# How to transfer book from one KDP account to another without losing its reviews?



## TellNotShow (Sep 15, 2014)

I'm wondering if anyone knows of an easy way to transfer a book (or rather, a few books) from my own KDP account to someone else's? 

A friend wants to dip her toes in the publishing waters while she's writing her own series, and asked if she could help with my books. I told her thanks but no thanks, but I think I have a better plan. I told her she could have an early series of mine to do that with, and she loves the idea. (They hardly sell anything anyway, and I've stopped promoting them, and don't use the pen name any more.)

I'm assuming I would have to first unpublish the ebooks; then she could republish them through KDP, then link them to the Createspace paperbacks; then I could unpublish the paperbacks; then she could republish the paperbacks and link them to the ebooks. Presumably this would work (over a few weeks), and allow the books to keep their reviews. 

But perhaps there's a sensible, less convoluted process available to us to achieve this. I mean, she's a good friend, and I'll do all this if it's the only way, but if there's an easier option that'd be a big help. Has anyone done this?


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Doing that won't automatically transfer the reviews. All you have to do is email KDP including the ASIN in both accounts. They will transfer them within a few days.


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## AltMe (May 18, 2015)

You cant do it that way.

You would need to sell the series to her, have a bill of sale for it, and provide that to KDP with a request they move the books to her account.

They might refuse. Since she wasn't the author, and you're not dead.

If you unpublish and reload them, KDP will likely reject them as already known, or demand proof of ownership and you might both be in the sh*t. 

I think its a bad idea. Not the least because she didn't write them, and any fans down the track will recognize the different writing styles. Its a minefield to be avoided. imo


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

Not sure if these will help but here's a couple threads on the topic of republishing books without losing reviews. In these cases, the authors were KDP publishing after the rights reverted from their publishers:

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,231964.0.html
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,231613.0.html


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

TimothyEllis said:


> You cant do it that way.
> 
> You would need to sell the series to her, have a bill of sale for it, and provide that to KDP with a request they move the books to her account.
> 
> ...


Not correct. KDP accounts sometimes act as a micro-publishers and this is not a unique situation. All they will do is say that you need to confirm ownership of copyright and a simple statement that you are the copyright owner is all that is required.

I transferred a novel that I had co-authored with another author from his account to my own a few months back and that was exactly how it was done.


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## TellNotShow (Sep 15, 2014)

TimothyEllis said:


> You cant do it that way.
> 
> You would need to sell the series to her, have a bill of sale for it, and provide that to KDP with a request they move the books to her account.
> 
> ...


Thanks Timothy, I'll make sure we have all our ducks in a row re ownership of the series before contacting KDP - I was planning to sell it to her for a dollar anyway, and both sign an agreement, as I want it all legal and clear. As far as her writing style being different, that won't be an issue, as she has no plans to use the pen name to publish any further books. It's just a case of having a series to "play" publisher with, run some promos and learn what she can in a practical way, over the next few months (or maybe a year) while she writes her own series, which she'll publish under her own name. She's going to try them with new covers too - who knows, she may even make a few bucks. I hope so. They were making me nothing, and I've moved on to other things, so they were just being wasted.



Carol (was Dara) said:


> Not sure if these will help but here's a couple threads on the topic of republishing books without losing reviews. In these cases, the authors were KDP publishing after the rights reverted from their publishers:
> 
> http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,231964.0.html
> http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,231613.0.html


Thanks Carol, those links were helpful. One contained a tip about keeping the title, subtitle and series name exactly the same to begin with so everything goes smoothly with the transfer and reviews don't disappear. Thanks!



JRTomlin said:


> Not correct. KDP accounts sometimes act as a micro-publishers and this is not a unique situation. All they will do is say that you need to confirm ownership of copyright and a simple statement that you are the copyright owner is all that is required.
> 
> I transferred a novel that I had co-authored with another author from his account to my own a few months back and that was exactly how it was done.


Thanks JR. It helps a lot knowing you've actually been through this and it went smoothly. I'll have my friend set up a KDP account, wait a few days, then we'll proceed exactly as you suggested. Thanks again for your help.


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