Quote:
Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks
We are specifically not allowed to put the same material in a "book" or short story with a new title. So while I had two short stories in there and all I did was move the one story to the new book, I am still not supposed to just change the title of the other short and "republish."
But yes. I agree, it was not a smart or clean thing to do. I did the best I could with the tools I have. It is not something I would recommend to an author. My only reason for posting to the OP was because I thought there was a chance the author actually HAD a reason he did what he did.
We also do not assign the ebook ISBNs. We CAN for a fee, but we usually do not issue them. This is the other reason the retailers do not want us changing titles for material that is generally the same story.
It's not a perfect solution, I agree. But I do think there are times when authors have to make a decision that is LEAST confusing to get a book out there. Changing the title of a book is probably the most confusing thing an author can do--and it would definitely result in some people buying the book twice (because you cannot change the title and have it be the same listing. That is not allowed).
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I guess I don't understand why you didn't just leave both of the stories in the original book? I've seen many many times when a short story collection would have a story in it which ended up becoming a part of a larger stand alone work, and the collection remains intact except for an added blurb on the cover to indicate that it includes a part of a larger book. Ender's Game is one example of this, along with a couple of other of Orson Scott Card's works--he is someone who is known for taking a short story and expanding it into a novel.
Shari