We realize that publishing the book is just the beginning, which is why we offer such a wide variety of marketing products and promotional services to our self-published authors.
Such as the Global Book Tour, the PR Publicist, and most recently, the launch of the Amazon Search Inside Submission Service.
Studies show that a good number of consumers shop for reading material on the Internet. However, many may not purchase online because it’s hard to browse through books when you can’t physically flip through them and take a closer look.
Amazon’s Search Inside the Book program promises to change these statistics.
In 2001, Amazon.com offered the Look Inside the Book program, allowing consumers to view the inside cover, table of contents, back cover, and even a select few pages from inside the book. Search Inside the Book is the new and improved version, where consumers can still take a peek inside a book and preview certain pages before they buy it.
But even more importantly, this new program now includes a keyword search tool that allows customers to conduct additional searches within the book, which helps them confirm that the title is what they are looking for. When customers search for books on Amazon.com, actual words and phrases from the books—not just the author and the title—are engaged to return the best possible matches. With this powerful new feature, customers can find books that may never have surfaced in previous search results. It also widens the circle of readers for a particular book.
Imagine the kind of effect that can have on a book’s sales ranking!
Those interested in exploring Amazon’s digital database will find the search feature very easy to use. Enter a search term into any of the Amazon search boxes, and along with the listing of authors and titles, the consumer can now find excerpts from titles containing the search term. One click on the hyperlinked title leads to a scanned page with the search terms highlighted. Consumers can also choose a particular title and then perform a search within it. This kind of information gives the consumer a much better basis for deciding whether or not to purchase the book.
Searches can also differentiate between similar books. Suppose the customer is trying to decide between two very comparable cookbooks. A quick search will reveal that one contains fifteen references to “Southwest” recipes, while the other contains only three. This information helps the reader make an informed decision, ultimately creating happier customers.
But this additional functionality, and improved search results rankings, is only available for books participating in Amazon’s Search Inside program.
For this and other reasons, Search Inside the Book can help improve sales for many books that might otherwise languish on Amazon’s virtual shelves. As any author knows, marketing and publicity are what drive sales; and nearly all authors nowadays (traditionally published or alternatively published) are responsible for their own marketing efforts, whether or not they have any experience in marketing themselves.
Outskirts Press already offers a variety of marketing services to help authors in their promotional efforts. Authors will find with this new Amazon Search Inside the Book Submission Service, Outskirts Press makes getting set up with Amazon’s Search Inside the Book program easy and convenient.
To order the Amazon Search Inside Submission Service, visit the Marketing Options screen of your Author’s Center at www.outskirtspress.com
Not published yet?
Amazon’s “Search Inside the Book” feature allows potential book buyers to peruse the front cover, back cover, table of contents and featured excerpts of the book, just as if they were shopping in a brick-and-mortar bookstore. 
In fact, with ebooks, iPhones, Kindles, and the like, it is becoming harder to remember that the most amazing technology for delivering words has yet to be improved upon. Often weighing less than 10 ounces, this fascinating piece of “technology” features between 100-600 “screens,” each one capable of holding roughly 300-400 words (on each side!); each “screen” weighs next to nothing and is no thicker than an average piece of paper. It’s easy to transport, inexpensive, and doesn’t fry when you spill coffee on it.
