How to move your books from CreateSpace to KDP Print
Moving all your books from Createspace to KDP Print is now as simple as following a five-minute process Amazon refers to as Verify > Link > Move.
In my earlier post announcing the news of Createspace merging with KDP Print, I mentioned that Amazon had promised us an easy way of moving all of our books at once. Well, I’m pleased to say that the company has delivered, letting me move all of my books at once in a matter of minutes!
So, here is a detailed guide of how to move your books from CreateSpace to KDP Print (luckily, I took screenshots as I was racing through the process).
1. Log Into Createspace
When I logged into Createspace, I got a prompt to move my books to KDP Print. Being the risk taker that I am (ha ha), I clicked on it right after grabbing a screenshot for you.
KDP Print describes the 3 steps as Verify > Link > Move but in truth you enter straight into step 2 if you follow this route. You end up on a page which will guide you through the other two steps, with Step 1 shown as completed:
2. Log into KDP Print
Step 2 is pretty much as simple as clicking “Log in” to log into your KDP account. You enter your login details and are taken back to the previous screen, with a nice green tick confirming that the two accounts have now been linked to each other. You are also asked to move your books by clicking the big yellow button at the bottom of the page. I drew a deep breath and clicked on it.
3. Move Your Books from Createspace to KDP Print
After watching a cute scribble animation for a couple of minutes(tops)…
…I ended up on my Bookshelf. Success!
4. Unlink/Link Books
However, you may have noticed in the above screenshot that the newly imported paperback edition of Musiville is missing its link to the Kindle eBook.
Yep, even though your books have now been moved to KDP Print, you still need a fourth step: link the print and Kindle editions, if this has not happened automatically. A missing link will result in you having two copies of the same book on your Bookshelf; one for Kindle and one for the paperback. This will have no impact on your book pages or the shop; it only influences how books are displayed on your Bookshelf. However, it did bug me, and I wanted the editions correctly linked.
After scratching my head for a few seconds, I realized that one possible reason for a duplicate listing occurring is an earlier attempt at creating a paperback. Even if you had left this lingering as a draft, KDP will remember and won’t let you link the imported edition until you have unlinked the previous one. This is not the only reason, though, as I also had two of my books inexplicably unlinked after importing. Thankfully, both situations are easy enough to remedy.
For Musiville, I first needed to go to my existing book and unlink the Draft paperback I had created in the past.
I was asked to verify my decision, which was as simple as clicking OK.
After that, I was able to link the new edition with the existing one. I had to do this for a couple of my titles, as you can see below, but the process didn’t take more than an extra 5 minutes or so.
The only book I had trouble with was my Greek translation of the Tao Te Ching. I was wondering how Amazon would handle this, as Greek is not yet supported by Kindle. My worst fear was that it would get stuck on Createspace, where it would forever linger in some weird book-purgatory status. Thankfully, I needn’t have worried. The book was imported into KDP Print along with the rest of them, but put on hold; presumably until KIndle supports Greek.
So, it looks like this is what we have all been waiting for: Amazon to create an easy, fast way to import all of your books from Createspace into KDP Print at once!
Update
My author friend, Effrosyni Moschoudi, had this to add:
“Only 1 category was showing so I added a second one. I could also add two more keywords as only 5 were on there. And I had to change the option to worldwide rights/distribution as only some territories had been picked. For each book, launch the previewer, and if the content is different, upload the book again. Best to do it ourselves before it has to be done automatically in big batches. I expect the customer service will be inundated if there are problems. So best we do it now on our own.”
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Very helpful post, Nicholas but there was no ‘unlink book’ when I went to that place. I have multiple listings of the same books, some ebooks, some paperback and some both. Help!
Oh my, I’m so sorry! That’s weird. The best thing to do is contact KDP help, as I’m afraid I can’t know what’s going on unless you give me access to your account. If you prefer to have me take a look, just send me an email through the contact form!
Moved mine 1-2-3 done. I hope Kindle will be as easy as CS when I put in the next book.
Making Kindle (eBooks) is pretty simple but I hear it can be a bit of a hassle with print editions. I’ll let you know when I cross that bridge 🙂
I uploaded a new children’s book to kdp print after using Createspace for the first two. The process was just as smooth, and I have to say I like the quality of the kdp print more than the createspace version, despite amazon insisting everything is being printed on the same equipment by the same people.
Wow, that’s great news! Thank you for sharing 🙂
Thank you Barbara, I have transferred 12 of my books to kdp…I am in the process of a first draft of a new book and have been concerned about the changed, you have put my mind at ease. What is the name of your book and I will check it out for my great-grandson. Thank you E.
Wow, Nicholas. That was so easy it was scary. Thank you for publishing the instructions and most importantly stepping off the cliff first.
So glad it worked for you, too, John 😀
Hi Nicholas,
Chris McMullen a couple weeks ago posted some instructions (not as in-depth as yours) and when I tried it, the links were missing. I emailed CreateSpace and KDP asking for help. I finally got an answer last Saturday (9/14/18). The missing step was to verify. Once I verified by logging in to KDP, it popped up the link to move my books just as you show. Thanks for your step by step instructions. Other authors should find it helpful.
Yay! So glad you made it hassle-free in the end, Chuck 🙂
The doom and gloom and hype was for naught. Three clicks – done. If everything was that simple our brains would stagnate. It is nice to have everything on the dashboard, colour-coded.
It is nice, isn’t it? Plus, BookReports now displays all of my earnings, so that’s nice 🙂
Sadly, I have done this several times, and it never reaches Step 3, even tehough it clearly shows it has found all 9 of my books. It says “This may take a few minutes.” Well, the first time I tried it, I left it pending for 24 hours. Nothing ever happened. I’ve tried it several times since, and it sits for hours with no action. I have no idea what to do next, except maybe to do these one at a time, myself. Any suggestions?
Customer service? Good luck, hope it is fixed soon!
Now, that’s weird… I’d wait a couple of days before trying again, and if the problem persisted, I’d call KDP for help.
Thank you for the wonderful detailed post, Nicolas. I’ve been dreading this, and I only have one title to move. After reading this post, I’m off to give it a try!
Yay! I hope it works just fine for you, too 🙂
I did this last night and thought it would take hours, but it took just a few minutes to move all 3 of my titles. I had the same issue with regards to linking ebook and paperback. I had attempted to use kdp for paperbacks and then abandoned it leaving a draft. Once I deleted the draft it was simple to link, but it took me half an hour to figure that out!
Thanks for sharing that, Suzanne 🙂
If and when I ever have books to ‘move’, I will be sure to check back on this useful article. Thanks, Nicholas. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
Meh, these are just teething problems. I’m sure they’ll be sorted out by then 🙂
Oh wow! Thank you so much for sharing this, Nicholas. I’ve been procrastinating to do this as I dreaded it so much, but this sounds easy and fun! I wonder how long before Greek becomes available on KDP… I hope not too long, and I feel sorry for your little book waiting until then, hopefully not in purgatory status, LOL 🙂 Again, many thanks!
Yay! I’m so glad you found it useful! And yes, it has proven to be as hassle-free as I hoped 🙂