As you may or may not know, I’ve been working hard behind the scenes to regain the rights to a lot of my old books and republish them after over half of my literary catalog was taken down from Amazon last November (due to no fault of my own, might I add).
With that being said, I have been able to regain my rights and republish 9 out of the 18 books that were previously tied to my former publisher. I decided to write this blog for authors who are/were in the same boat as me, and show you how to get your old reviews restored on Amazon.
What you need before you get started:
Previous ASIN number for the old book. (You will likely be able to find that on your old royalty statements or maybe even an old screenshot of your book product page on Amazon.)
What is an ASIN? According to Amazon, ASIN stands for Amazon Standard Identification Numbers. They are “unique blocks of 10 letters and/or numbers that identify items. You will find an item's ASIN on the product detail page alongside further details relating to the item, which may include information such as size, number of pages (if it's a book).”
Once you have this for your book(s), Amazon will be able to “link” your old reviews from the old ASIN to the new one so when you put the new book up, you don’t have to worry about missing out on all of your old great reviews, unless you want to start from scratch. Note: In order for Amazon to “link” your old reviews to your new book, you will have already had to republish the new book. Once it’s live, you can follow the directions below.
Here’s what to do next:
Login to your Amazon KDP account.
Click the “help” button on the top right corner.
Under the “How Can we Help” column on the left, click “Manage Books on your Bookshelf”
Then click, “Republish or Update Published Book”
You’ll want to reach out via email. Once the box pops up, write the following (or at least something to this effect).
Good morning/afternoon/evening,
I recently republished a few books that were previously unpublished under my publisher. I have since regained the rights to these books, and would like my old reviews restored. I have listed the new ASIN and the old ASIN numbers for the recently published books.
Title:
Old ASIN:
New ASIN:
Thank you!
Once you hit send, an Amazon representative will likely get back to you within 24-48 hours to let you know that they were either successful or unsuccessful in linking your old book(s) to your new one(s). If they were successful, they’ll let you know that you should be able to see your old reviews appear within a week (which it never takes that long). Then, voilà! All your old reviews are restored!