Look Inside for Kindle - now with KDP Reply

[Peter Salisbury]

I was checking my author page (as you do, looking for new reviews – no there weren't any, again!) when I clicked through to my newly free limerick book. To my surprise, the Look Inside feature is activated. I don't recall ever having requested this and I understood previously that it was only available on print books. The limerick book has never existed in print form.

Looks pretty cool, though – you can now read the first seven limericks free – urm, except they're all already free... still looks pretty cool. I like it!

  Anyone else get this? Is it another Great Amazon Experiment?


(edited to correct 'Search Inside' to 'Look Inside')

Further Edit - I have change the title because I noticed that some not free books were being included in this.

[kyrin]

You can activate the feature for some of your titles in Author Central.

[Peter Salisbury]

The point is I didn't request this great feature, it just appeared - then it disappeared, now it's back again on not one but two books. This time I've got the screen shots to prove it.

I can't make the images reappear here but I've posted them on my blog, please check it out:

http://petersalisburyauthor.blogspot.com

I've emailed KDP to see if it is Another Great Amazon Experiment and I'll let you know when I get a response.

[kyrin]

The point is I didn't request this great feature, it just appeared - then it disappeared, now it's back again on not one but two books. This time I've got the screen shots to prove it.

I can't make the images reappear here but I've posted them on my blog, please check it out:

http://petersalisburyauthor.blogspot.com

I've emailed KDP to see if it is Another Great Amazon Experiment and I'll let you know when I get a response.

The point is you edited your post after I replied. I was referring to the search inside feature.

Notice the time stamp on the message.

[Peter Salisbury]

Thank you for your response on this, Richard. I apologise if I look like I'm trying to pull a fast one here, I can assure you that is not the case. I first thought that I had seen Search Inside but when I checked the book page it was Look Inside, which is why I edited my post and said that I had done so.

I definitely remember one being not applicable to ebooks, only to print books. Maybe there is Search Inside which applies to print books and Look Inside which applies to ebooks but so far only some of them?

When I have clicked on whichever it was before, I was able to actually search for words or phrases. With Look Inside for ebooks that function is not available. So far I have only obtained an automated response from KDP.

I have just checked on a print book on the UK site. It has the feature labelled Look Inside but it does have a search function.

And now, within the last few minutes - they've disappeared again! Definitely looks like an Amazon experiment to me.

[Peter Salisbury]

A surprisingly quick reply from KDP included the following:

"We're currently testing our Look Inside the Book feature for various Kindle titles."

For Search Inside (print books), the author has to apply to have the feature and must submit a PDF of the print book. With Look Inside (ebooks), Amazon already have the text file for the ebook because that's what is uploaded to KDP for publication.

Look Inside to me seems like a great idea because when it was live and working (for all of a couple of hours here and there) it meant you could click directly on the book cover image and see the sample immediately, on-line, and within the Amazon book page. This means it can be read there and then without going to the trouble of downloading a sample to the Kindle (This is assuming they were showing around 10%).

Just a few thoughts:
1. Readers can check out something straightaway and more easily decide they like the look of something and click to buy, whereas, as currently, going to the trouble of downloading a sample of a lesser known author might have been just a couple of clicks too far.

2. Books which take a page or two to get into may be at a disadvantage, compared to those which have an immediate attention-grabbing event on the first page - cue first page murder and mayhem.

On balance, I like it. Comments anyone?

[AnneMarie Novark]

When this feature was activated on my books the other day, the formatting was all wonky. Nothing like it actually looks on the Kindle. Weird.

[R. H. Watson]

When this feature was activated on my books the other day, the formatting was all wonky. Nothing like it actually looks on the Kindle. Weird.

I was concerned about that, but it looks like all Kindle books get the same wonky formatting.

[Peter Salisbury]

AnneMarie and R. H. Watson, I'm sorry to hear your formatting was wonky.

I didn't want to post the whole KDP reply because I'm sure I read somewhere they don't like people doing that but in another part of the email, they did say that things would appear differently on different computers and browsers. They are still testing, so I guess they're checking it works properly before making it available.

The formatting for mine looked consistent with the Kindle. I use a PC and Firefox, so maybe if you used a different combination, that might be it, or another factor I have noticed before is location – things sometimes look different on the US site when viewed from the UK.