Overview

Amazon's Search Inside the Book program, also commonly known as "Look Inside," allows customers to preview portions of a book before purchasing. For sellers and publishers listing books on Amazon, understanding this program is important because it directly influences buyer confidence and can improve conversion rates on book listings.

Key Points / What Sellers Need to Know

• Free to participate — There is no cost for publishers or sellers to enroll books in the Search Inside the Book program. Amazon handles the indexing and display technology.
• Customer preview access — Enrolled books allow shoppers to browse selected pages, including the table of contents, index, excerpts, and sample chapters directly on the product detail page.
• Full-text search capability — Customers can search the entire text of enrolled books for specific keywords or phrases, making it easier for them to evaluate whether a book meets their needs.
• Publisher enrollment required — The program is managed at the publisher level. Individual third-party sellers cannot enroll books themselves; the publisher or rights holder must submit content to Amazon.
• Content protection measures — Amazon limits how much of any book a customer can view and applies digital rights management to prevent unauthorized copying or downloading of content.

How the Program Works

When a book is enrolled in Search Inside the Book, Amazon creates a digital index of the entire text. Customers visiting the product detail page will see a "Look Inside" badge on the book cover image. By clicking this badge, they can browse a limited selection of pages that typically includes the front cover, copyright page, table of contents, first chapter or introduction, index, and back cover. The exact pages available vary by title and are determined by Amazon's system in coordination with publisher preferences. Customers can also type search terms into a search bar to find specific words or phrases within the book, with results displayed as snippets showing the relevant passages in context.

Eligibility and Enrollment

The Search Inside the Book program is open to publishers and rights holders who can provide Amazon with a digital copy of their book content. Enrollment is handled through Amazon's publisher portal rather than through Seller Central directly. Publishers typically need to submit a high-quality PDF or source file of the book. Amazon then processes the content, creates the searchable index, and enables the preview feature on the corresponding product detail page. Books in most categories and formats are eligible, though some content types such as heavily image-based books or certain specialized formats may have limitations on how well the search and preview features work.