What happens if I remove my Trade book from distribution? Will the listing still show on Amazon and other sites?

  • Updated

When you make your Blurb book available via our Ingram Global Retail Network, any retailer that chooses to list it (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc) will create a product listing for your book on their site. This listing allows people to find and buy your book through that website.

If you later remove the book from distribution retailers cannot order additional, newly-printed copies. But the retailer's listing may remain on their site indefinitely even if the book was never ordered. Once any copies of a book have been printed and sold, those specific copies can remain out in the world to be sold and re-sold. A retailer may have already purchased a stock of books and removing a book from distribution does not remove books from a retailer's warehouse. And some retailers, such as Amazon, allow third-parties to sell used copies of books via their listings.

This means that even if you take your book out of distribution, your book listing may remain on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online retail sites. There is no easy way to remove your book listings from the internet so be sure to only set up the final version of your book up for sale! 

Order a single Blurb printed copy of your book first before you make your book available to the public. That's the best way to ensure that the printed book meets your expectations and it allows you to make any corrections before the book is out into the world. 

It's exciting to have your book available for people around the globe to purchase and a good reminder to proof (and then proof again!) your book before making it available. 

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