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Amazon.com's Search Inside the Book^™ Program (SITB):

PDF File Submission Requirements and Guidelines

Amazon.com's Search Inside the Book program allows publishers to submit electronic files of their book's content in PDF format. The following FAQ describes the format guidelines and requirements for these submissions.

What rights do I need to have to participate in Search Inside the Book Program?

In order to submit books for SITB, you must hold the merchandising rights for the book(s) you wish to submit in the region you're submitting for.

What books can I submit for the Search Inside program?

The files you submit must correspond to books already in the Amazon catalog, though they need not be available for sale at the time you submit the file. This means you can submit the file before the publication or on-sale date.

Do I need to send both a hardback and paperback version of the same book?

You can send us one PDF for the book that represents the primary work and we will associate it with both the paperback and hardcover. If the same book is substantially updated in the future (i.e. an updated edition of a travel guide, a new version of a textbook, supplemental CD no longer included) please upload a new PDF.

When should I submit my titles for SITB?

We would like to have the Search Inside the Book images linked to the detail page as early as possible in the life-cycle of the book so the Search Inside the Book feature is available when the book is being actively marketed.

How do I sign up for a Search Inside the Book PDF upload account?

All files should be submitted using Amazon's Seller Central web interface (http://sellercentral.amazon.com) or, through our FTP option.

Existing Seller Central account holders will need to sign-up for a Search Inside the Book upload account by sending an email to the below email address and requesting an account. This functionality will then be added to your existing Seller Central account.
New Seller Central account holders will need to send an e-mail to insidethebook-submission@amazon.com to request an account.

Is there a limit to individual filesizes which I can upload for SITB?

When submitting files for Search Inside the Book, we recommend that the upload does not exceed 500MB. Larger uploads are possible, but please contact your Search Inside the Book representative to discuss file reduction options before sending extremely large files. Upload times will depend on your connection speed.

What are the PDF file requirements?

The following specifications have been developed to enable Amazon to get your titles live on our site as quickly as possible. Some of the specifications are requirements and files that do not meet these requirements cannot be processed. Other specifications are guidelines that will enhance the customer experience and speed the title to the site:

Requirements

Do not include dashes in your filename.
PDF is text-based (as opposed to image-based)
The PDF is free of security (changes, selection, document printing are allowed).
All fonts are embedded especially if custom fonts are used.
A front cover is provided, either as a bookmark in the PDF or as a separate file (PDF or JPG)
The order of pages in the PDF corresponds to the physical book. Each page in the PDF file must correspond to one page in the physical printed book.

Note: This means we cannot process PDFs in "spread" format where individual PDF pages contain more than one physical book page.

Guidelines

All images, including cover or dust jacket images if provided separately should be submitted at 300 DPI or higher. High DPI settings for embedded images improve our ability to make text in embedded images searchable.
The PDF pages should be free of registration marks, crop marks, and other extraneous and non-printing text, marks or elements.
Accepted file formats are PDF (content), JPG, GIF, TIFF, (for covers if separate). If you are using other file types and would like to submit those, contact your Search Inside representative to see if these can be accepted.

What naming convention should I use for my files?

When you submit your titles, please follow our naming conventions for the component files. The title may consist of a single PDF file or it may consist of different components packaged together in a ZIP file., For each title we would like all data, including the front cover, back cover, front flap, back flap, spine, and contents of the book to be included in a single bookmarked PDF file. We do recognize, however, that many publishers don't keep flap or spine files, or that these files may be separate JPG files rather than part of the PDF. Therefore, we accept files in two bundle options:

Option 1: This is the "fast track" option and will ensure faster processing and minimize delay from submission to onsite.

0123456789.pdf [ISBN.pdf]

A single PDF which includes all required components in a single bookmarked PDF. This will include:

The front cover,
All printed pages,
It is our preference to have a back cover as well and we strongly request this be submitted. We also would prefer to have the front flap, back flap, and spine but recognize these are not always available.

Option 2: Submitting in this format is acceptable though may add a few days to the overall processing time.

This option describes multiple files submitted to achieve a complete book once processed.

0123456789-frontcover.jpg (required)
0123456789-backcover.jpg (if available)
0123456789-frontflap.jpg (if available)
0123456789-backflap.jpg (if available)
0123456789-spine.jpg (if available), or,
0123456789-dustjacket.jpg (if available), or,
0123456789-duskjacket.pdf (if available)
0123456789-full interior content.pdf (required)

At times it may be necessary to split the content file into multiple parts; for example, in cases where it might exceed the 500MB restriction. In these cases, the above convention would apply except for the PDF content file you would break it up like this:

0123456789-_part1of3.pdf
0123456789_part2of3.pdf
0123456789_part3of3.pdf

NOTE: These multiple files can either be ZIPPED together for a single upload if the 500MB restriction is not exceeded, or the files can be uploaded separately in multiple submissions.

Please remember that a front cover and full text of the book are always required to process the title. The cover may be provided as a JPG image, a separate PDF file, or as the first page of the PDF content file.

Are there any bulk transfer options such as FTP?

If you have large files or if you submit high volumes of titles, we do offer an FTP upload option. You will need to contact your Search Inside the Book representative for details.

How long will it take before the book goes live in SITB?

Standard processing will complete in 7 to 10 days if the submitted file contains no errors. This can be decreased by a couple days if your content is submitted in the complete, single PDF format.

How will I know the status of my submissions?

You can contact your Search Inside the Book representative if you don't see the feature activated on your book's main detail page within 7 to 10 days and have not received an emails detailing errors in your files.

Is there a way I can help expedite SITB processing and get books onsite faster?

The best way to ensure rapid processing is to submit the content in the "fast track" format described above. This is the single PDF file containing full content and cover images in one document with file named as 13 digit ISBN.

What happens if I've made an error in my submission?

We will try work with files that you send us but if your files do not meet the minimum requirements, you may receive an email specifying the nature of the problem and asking you to resubmit your files. Resubmissions must include the full content and not just any missing portions or corrections to the first upload. This will ensure optimal processing to onsite time.

How do I make changes to Search Inside I already have on my detail page?

If one of your titles on the site needs to be updated (for example: the wrong front cover or book contents were submitted or you update your book but reuse the same ISBN), please be sure to re-upload the entire submission. In order to ensure that the appropriate materials are associated with the correct ISBNs, it is necessary for us only to process complete submissions, even when only one component needs to be updated.

Can I request that specific pages be restricted from displaying in SITB?

We cannot accommodate special requests to suppress individual pages from display on the website.

How can customers identify books in the Search Inside program?

All books in the Search Inside program are labeled with a "Look Inside" sticker to indicate that a book is available for point of sale sampling. These books also are included in our search and automated merchandising features.