I self-published my first book and intended to do the same with my second, but my editor thinks it's very strong and wants me to try for an agent. Do I need to take down my first book at Amazon and any references to it elsewhere? It hasn't been a strong seller, so I don't want its low ranking and dearth of reviews (19, average 4.3) to work against me.
Thanks for any feedback.
There's no way to make sure all references to the book can be obliterated from the Internet, even if you remove it from Amazon. If you're worried about the sample pages on Amazon, you might have the option of declining/removing the "LOOK INSIDE" option. I don't know.
Regarding the sales record, that would be relevant if you were now trying to get an agent to represent a book you've self-published. But you're not doing that. Possibly, some time down the road, if your current novel sells well, the agent you have might be willing to represent that S-P novel, maybe after some revisions. But that's down the road.
Just because some agents may expect authors to "confess" that they've self-published a book before, that doesn't mean that authors have to buy into the mentality that they've done something to be ashamed of and should try to hide the fact that they've self-published if they can. Some discretion is good, such as when to bring this up, so as not to bias your chances in a negative way. Since you're not asking an agent to represent that self-published book, I'd leave it out of the query.
It would be wrong to try to get an agent for a previously published book ---- whether self-published or published traditionally --- without informing the agent of that. That's information an agent needs to have. Not good if the agent finds out only by doing an Internet search for your name.
I suggest focusing on making your query and sample pages for the current novel the best you can. If an agent calls to offer representation, you might want to mention the SP novel as a step you took along the way as an author.
