Last reviewed by Robert Prime, 12 October 2026. Every rule below was read that day on Amazon’s own help pages: Remove or unpublish a book, Bookshelf, KDP Select and Postpone or cancel a pre-order.
Quick Answer: On your KDP Bookshelf, click the … next to the book and choose Unpublish. It takes up to 72 hours. New copies stop selling on Amazon, but the page can stay up because third-party sellers may still list used copies. You can unpublish the ebook and paperback separately, and republish either later. You can’t delete a published book; you can only unpublish it.
Table of Contents
- How to unpublish, step by step
- Unpublish, archive or delete?
- What stays on Amazon afterwards
- Kindle Unlimited and KDP Select
- Cancelling a pre-order
- Unpublish or update?
- Frequently asked questions
How to unpublish, step by step
- Go to your KDP Bookshelf.
- Click the ellipsis button (…) next to the format you want to remove.
- Click Unpublish.
- Repeat for the other formats if you want those gone too.
Amazon: “It takes up to 72 hours for a book to unpublish. Individual book formats (i.e. paperback vs eBook) can be unpublished and republished” (KDP help).
Unpublish, archive or delete?
| Action | What it does | When you can use it |
|---|---|---|
| Unpublish | Stops new copies selling on Amazon | Any published book |
| Archive | Hides it from your Bookshelf’s default view; “This does not change the book’s status” | Any book |
| Delete | “permanently remove it from KDP and cannot be recovered” | Only a draft “with no ISBN and never been published” |
Source: KDP: remove or unpublish a book. The Bookshelf page says the same: “If your book was never published, you will have the option to delete it” (Bookshelf). A draft that already has an ISBN assigned can’t be deleted by you; Amazon asks you to contact them.
So archiving a live book does not take it off sale. People get this wrong often.
What stays on Amazon afterwards
Amazon is direct about it: unpublishing “means new copies cannot be sold on Amazon. However, used copies can still be sold by third parties.”
In practice:
- The product page may stay visible if a third-party seller lists a copy.
- Readers who bought the ebook keep it in their library.
- Unpublishing on KDP does not remove the book from other shops you published to yourself (IngramSpark, Kobo, Apple and so on). Remove it there separately.
Amazon’s help pages don’t say what happens to reviews or the product page when no third-party copies exist, so we won’t guess.
Kindle Unlimited and KDP Select
If the ebook is in KDP Select, Amazon says you “can also unpublish KDP Select-enrolled titles at any time during the term and republish them on KDP later. This will pause your KDP Select enrollment period until you republish your Kindle eBook” (KDP Select).
But: “Your Kindle eBook must remain exclusive through the remainder of the title’s current 90-day participation period.” Unpublishing does not free you to go wide straight away. Turn off auto-renew and wait for the term to end. More in KDP Select vs wide.
Cancelling a pre-order
You cancel a pre-order the same way: Bookshelf, …, Unpublish (KDP: postpone or cancel a pre-order). Amazon changed the penalties on 2 September 2026:
| What happens | |
|---|---|
| First cancellation or missed deadline | “Your pre-order privileges won’t be removed. This is a one-time account-level courtesy.” |
| Second | “Your pre-order privileges will be removed for 6 months across your entire catalog.” |
| While removed | You can’t create or postpone pre-orders, but “You can still publish books without pre-order.” |
| Removed before 2 Sept 2026 | “your original penalty period of one year still applies” |
After cancelling, “You won’t be able to use the same ASIN to set up a new pre-order”. Before you cancel, consider postponing instead: for pre-orders created on or after 2 September 2026, “You can postpone up to 2 times”, and the new date “can’t be more than 6 months from your original release date”. See KDP pre-order strategy.
Unpublish or update?
You don’t need to unpublish to fix typos, change the price, swap the description or upload a new cover. Those are updates to the live book. Amazon says to unpublish and publish a new edition when you make “significant edits to your book, such as the title or manuscript”. Our guide to updating a book on KDP shows which changes are which.
If the book simply isn’t selling, unpublishing rarely fixes that. Work through why a KDP book isn’t selling first.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to unpublish a book on KDP?
Up to 72 hours, according to Amazon.
Can I delete a book from KDP completely?
Only if it is a draft that was never published and has no ISBN. A published book can only be unpublished.
Can I republish a book after unpublishing it?
Yes. Amazon says each format “can be unpublished and republished”.
Why is my book still on Amazon after I unpublished it?
Third-party sellers can still sell used copies, so the page can stay up. Give it 72 hours, then check whether the listing shows new copies from Amazon or only other sellers.
Does unpublishing end KDP Select?
No. It pauses the enrolment, and the ebook must stay exclusive for the rest of the current 90-day term.
Final thoughts
Unpublish is reversible, archive is cosmetic, and delete is for drafts only. If you’re unpublishing to relaunch, plan the relaunch first: new cover, new description, and a date.
Related guides
— Robert publishing.co.uk
