Book status and availability

Books submitted to the Partner Programme have three levels of availability:

  • Activated for preview in Google Books and available for sale in the Google Play Store (available in limited countries/regions)
  • Activated for preview in Google Books
  • Deactivated (no preview on Google Books and not available for sale on Google Play)

Status messages

Each book displays one of the following status messages in your book catalogue and on the individual book's Summary page:

Status message Book status
Live on Google Play The book is available in the Google Play Store and can be previewed on Google Books. Go to the individual book's summary page or download a spreadsheet to find the countries/regions where the book is available for sale.
Pre-order on Google Play

The book is available to pre-order in the Google Play Store.

This book’s availability for preview on Google Books depends on the book’s 'Allow preview before on-sale date' setting.

Live on Google Books This book is available for preview on Google Books but isn't available for sale in the Google Play Store.
Needs approval You've added this book to your account but haven't published the book yet. Click the book's title in the book catalogue and go to the 'Review tab' to publish it.
Needs action

There's an issue that prevents the book from going live on Google Books or the Google Play Store.

You can go to the individual book's summary page or download a spreadsheet to get more details. Use our tool for troubleshooting and list of error messages to check what steps you should take.

From the 'Books catalogue' page,  click the three dots next to the 'Needs action' status to find issue details or deactivate the book. By clicking Fix issue, the page to fix the specific issue opens. 

You can also browse and filter books by the following issue types:

  • Price
  • Content
  • Settings
  • Content rights
  • Audiobook quality
In process

A recent change to your book's files or settings is still processing. 

  • The first book published from your Partner Centre account goes live in the Play Store in seven days.
  • New books go live in the Play Store in 12–24 hours.
  • Most changes take effect within 12 hours in the Play Store.

Note: 

If your book is in processing status for longer than the expected time period above, contact us.
Deactivated

This book isn’t available for sale on Google Play. Google Books might display basic information about this book but won't include a content preview.

Deactivated books only appear if you select to show books with deactivated status.

Unknown This status can appear for a short period when our system is still processing your book settings.

If you want to view details on the status of all your books, you can download a spreadsheet of your books and view the 'Status' column. When you download the spreadsheet, make sure that you tick the box next to 'Show metadata columns'.

Change availability

  1. Sign in to the Partner Centre account.
  2. On the left, click Book catalogue.
  3. Click the book's title.
  4. Click Summary or Publish.
    • Activate the book so that it can be previewed on Google Books.
    • Activate the book for sale to allow it to be sold on Google Play (available in limited countries/regions).
    • Deactivate the book to remove it from Google Books and remove the preview on Google Play.

Tip: If a book is in 'Needs action' status, there's an issue that prevents the book from going live on Google Books or the Google Play Store. The book will go live after you resolve the issue.

Change availability of multiple books

You can activate multiple books for sale or remove them from sale on Google Play by using a spreadsheet.

To deactivate multiple books:

  1. Sign in to the Partner Centre account.
  2. From the left, click Book catalogue.
  3. Click Advanced options and then Select books to deactivate.
  4. Select the titles that you want to remove. You can browse and filter books.
  5. At the top right, click Continue.
  6. Confirm the number of books that you're deactivating.
  7. From the top right, click Close.

Tip: The 'Select books to deactivate' option is only available in the new version of the Partner Centre. To switch to the new version, at the top right, click Settings Settings.

You can't reactivate multiple deactivated books in bulk. If you want to reactivate more than 20 deactivated books, contact us.

Need more help?

Try these next steps:

Want a quicker way to get help?

Chat with a member of the Google Books team.

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