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  1. GarryG

    GarryG New Member

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    Re-Using self published material

    Discussion in 'Self-Publishing' started by GarryG, Jun 13, 2020.

    Years ago I made a short Novella length story from a larger body of writing I was amassing for a Novel.
    I self-published this Novella in order to see what (normal) people would make of my world concept, and on the whole a lot of reviewers /readers liked it (although some definitely didn't).
    A lot of comments were more positive that I'd actually hoped for and gave a lot of very useful feedback on the feel, readability and likeability of my characters and world. The main down point being that it was a bit confusing to some and seemed to have an incomplete or slightly disappointing ending to others.
    Entirely my fault and understandable as, as I said, I'd taken this from what was going to be a much larger work, and on reading it back, much later, myself I see a lot of holes that I didn't back then.

    I'm now, after many years, thinking about finishing this Novel. My question is where do I stand with re-using the (updated) text that was used to make that original Novella.

    Would it be OK to have the bulk of same thing as (more or less) a chapter within the full book?
     
  2. Dogberry's Watch

    Dogberry's Watch Contributor Contributor Contest Winner 2023 Contest Winner 2022

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    I'm pretty sure that's okay because there are some books I've read that say something like"part of this book appeared originally in Blah Blah magazine, September 2090 edition." Or to that effect.
     
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2020
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  3. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    You self published, so any contentious meeting with the powers that be will be... with yourself!

    There's a longstanding history of writers re-using, re-working older published material, either the actual content itself or themes and ideas the writer feels haven't been fully explored.

    From a different related conversation:
     
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  4. Catrin Lewis

    Catrin Lewis Contributor Contributor Contest Winner 2023 Community Volunteer

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    You can totally do that. But as you develop the rest of the novel, you may well find that the original novella material will have to be reworked, rather than merely inserted. And that's ok.
     
  5. Cephus

    Cephus Contributor Contributor

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    Go for it. Take the ideas in your novella and make them better. Combine them with other things. Improve on them. I don't know how in-depth or detailed your original was, but there are authors who make an entire career our of reusing the same concepts over and over and over. They use the exact same themes, they reuse the same or very similar characters and tell the same story and somehow, people keep buying it.

    It's your story. Do what you want with it. Don't just grab the novella and insert it into your book, you've already said you need to make changes, but the ideas? They're yours. Knock yourself out.
     
  6. Richach

    Richach Contributor Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    I do not know for sure if you can or you cant, to be honest. I would think that you could as it is your work and you are the publisher. Might it be worth checking with Amazon or where ever you published it with. If it were me, I would say that an exert has been previously published. That way consumers can not complain that you had not forwarned them. The reader should not feel that they have been fooled is what I am saying so might be a good idea to be upfront.
     
  7. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    Hey you plagiarized yourself there! Now fine yourself and be sure to pay up or you'll have to send yourself to break your own kneecaps. :rolleyes:
     
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  8. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    It comes up with no small amount of regularity. I had several examples of my own responses on this very topic from which to pick. :whistle:
     
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  9. GarryG

    GarryG New Member

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    Thanks for all the responses.
    Apart from this one foray into self-publishing (sort off) I've only ever had one-off short stories published before, and I know things are a bit different once they are sold!

    As I said, I originally made the Novella by taking some resources from my unfinished novel and adding some extra glue to make it a cohesive story. So basically it's fine, and ever relatively common, to unpick the glue and rework this material back into the novel. Even then most of the readers appeared to know it was, or should have been, part of something bigger, which it was.


    A lot of this would most likely form a lot of chapter two with some bits fitting into other places.
    I had already started rewriting a lot of this anyway, but it would still be easily recognisable as part of the previously published work, not that a lot of people read it anyway :(
     

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