When you need to remove an ebook from sale, knowing how long it takes is vital.
It is especially the case if you plan to republish elsewhere or join an exclusive program like KDP Select.
Draft2Digital (D2D) makes delisting your ebooks a simple process. With a few clicks in your dashboard, you can send removal requests to all retailers where your ebook is available.
Most stores process these requests quickly, but some library distributors can take longer. Knowing these timelines helps you plan effectively and avoid surprises when republishing or joining KDP Select.
Why must I remove an ebook before enrolling in KDP Select?
No matter the rights or wrongs, fair or unfair, Amazon demands that your ebook must be exclusive to Amazon if you want to enroll in KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited.
It’s an issue that can cause problems for self-publishers when they want to enroll their ebook after publishing it elsewhere.
The issue first arose a long time ago on Smashwords when it had to end its association with Flipkart.
The problem was that Flipkart did not respect title delist notifications from Smashwords. Many authors were punished at the time by Amazon when they enrolled in KDP Select.
The authors believed that they had delisted their published books correctly from Smashwords.
But unknown to them, their ebooks were still available on Flipkart in India months later. Therefore, Amazon deemed that the ebooks were not exclusive and violated the terms of KDP Select.
I used Smashwords for many years, and I know how hard Mark Coker worked to fit Smashwords into an Amazon-dominated ebook market.
That he took such decisive action against Flipkart showed how important he believed it was for self-publishing authors to be able to trust the delisting and unpublishing process.
Smashwords is now part of Draft2Digital, but the same issues apply today.
It is not a process that self-publishing authors will use a lot. But it is vital that when you delete an ebook, it works as expected when you need to use it.
Delisting and deleting an ebook on Draft2Digital
I have used Draft2Digital for years now.
Many aspects of their service are impressive. However, one aspect I hadn’t had the opportunity to test was its delisting process.
I am certainly a proponent of open-publishing for ebooks. But the reality of the ebook market is that from time to time, enrolling a title in Amazon KDP Select can be beneficial.
For me, this time arrived recently because I wanted to see the other side of the coin, so to speak.
I am an author, but I also write a lot about self-publishing and have been open-publishing for a long time.
But I wanted to update my firsthand knowledge of the pros and cons of KDP Select, and especially the effect of Amazon Kindle Unlimited.
With that decision made, I had to delist some of my ebooks from Draft2Digital before I could enroll in KDP Select.
I hadn’t done this for some time, but I expected it would take a few days to a week to complete the process.
Well, I can happily report that my expectations were very much outdated.
The delisting process on Draft2Digital was a lot faster than I expected.
Apple, Nook, and Kobo were confirmed as delisted within only a few hours. Page Foundry, Scribd, and Tolino took a little longer.
But they were confirmed as delisted in less than twelve hours. 24Symbols took the longest to delist. But it was just a little over 24 hours, which was fine.
I recall that I would have been happy a few years ago if the delisting process had taken five days.
However, I can happily report that Draft2Digital is now extremely prompt in delisting and unpublishing ebook titles.
Why does delisting depend on Amazon’s rules?
The reality of today’s ebook market is that Amazon and Kindle books make the rules.
If you want access to KDP Select, it means following the Amazon exclusivity rules.
There are some benefits to using it as a marketing tool. So it is sometimes worth enrolling in KDP Select for one or two 90-day terms.
To be able to do this, though, you must delete an ebook from all other retailers and ebook subscription services.
It’s all a pain, for sure, and it would be much easier if Amazon relaxed its demand for exclusivity.
But don’t expect Amazon to change its mind anytime soon. It’s something self-publishing authors and Draft2Digital have to live with and negotiate.
However, it is reassuring to know that Draft2Digital accepts the reality of today’s book market.
It is assisting self-publishing authors in being able to enroll in KDP Select without any difficulty.
Of course, returning an ebook listing is very easy with Draft2Digital. Simply republish your ebooks.
I believe D2D works on the principle that their authors will, like me, return to open publishing soon enough.
How long does delisting take today?
It has been a little while since I originally wrote this article. But I have to say now that my second effort to delist my books from Draft2Digital was a bit disappointing.
The good news is that all the major retailers, including Apple, B&N, Kobo, and Tolino, delisted within a few days.
But two weeks later, I was still waiting for OneDrive and Bibliotheca to delist my ebooks. The process was definitely not as fast as it used to be.
When I contacted D2D support, they said that library vendors manage listings differently. I didn’t receive an explanation about what is different.
If you want to be sure to be able to delete an ebook quickly, do not list with these library vendors. Only list your ebooks with the major ebook retailers.
Then you can be sure that when it comes time to delist your ebooks, the process will be completed promptly.
Finally, after more than two weeks, OneDrive had finally delisted my ebooks.
But frustratingly, Bibliotheca had still not removed my titles. One thing is for sure: I will never list my ebooks with OneDrive or Bibliotheca ever again.
After nearly a month, Bibliotheca had only managed to delist 8 of my ebooks. This was totally unacceptable.
I received polite replies to my emails to Draft2Digital support complaining about the inaction. But politeness is no replacement for action. Draft2Digital had a problem with Bibliotheca, and it should have resolved it much sooner.
Finally, after more than a month had passed, Bibliotheca had finally delisted all my titles. It was an unacceptable amount of time. In fairness to Draft2Digital, all other retailers delisted my books promptly.
My advice would be to avoid listing with libraries such as Bibliotheca and only list with the major retailers.
