Is there a way to change what Amazon includes in the "Look Inside" preview?

598 Views 8 Replies 8 Participants Last post by D-C, May 12, 2015

Nancy Chase

Discussion Starter · May 11, 2015

Is there a way to change what Amazon includes in the "Look Inside" preview?

My most recent Kindle release is a short collection of 20 flash fiction stories. Because it's not a long book, Amazon doesn't provide a long preview sample. Unfortunately, this means the preview they provide only includes the book's front matter (title page, copyright page, "books by this author", dedication, epigraph, and introduction) and no preview at all of the actual stories. Not surprisingly, almost nobody is buying the book. I know *I* wouldn't buy it, without being able to see a preview of the writing style first.

Do I have to cut all my front matter to give readers a decent preview sample for the book? Or is there a way to get Amazon to increase the size of the sample they show?

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1 - 9 of 9 Posts

geronl

· #2 · May 11, 2015

They need to be more like Smashwords on that, where you pick the % that is shown

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X. Aratare

· #3 · May 11, 2015

Contact the people at Author Central and they will hook you up with the people who work on the Look Inside feature. Unlike you, I had them showing too much of my manga. Just be aware that its more of a blunt instrument than scalpel. Meaning that they'll show suddenly 80 percent of the book. You're better off adjusting your interior yourself based on how much they show.

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Nancy Chase

Discussion Starter · #4 · May 11, 2015

X. Aratare said:
Contact the people at Author Central and they will hook you up with the people who work on the Look Inside feature. Unlike you, I had them showing too much of my manga. Just be aware that its more of a blunt instrument than scalpel. Meaning that they'll show suddenly 80 percent of the book. You're better off adjusting your interior yourself based on how much they show.

Yeah, 80% would be a bit much! If what they're showing now is roughly 10%, like they say, I wish they'd show maybe 20%. Or just show a DIFFERENT 10%.

Thanks for the hint about contacting Author Central!

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Rob May

· #5 · May 11, 2015

I've noticed a lot of books on Amazon have far too much front matter. It only just hit me that ebooks aren't paperbacks. I'm in the process of reformatting all my books: deleting my title page and author blurb, shortening the copyright, moving the contents page to the back (Kindles have their own menu button for getting to the contents - no need to have it at the front) and basically just getting to the main text in as short a space as possible!

You sound like you have even more front matter than most ... maybe take an axe to it

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cinisajoy

· #6 · May 11, 2015

Or add more backmatter.

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80593

· #7 · May 12, 2015

David Gaughran suggests in Let's Get Digital that you take what might traditionally be front matter in a paperback and make it back matter instead. Even the table of contents, which people are going to use the menu on their Kindle to navigate to anyway. Go straight from a combined title page/copyright notice into the content of the book. As a reader I like it when people follow this advice, as I rarely buy anything without reading the sample anymore.

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Jan Hurst-Nicholson

· #8 · May 12, 2015

***Rushes off to check mine***

I've got the usual front matter and TOC at the beginning of my books, but the Look Inside still lets you read four chapters of the longer books and two of the shorter books. ::)