My previous publisher stopped paying royalties so I fired them and republished my book with someone else. It just went on the market and, today, the old version is showing up above the new one when I search on Amazon. How can I get them to remove the old version from their site? I don’t want my previous publisher stealing even more money from me.

If Amazon has copies of an old book for sale, they can legally sell those copies because they already purchased them. And, your previous publisher has already been paid for those copies. If those copies have been on Amazon’s shelf for a long time, their system makes the old version more visible to potential buyers in order to move that inventory. Unfortunately, the only option to get rid of those books is to buy the old copies from Amazon.

However, even if you do that, Amazon still won’t remove the old listing because they allow people to sell used copies of books on their site. But, if you have purchased Amazon’s existing inventory (for self-published books, it’s usually only a handful of copies), Amazon’s system should point people searching for your title to the most recent page, showcasing your newest edition.

For future reference, when you republish a book, I always recommend giving it a new title. That way, when new readers are searching for your book, they won’t get confused by seeing the old version.

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