Updating front and back matter... worth it?

[LSMay]

I have a list of my published books in the front of my novels. I've also got some 'advertising' material in the back - for example, my last book in a series might try to lure a reader to another series with a blurb etc. This often includes wording like 'first two books out now.'

When I had only 3 or 4 books, it was easy enough to go through and update every single one when I released something new, so that all the information was correct.

Now I have 11 separate titles, most with paperbacks too (I never was so good with updating the paperbacks, anyway, but I do kind of feel bad about them being out of date...) I've started updating only book one and the last in series for each series, but now that's four separate series, that number is getting up there as well.

Is it worth keeping these things up to date? Is there a better way than manually updating all the books, or even the first in series and last in series?

[Maggie Ann]

I don't know if there is a better or easier way to do it, I just know I had to update 40+ books. I removed all of the "next in series" paragraphs from the books going to D2D because they take care of that for you. I also had to consider links to my new website, D2D's author pages, and B2R.

D2D will also add a list of your books in the front or back matter or both. I removed them all from my Amazon ebooks and just directed readers to my website with a very short listing of the kind of books I write.

Yes, it was a job, but I just did one series at a time and eventually got it done. For me, it was worth the effort to stay up to date. It's annoying to read something that says at the end, "watch for "xxxx" coming June of 2014." That does not tell me what other books there might be in that series in the meantime, but if the author directs me to their website, I can easily check it out.

[Marti Talbott]

I used to do that, but I discovered it is easier to use a standard paragraph in the back with links to different pages on my website and to my Facebook page. It works really well, is accepted by all the booksellers, and I use Google analytics to see how many customers are clicking through.

Here's what I use: (with live links, of course)

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[Jack Krenneck]

I think that minimize and optimize is the way to go.

Another way of saying the same thing is that less is more. Your back matter should really only be trying to do one or two things, and as briefly as possible so people actually read it. Focus on that and jettison everything else.

[guest153]

I used to update the list of all my books, but as I published more, it soon became too much of a chore. So instead, I included a link to each series with a little description and at the bottom, included a link that said, "For a comprehensive and up-to-date list of all my titles, please visit [LINK]."

For final books in a series, I'll include a description of another of my series along with the cover of the first book and a link to it.

[LSMay]

Some good approaches here - thanks all.

[TimothyEllis]

I have a back-matter file, which is added to the end of every book, each time it gets uploaded again.

I keep it up to date, and currently it includes my profile photo from Author Central, and the link there, a poster version of all my covers of completed series, and the new covers of the existing series as they get released. All link now to AC. After it comes my universe timeline.

If a book gets a bug fix, or cover change, or even the main blurb changed, I re-add the new back matter file before I upload it.

When you get beyond 20 books, keeping them up to date becomes time consuming, so I only tend to do it when a book is changed for any reason.

[RappaDizzy]

I use D2D to update my backmatter automatically for all ePub outlets i.e Apple, Kobo, etc. Since I go direct to Amazon like most others, I‘ve given up on updating every book. I just put out 2 new books and it’s become too much of a time sink and I’m just using a link to my website. Like Tim says, the more books you have the bigger the problem. It would be great if Amazon allowed you the option of adding/updating your back matter there as well. Maybe they can’t afford a good programmer to do that.

[Jack Krenneck]

Apart from the effort/time sink of updating back matter, there's the question of what you want it to achieve.

There are different goals that an author may choose to pursue. Sell the next book in the series. Ask for a review. Build a mailing list. Build a personal rapport between author and reader. Funnel people to a website, or Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. And probably a few other things I'm not familiar with.

But back matter is marketing, and it's well established in marketing that the more options you provide the worse results you get. People like things simple. If you give them ten options they get, to use a technical term, confusicated. If you give them one or two options with motivation to act, results are far superior.

So I would suggest that back matter is best condensed down into the one or two most important things you want a reader to do at just that point where they finish reading your book.