How to Update Back Matter Across Your Entire Backlist
Adding a new book to your catalogue? Here's the most efficient way to update the 'Also By' and back matter links across every EPUB in your backlist without editing files one at a time.
Every time you publish a new book, your entire backlist needs updating.
The “Also By” section at the back of each ebook should include your new title. The retailer-specific links need to reflect the new book’s availability. If you’re going wide, each retailer’s version of each back matter section needs different links.
If you have 10 books published across 4 retailers, that’s potentially 40 EPUB files that need updating every time you release something new. Doing it manually — opening each file, editing the back matter, re-exporting — is one of the most tedious recurring tasks in indie publishing.
Here’s the most efficient approach to it.
Best for: Authors whose main task is recurring back-matter and retailer-link updates across an existing catalogue.
Why back matter updates are so painful
The core problem is that most formatting tools are new-manuscript-focused. They’re good at taking a Word document and producing an EPUB. They’re not designed for the ongoing catalogue management task of updating existing files.
The practical result is one of:
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Manual editing — opening each EPUB in a text editor, finding the back matter section, editing the HTML, re-zipping the file. Possible, but requires knowing what you’re doing and takes significant time per book.
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Re-importing from scratch — reimporting the original Word document into your formatter and rebuilding each book from the ground up. This works but multiplies the time required and risks introducing inconsistencies.
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Living with outdated back matter — the option most authors end up choosing, which means old books don’t point readers to new books.
A better approach is to use a formatter that treats EPUB import as a real feature, not an afterthought.
The import-and-re-export workflow
The most efficient backlist update workflow in Libba:
Step 1: Import the existing EPUB Upload the EPUB file for the book you’re updating. Libba imports the chapter structure and content.
Step 2: Update the back matter section Navigate to the back matter section in the editor. Add your new book to the “Also By” list. Update the store links to include the new title. For wide publishing, add the appropriate links for each retailer (you’ll handle the per-retailer filtering in the export step).
Step 3: Quick section review Since you’re not rebuilding from scratch, most of the book doesn’t need touching. Do a quick pass to confirm nothing changed unexpectedly on import.
Step 4: Export retailer variants Export a version for each retailer you publish on. Each export strips the wrong retailer’s links automatically — your Kobo export won’t include Amazon links, your KDP export won’t include Kobo links.
Step 5: Repeat for the next book Once you’ve done one, the process moves faster. You’re not reformatting the entire book — just updating the back matter and re-exporting.
Realistic time estimates
For a straightforward fiction novel with simple back matter (just an “Also By” list):
- Import and back matter update: 5–10 minutes
- Quick section review: 10–20 minutes
- Export 4 retailer variants: 5 minutes
- Total per book: 20–35 minutes
For a non-fiction book with complex back matter (multiple sections, detailed resource lists, links to bonus content):
- Import and back matter update: 15–25 minutes
- Section review: 20–30 minutes
- Export: 5 minutes
- Total per book: 40–60 minutes
A backlist of 10 fiction novels: roughly 4–6 hours for a complete back matter refresh across all retailer variants.
Planning for back matter updates before they happen
The most efficient authors build their back matter update workflow into their publishing process from the start.
Keep a master back matter document. A simple Word document or note with your current “Also By” list, retailer links, and any standard back matter text. Update this document every time you publish, and use it as the reference when importing and updating books.
Use universal links where possible. Services like Books2Read or StoryOrigin let you create a single link that redirects to the correct store based on the reader’s location. Using these in your back matter reduces the number of platform-specific edits required.
Batch updates. Rather than updating one book immediately after every new release, consider batching. Update all back matter every 3–4 books published. This makes the backlist update a periodic task rather than an immediate obligation with every launch.
Keep your .libba project files. If you’re working in Libba, export the .libba project backup after each book is finalized. When you need to update the back matter later, you can import the project file (rather than the EPUB) and pick up exactly where you left off.
What about retailer-specific back matter?
If you’re publishing wide, your back matter links need to be retailer-specific. Amazon rejects links to competing stores like Kobo, and other retailers can object to links to Amazon. Apple Books also has its own link format.
Managing this manually — maintaining a separate EPUB for each retailer with the right links — is the overhead that makes wide publishing more complex than Amazon-only.
Libba’s platform-specific exports handle this automatically. You maintain one set of back matter in the project. When you export for Kindle, it strips non-Amazon links. When you export for Kobo, it strips everything except Kobo links. You don’t edit the back matter six times — you write it once and let the export handle the retailer filtering.
Getting started
If you have a backlist that needs updating and you’ve been putting it off because it feels overwhelming, the best approach is to start with your most recent two or three books — the ones readers are most likely to see referenced — and work backwards.
Getting the newest books updated first means that when readers of your latest release click through to an older book, they’ll see current back matter. The older catalogue can follow.
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