (it looks pretty nice and I don’t wanna start from 0 again). Just wondering what people usually do. Thanks!!
How to deal with rewrites?
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RepresentingWrath
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Technically you can if you post a new book. Your old book will keep all the stats while your new one will appear on the latest series and other stuff. However, will you draw new readers or not is a gamble. Even you old readers might ignore the rewrite version.
Assurbanipal_II
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Just modify your old one, unless the plot changes massively.
CupcakeNinja
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Post a chapter in the original draft that you are creating an updated version. Create the updated one as a separate book to draw in new readers while keeping the old ones that migrate to the new version.
In short, just give old readers the heads up. Also post the notice on your profile
Jemini
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Ok, questions.
1. Are you changing any major plot points?
2. Are you re-arranging the order of any events?
3. Are you adding any new events?
4. Are you drawing out any encounters or dramatically altering the way any encounters go down?
If you answered "no" to all 4 of these questions, then what you are doing is not a re-write. It's just a bit of polishing up and editing to the already existing story. What you should do is just straight up paste over the already existing story.
If you answered "yes" to any of them, then it's a legit re-write. If you answered "yes" to 2 or more of them, then it is a dramatic enough re-write that I would recommend posting it up as an entirely separate series.
This, BTW, is what I did with my re-write. My series you see down in my sig, Key to the Void, yeah. That's a re-write. Not only that, I also changed it's name. It was originally called "Second Life as the Sister of a Goddess." For the re-write, I replaced the descriptive name with that more symbolic name.
SirDogeTheFirst
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I am also currently rewriting my story as well.
Okay here's how I do.
Because the main plot (expect some extended lore) is not changed and I am using assets from the already written chapters, I edit the chapters.
And when I need more space to work, I will publish an separate chapter.
For example I needed two more chapters because I added an important fight that I passed in the original.
So I published two new chapters named 19.5 and 19.5.2.
Doing that both allowed me to put my story on updated stories part and gave me more space to work.
Also, I will add warnings into my story to inform readers about the whole rewritting stuff. (I constantly update which chapter is the last rewritten on synopsis)
Still, I don't know how big of a chance you will be making with your story, so you might just wanna write a new one. (Who nows, a better structure and grammer can surpass your old story in a blitz.)
Okay here's how I do.
Because the main plot (expect some extended lore) is not changed and I am using assets from the already written chapters, I edit the chapters.
And when I need more space to work, I will publish an separate chapter.
For example I needed two more chapters because I added an important fight that I passed in the original.
So I published two new chapters named 19.5 and 19.5.2.
Doing that both allowed me to put my story on updated stories part and gave me more space to work.
Also, I will add warnings into my story to inform readers about the whole rewritting stuff. (I constantly update which chapter is the last rewritten on synopsis)
Still, I don't know how big of a chance you will be making with your story, so you might just wanna write a new one. (Who nows, a better structure and grammer can surpass your old story in a blitz.)
Thank you all so much for the replies! This is really helpful.
I like this suggestion the best! Thank you! I’ll most certainly have way more chapters to add after a rewrite. And bleh idk how much better it’ll do after I rewrite because I doubt I improved thaaat much over the year :’)
Post a chapter in the original draft that you are creating an updated version. Create the updated one as a separate book to draw in new readers while keeping the old ones that migrate to the new version.
I’m only looking to do 3, so it’s not gonna be a huuuuge rewrite, which is kinda why I’m hesitant to make a new book, it’ll just seem a bit redundant.
I like this suggestion the best! Thank you! I’ll most certainly have way more chapters to add after a rewrite. And bleh idk how much better it’ll do after I rewrite because I doubt I improved thaaat much over the year :’)
Post a chapter in the original draft that you are creating an updated version. Create the updated one as a separate book to draw in new readers while keeping the old ones that migrate to the new version.
Thank you for this too, I like the idea of giving old readers a heads up.
Jemini
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Well, if it's specifically #3 from my list (adding new events), and that's the only one from the list you are doing, then pasting over still sounds like a viable option. About the only issue is that re-numbering the chapters can become a serious pain.
Just be sure to leave a note for your long-term readers about what you're doing. You should do this right as you start the pasting-over effort, and then give another note around the same time you are reaching the point where you are adding events and specify exactly what two pre-existing events you are sticking this new one between.