Delisting timelines I observed:
- Apple, Nook, Kobo: within a few hours
- Page Foundry, Scribd, Tolino: under 12 hours
- 24Symbols: just over 24 hours
- OneDrive: around 2 weeks
- Bibliotheca: over a month
Quick Q&A
Q. How do I delist a book on Draft2Digital?
A. Click “Delist Book” in your dashboard, and Draft2Digital will notify all retailers. Most remove your book within hours, but library vendors may take longer.
Q. Can I republish an ebook after delisting it?
A. Yes. Delisting only removes your book from stores temporarily—you can republish it anytime.
Q. Why do library vendors take longer to remove books?
A. Library vendors manage listings independently and often review changes manually, which can delay delisting.
Summary
If you want to self-publish with Amazon KDP as well as Draft2Digital, you need to plan your publishing carefully.
The advantage of using both is that you can make your ebooks available on many more ebook retailers and subscription services.
However, if you wish to use Amazon KDP Select from time to time, you need to take extra care.
When Amazon says “exclusive,” it means it. If your ebook is still available on any other platform or service, you risk your Amazon KDP account.
That’s why you have to be 100% sure that when you delist or delete your ebooks from Draft2Digital, every platform has done so before you enroll in KDP Select.
If you plan to use KDP Select from time to time, keep these tips in mind to make your enrollment process much smoother.
1. When you publish with D2D, only select the main retailers such as Apple, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble.
2. Avoid smaller services, and especially libraries.
3. Allow at least two weeks for your ebooks to be removed from sale.
Author’s Note
As my experiences with delisting and republishing ebooks occurred over a number of years, some of the smaller ebook retailers and libraries I mentioned may have been removed from D2D’s current partner list, or may have disappeared.
Related Reading: Can You Delete A Book After It Is Published?
But how is it actually done? I can’t see anything on D2D that says ‘delist’ or ‘unpublish’. I searched both these terms in the Knowledge Base but came up with nothing. Am I missing something obvious (wouldn’t be surprised!) or is the unpublish info hidden away somewhere?
You need to delist an ebook from every retailer you use on D2D, Barbara.
There’s no single button to do it, like on Amazon.
Great article Derek. I’m just ready to do the same. I only have one book, so I hope it doesn’t take a month with the library type ones.
Do you lose all of your reviews on sites such as Apple or B & N if you unpublish from Smashwords to try out Amazon Unlimited for a short period of time? I plan to relist with Smashwords again after a few months exclusively on Amazon. But I’m afraid to lose those reviews when I return.
Yes, you will probably lose your reviews. When you unpublish your book and then republish it a few months later, it will be seen as a new book again on Apple, B&N, and other retailers. It’s one of the big drawbacks of switching in and out of KDP Select.
Thanks for your quick and helpful answer.
Do I have to delist my e-book on D2D in order to upload a revised version? Do I have to wait until I know it is delisted everywhere? I have not been able to find out this information from D2D.
If it’s only a revision, you don’t need to de-list your book. Simply upload the new version of the interior and/or the book cover.
I delisted books at Draft2digital and Publishdrive two weeks ago and they are still not withdrawn from many of the stores. Granted, there were holidays in there but still, this is a lot longer than your referenced 24 hours. So no, in my experience, they are not delisting quickly and it’s still a painful waiting process.
As to the KU or wide debate, I wanted to add to what others have said here in the comments– it all depends on the genre of the book as well. For really popular genres like romance and erotica, etc. most of the bestsellers on Amazon are in KU. But for some other genres, it’s not as big of a thing.
I’m currently removing from D2D, and I am over a week waiting, and so far Overdrive, Bibliotheca, Thalia and bol.de have yet to remove my books. I am not sure what store distributes to Thalia and bol.de but I suspect it’s Kobo. I’ve emailed D2D support twice with no response. It’s frustrating because outside of this, I really like D2D a lot.
How long did Bibliotheca eventually take? Overdrive was pretty good for me & the others very fast except for 24Symbola and Bibliotheca which have been 3 days so far. #lessonlearned!
Help me delist on ‘Bol.de’ and Thalia if it worked for you
Amazon offers more than its Select program, though.
You can publish through D2D … just don’t pick Amazon as a platform there. Then publish the same book separately through Amazon KDP. You can still pick the 70% royalty.
I do that because you can easily go in through KDP and change your book description, keywords, and cover at anytime on kdp.
Great post, but I’ll add one caveat to the timing. Apparently B&N, Overdrive, and Scribd process requests M-F, not on weekends. Everyone else was as you described, within hours of the request.
Thanks Heather. Good info to know.
I am a new and most likely naive to the promotional process of ebooks. When I first published my book “One Month, 20 Days and a Wake Up” last summer, I went with KDP Select. I followed their recommendations and paid extra for their marketing (click) programs. At first I got great traffic, but no sales. I paid the fees for the clicks without the benefits of sales. I’m sure my story is very common. My sales for the first six months were nothing but ‘friends, and friends of friends’. When I was allowed to post on other Vietnam Veteran’s blog websites, I finally broke the barrier into public sales. My point is that I followed recommendations of those that have gone before me and I got more results with my own promotional endeavors than anything KDP Select ever did. Perhaps I missing something, I don’t understand the advantage to KDP Select other than Amazon has control of the ebook market You either follow their rules or take your chances with the other ebook sites.
What was the genre of your titles? In my experience that has a lot to do with whether KU is worth it.