I agree--don't use AI.

Excellent suggestion on putting our old work through our new tools, Alicia!

But I'll come back to read your lovely roadmap if I ever get well enough to take up the challenge - nice piece of work here!

I would like to add a suggestion I would use: by the time we've written for a while, we all have favorite pieces of software to keep us oriented (i would guess even the pantsers have SOMETHING).

For me, it would be a good thing to put that abandoned series through what I have learned of Dramatica (which I now use for all my plotting) - because that's how I order my writing thoughts now, and have made it mine with little additions and extensions.

Someone else might use, say, the Save the Cat beat sheet.

We've learned - in the time since the abandonment. It is non-trivial.

I thought I had a nice mystery series going (but hadn't been able to sell it) when I was vouchsafed the idea and characters that have become my mainstream trilogy, Pride's Children - and have spent over twenty-five years working them out (I'm slow due to chronic illness) - and there was a lot of good dumped into those mysteries (as is common with first books).

My current state of health wouldn't allow it, but we live in a world where medical researchers are re-examining the old and finding new. Who knows? I may need those ideas I abandoned, and their characters!

AI can't read and devise how much one should change or leave - I vote, leave AI out of the picture.

Saving the old ideas is a way of life. Even ideas that seem bad at the time can ferment into something worth releasing as your skill grows.

Thanks for asking me to write it! It's useful to think about these things sometimes.

It's tricky. As I'm self-published, most of the things I'd try for myself might be unavailable to you. Group Promos/Newsletter Swaps are good places to start. I personally would lean away from a re-launch if you've got any sort of sales history/review history. If you have any sort of following, reintroducing them via an Ask Me Anything or Character Interview might be fun. If you don't have a boxed set/omnibus addition, it might be worth discussing that as an option, even if it's digital only, with your publisher. That'll give you a chance to double dip on the existing series and have a way to onboard people for the next book.

I've had multi-year gaps between releases in a series, but usually I'd have releases in other series between to keep a general momentum going.

Good luck to you!

I've plotted and I've pantsed. And honestly, even with a good outline I usually follow the steps above to build out a fresh one anyway because even a plotter can find himself pantsing for short stretches.

Good luck, and enjoy! I know Past Me continues to surprise me with the work he's done.