Amazon, Book Marketing & PR

How Adding Customer Images to Amazon Can Increase Your Book Sales

On every Amazon product page (including print and eBook pages) there is the option to “Share your own customer images”. Find this option under the image of your book cover.

Anyone can upload these customer images, including the author or publisher. So why is this worth your while?

In the case of my non-fiction wedding guide, I uploaded images to compliment the existing book cover image. These include an image of the paperback book in a real life setting, the books interior and images of the text on my Kindle.

When I made this small change, I noticed a leap in my sales. Coincidence?

Perhaps. Perhaps not. It’s hard to know which marketing efforts are working since we do not have direct statistics from Amazon, and I suspect that it’s a sum of the entire equation. Here is why adding customer images works, using an example of my favorite vice, Peet’s coffee.

Here is what Peet’s coffee looks like in it’s bag. We can more or less draw a parallel of the coffee bag to the image of your book’s front cover:

Now, we can add an image that gives the consumer a feeling; a desire to enjoy the product for them self:

We can even go one step further and add in an image of someone enjoying the coffee, to show the customer the joy and experience this purchase will bring them.


Photo Courtesy of KatLevPhoto on Flikr

It’s obvious which image is going to entice you to buy the coffee more effectively. In the case of your book, this could be a picture of someone reading your book on the sofa, by the pool or even at the beach.

Adding customer images is a simple, effective, yet underused tool. Use this to your advantage and give customers more than just a book cover to judge your book by.

Now please excuse me while I go get my coffee!

Have you used this feature? Leave a comment with a link to your book so we can all check it out.