If you’ve perused Amazon’s bookstore, you’ve no doubt seen the Search Inside! feature, where you can see samples of the book. For independent publishers and authors, here’s the trick to add this nifty marketing feature to the Amazon catalog pages for your printed books (note: you do not need this for Kindle books).
Before I go further, if you used Amazon’s CreateSpace, you’re already set: you need do nothing extra for the Search Inside! feature to be added. That’s part of the CreateSpace “package,” which is definitely nice.
If you’re using an independent printer, such as Lightning Source, Inc. (LSI), the first thing you need to do, assuming your book is already up in the Amazon catalog, is to get an Amazon Seller Central account. Once you get that, you’ll need to have a PDF copy of your book – just make sure to follow the guidelines! If you click on the Search Inside the Book tab, there’s some info and a link on the right hand side for PDF guidelines.
Once you get the file uploaded, Amazon takes care of the rest! The Search Inside! feature for your book won’t show up right away: give it two to three weeks to appear. If you need tech support or assistance, there’s contact information for technical support from a link at the bottom of the web pages.
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