Editing a Book

Almost everything on a book can be changed after you create it. A few things can't, and most print spec changes cost you a re-upload.

What You Can Change Any Time

Description, price, contributors, categories, keywords, audience, wholesale discount, edition and series. None of these affect the printed book, so nothing is reset and your book stays on sale while you change them.

Imprint too, until the book is listed in the store. After that it's fixed, because your store page's web address is built from the imprint and we won't move an address you've already handed out.

Print Specs You Can Change, and What Each Costs

You can change these on any book, including one that's already selling. The catch is that some of them change the shape of your file, so we need a new one. If your book is for sale, it comes off the store until you approve the new digital preview.

• Cover laminate: nothing to re-upload. Your print charge updates and the book stays on sale.
• Trim size: new interior and new cover. Both dimensions change.
• Interior paper: new cover. Cream and white are different thicknesses, so the spine ends up a different width.
• Duplex cover: new cover. It becomes a 2-page file instead of 1, or the other way around.
• Interior color: new interior. Color changes what each page costs to print, so we look at the file again.
• Page count: see below.

Page Count Changes

Small corrections cost you nothing to make. If your new page count is within 5 pages of the interior you uploaded, we update your print charge to match the new count and leave it there. Nothing resets, and your book stays on sale. Five pages moves the spine by about a hundredth of an inch, which is well inside what the fold can absorb.

Beyond 5 pages, both files reset and you'll upload an interior and a cover that match the new count. Save the new page count first, then upload, because we check your file against the saved number. See Changing Your Page Count for the whole sequence.

What Stays Locked

Title, for the life of the book. ISBN, once a valid one is saved. Binding, once you approve the digital preview or the book has been on sale. Publication date and imprint, once the book is listed in the store. See Locked Metadata for why each one is fixed.