Amazon book previews

[Bill Hiatt]

Is it just me, or does Amazon no longer have an option for installing book previews on your website?

I had no problem for last new release or for a recent blog post in which I inserted a couple previews, but today I noticed two things. First, that the sharing part is missing from the product pages, and second, that it's migrated onto my affiliate stripe--but minus the ability to create a preview.

 

[alhawke]

Is this a preview of the look inside? This is new to me. I didn't even know there was a preview function via Amazon.

[Bill Hiatt]

Yes, the preview is essentially the Look Inside, migrated to another location. It includes a large cover image and a horizontal menu bar below. The menu bar includes BUY, which takes the customer to Amazon to complete the purchases; SHARE, which allows a viewer to share the preview via Facebook, Twitter, or email and also provides a link for sharing elsewhere; and PREVIEW. You can click on PREVIEW or the cover to view the Look Inside.

Here's the Amazon link, which is still active, though it references the Share section that no longer exists on the product page. https://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Instant-Preview/

I've found the function very handy. It still works for the books I already have previews for, but there doesn't seem to be any way to generate new ones.

I can't see any evidence on the internet that anyone else has noticed. Perhaps it's time to ask support and see what kind of response I get.

[Bill Hiatt]

I just submitted the question to the KDP monthly feedback forum. That seems like a good place to request new (or revived) features. And if the function has been hidden somewhere, someone will probably know. There seems to be an actual KDP employee involved in the conversation.

[alhawke]

Thank you, Bill. I didn't know this service was available. Hope it gets going again for you.

[Bill Hiatt]

Well, one other author had a similar comment on the November monthly feedback thread, but so far, there's no sign of an Amazon response.

I think I also emailed KDP support, but if so, I didn't get a response.

I'd like to think it was because someone was doing research, but I think I'm being overly optimistic.

I did discover one interesting thing. I can create a preview by taking the code from one of the other previews and substituting a different ISBN. Apparently, everything else is generic. I tried with one of my books and then tried someone else's just to be sure.


Of course, if Amazon is hell-bent on phasing out the feature, the previews could all stop working at some point, which would be even more of a letdown, but maybe Amazon won't bother with that. Who knows?

If anybody wants to use previews on their website (at your own risk, since, as I said, previews may stop working at some point), I pasted the relevant code below. I substituted ASIN for the number, so just paste your own asin over that part. I also removed my affiliate code and tested to make sure the whole thing still worked. 

Code: [Select]

<iframe style="max-width: 100%;" src="https://read.amazon.com/kp/card?asin=ASIN&amp;preview=inline&amp;linkCode=kpe&amp;ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_VQxpzbE1BWKN8&amp;" width="336" height="550" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
I will return if I here any more information. At least no one from Amazon has said anything like, "We removed that feature because..." My current theory is that they may not even have thought about it when they removed sharing from the regular page design.

[Bill Hiatt]

Well, here's an interesting twist! If you use Wordpress, the Amazon book preview is still available to you.

If you're using the Gutenberg editor, click to add a block and pick Amazon Kindle. Then insert the link for the product page for which you want the book preview.

When this feature was first released, it didn't support affiliate codes, but now, it evidently does. If you're an affiliate, go to the affiliate site stripe on the page for which you want a preview, click Text under Get Link and then select full link. Copy the result into the link area in the Amazon Kindle block. Presto!

If you're using a different page builder (like I use Elementor, for example), Follow the steps above in Gutenberg, switch to code view, copy the code from the Amazon Kindle block you just made, open a new post to edit in your page builder, switch to code or text view, and paste in the code you got from Gutenberg. It worked for me in Elementor, so it should work for you.

There are plugins that enable you to use Gutenberg blocks directly in Elementor (and probably other page builders), so you could skip the steps in the last paragraph. However, all the ones I saw that did that were paid plugins.

[hjmoritzo]

Book preview is still available. I had to look it up the other day when I put a page up on my site about my latest book.
If you go to your books page on Amazon there is a share symbol (it can be in a different place depending if you're on mobile or desktop) which you click and it should give you the option for a book link or an embed code.

[Bill Hiatt]

That's odd. I'm still not seeing anything of the kind, even though what you're describing is exactly what I used to see.

I tried three different browsers, just to be sure, and I get identical results in all of them.

But if you're seeing that sharing option again, it could mean it's coming back. (Sometimes, changes on Amazon take a while to propagate fully.) Fingers crossed! In the meantime, I can manage with my workarounds.

The fact that Amazon didn't send word to the Wordpress people to pull that content block suggests Amazon didn't necessarily mean to do away with the previews. But I can't really tell what they're doing.