Amazon.ca's Search Inside™ Program (SITB):
PDF File Submission Requirements and Guidelines
Amazon.ca's Search Inside the Book program allows publishers to submit electronic files of their books' content in PDF format. The following FAQ describes the format guidelines and requirements for these submissions.
The following FAQ describes the format guidelines and requirements for these submissions:
Additionally, Search Inside the Book has introduced two new features:
Flexible Percent Viewable Setting: Search Inside the Book (SITB) program now allows publishers control over how much a book is available for customers to view.
Minimum Onsite Date: Search Inside the Book (SITB) program now allows publishers to specify when the exact date that a title is turned on in SITB.
What rights do I need to have to participate in the 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 (e.g. 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 that 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.ca).
- Existing Seller Central account holders will need to sign-up for a Search Inside the Book upload account by e-mailing a request to searchinside-canada@amazon.ca. This functionality will then be added to your existing Seller Central account.
- If you do not have a Seller Central account, you'll need to send an e-mail to searchinside-canada@amazon.ca to request an account.
Is there a limit to individual file size 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; files that do not meet these requirements cannot be processed. Other specifications are guidelines that will enhance the customer experience and reduce the time it'll take the content to appear on 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?
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; however, it 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?
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?
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 email detailing errors in your files, you can contact your Search Inside the Book representative for details.
Is there a way I can help expedite SITB processing and get my books onsite faster?
The best way to ensure rapid processing is to submit your content in the "fast track" format described above. This is a single PDF file containing full content and cover images in one document with the 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 content I already have on my detail page?
If one of your titles on the site needs to be updated (for example: if the wrong front cover or book content was 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.
Whom can I contact with questions/concerns or if something isn't clear?
You can send an e-mail to searchinside-canada@amazon.ca if you have any questions about this process.
Which Amazon websites will show the Look Inside preview of my books?
The default approval setting for SITB is Worldwide. Under this setting, books in SITB will be displayed on all Amazon Properties where they are offered and where the SITB feature is available.
How do I change the SITB country approval settings for my titles?
You can change approval settings for all titles in your SITB account or for an individual title by following the following Program procedures:
- Account Level: Approval settings can be modified at the publisher account level. To change approval settings for all titles in your SITB account please submit a request to searchinside-canada@amazon.ca. In the email, please include a complete list your ISBNs and the name of any country where you do not want to have your titles approved for SITB (i.e. countries where you do not have appropriate publishing and/or distribution rights).
- Individual Title Level: Country-specific approvals can be set at the individual title level. By default, titles approvals are set based on the SITB account level approval settings. If you want to modify approval settings for a specific title please submit a request to searchinside-canada@amazon.ca. In the email, specify the title, ISBN, and the name of any country where you do not want to have the title approved for SITB (i.e. countries where you do not have appropriate publishing and/or distribution rights for the particular title).
What flexible percentage viewable limits are allowed?
You can define the percentage viewable limit between 10% and 100%, in increments of 10% for your books. 20% is the default viewing limit.
At what level can I define the percent viewable limits?
Publisher Level: All books submitted by you will be migrated to specified viewable limits
Title level: Viewing Limits can be overridden at ISBN level. For example, you can define 30% as default percent viewable for all your books and override it by setting 10% for some specific titles.
How much time will it take for new settings to get into effect?
Your new settings should be effective within 24hours.
What pages are counted towards the viewing limits for a title?
Textual page views of a book count towards the percent viewable limits.
How does Amazon protect my copyrighted content?
As always, we continue to employ both common and proprietary technologies to hinder downloading of the displayed portions of each book.
How can I take advantage of this feature (flexible viewable limits)?
Please send us an email us at searchinside-canada@amazon.ca with details including Publisher Name, ISBN, Percentage Viewable limits.
At what level do I define Minimum Onsite Date?
You can define the minimum onsite date for a title at a Marketplace level.
What happens if I define 'minimum onsite date' for a book which is already onsite?
Minimum Onsite date takes effect only if the book is not onsite. Hence, it is recommended to submit minimum onsite date before submitting an asset.
What if I don't define 'minimum onsite date' for a book?
You don't need to define 'minimum onsite date' for all your assets. By default, a book goes online and is available for customers to view as soon as its processing is complete.
How can I take advantage of this feature (minimum onsite date)?
Please send us an email us at searchinside-canada@amazon.ca with details including, but not limited to, Publisher Name, ISBN, Marketplace, Min Onsite Date (MM/DD/YYYY). We are also working on exposing this functionality in Vendor Central, so you can directly send us details from Vendor Central.
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