How to Remove the Look Inside Feature on your Amazon Book Listing
This page is an annex of my POD Publishing Resources page.
To have the "Look Inside" feature on their Amazon listings, publishers typically have to sign up for the "Search Inside" program. But if you publish with CreateSpace, your title is submitted automatically. Surprisingly, removing your title is not a "just-click-here" operation.
I love the Look Inside feature. It lets me look inside a book and decide that I don't need to buy it. In Aiming At Amazon, a brilliant book for self-publishers who are, well, aiming at Amazon, Aaron Shepard gives several reasons why he does not participate in the Search Inside program. One reason is that in Amazon search results, the graphics of book covers are smaller for titles which have the Look Inside feature.
I recently had a title that didn't work with "Look Inside". I just hated the page selection they had made. (At this time, the Search Inside Program does not let you pick the pages that will be displayed.) I wrote to insidethebook-submissions@amazon.com, telling them I was the publisher, but received no reply. I wrote again, representing that I was the copyright owner. Still no reply. I called. No effect. I called again, my blood starting to boil. (After all, it's your copyright, no?) After ten days of trial-and-error, I stumbled on a combination that worked.
How to Opt-Out of the Search Inside the Book Program
If you publish with CreateSpace, you can't fully opt-out of the Search Inside program. You will have to request for the Look Inside feature to be removed for each titleseparately. If you follow these exact steps, you should have good results.1. Call customer support at 866-216-1072. Ask them to transfer you to Seller Support.
2. State that you are the copyright owner and want the title removed from the Search Inside program. Ask the rep to:
(i) transmit your request to the Catalog Team (they won't connect you directly), and
(ii) create a case and give you a case number.
3. Send an email to insidethebook-submissions@amazon.com. Here is the message that worked for me:
SUBJECT: Case No. (CASE NUMBER)
Your seller support team directed me to send my request to you....
Please remove the LOOK INSIDE option from my book listing on Amazon. I have written to you and called customer service several times.
Here are the answers to your questions regarding my case for (YOUR TITLE)
- the ISBN and title of each item you would like removed
The ISBN number is (YOUR ISBN)
- the reason you are requesting the removal
(YOUR REASON, e.g.: This is a recipe book and I do not want any of the content to be public.)
- whether each item is an Advantage or non-Advantage title
This title is a non-Advantage title.
Also, please be aware that I own the ISBN and the copyright. I am the author and the publisher.
Thanking you for your help to resolve this issue.
Regards,
(YOUR NAME)
4. Wait for a response. This reply came less than three hours after I sent the message:
I can do that for you (MY NAME). SITB should be down by end of day today.
Steve A. / Search Inside the Book / Amazon.com / Operations Coordinator
(END OF MESSAGE)
Hope this works for you! If it doesn't, this site has a "nasty letter" with all the legalese to ask Amazon to remove your book from "Search Inside the Book". For some odd reason, the letter is printed white-on-white. To see it, select over the white space with your mouse. Should it disappear, here's a copy.
Making Your Own "Look Inside"
If you opt out of the Look Inside feature, you can still let readers see some pages that you want to show them.1. On your Amazon listing, you can use the "customer images" feature to upload scans of a few chosen pages. Crop close to the text before uploading, because resolution will be lost.
2. Your site is your domain. You can make a web page or site for your book and show as much as you want.
Look Inside and Copyright Infrigement
For a discussion of the Search Inside Program and "copyright violation or fair use" question, read this long article in the Stanford Technology Law Review.Smiles,
Andy
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