On this page, we'll give you an overview of the Google Books Partner Program. If you decide that the program is a good fit for you, you can easily sign up online. We've also provided further information about signing up on another page of our Help Center.
What is the Google Books Partner Program?
The Google Books Partner Program is a free marketing program that enables publishers and authors to promote their books online, through Google Books. By submitting a digital or physical copy of your book to be displayed online, you'll make it discoverable to Google users from around the world.
When a reader finds your book on Google Books, they'll see a limited preview of your book, as well as a series of links to purchase your title at major online retailers. You can also add your own custom link to your book's listing.
How does Google Books work?
We scan the full text of your book, to make each word of your title a possible result for a search on Google Books. This means that if the word "guitar" appears in a page of your book, it would appear as a result for a user searching the word "guitar." However, even though we index all pages of your title, you can control the percentage of your book that a user will be able to browse.
We've also integrated the Google Books index with the index of Google.com, so our users from all around the world will be able to discover your books.
How is my content protected?
We host all book content on our secure servers. We disable the print, cut, copy, and save functionality on all pages displaying book content, in order to protect your material.
Google also protects your content by limiting the number of pages that are shown to users. You can choose to make from 20% to 100% of your book's content browsable each month. Partners who wish can also choose to make a PDF of their book available to users for download.
Do I retain copyrights to my books?
Yes. You will retain all of your rights to your content. Google does not assume any copyright to your material.
Am I eligible?
We're able to accept books written in any language, as long as they're submitted by their rights holder. We are limited in our ability to make books in some languages full-text searchable. For more information about the types of content that we're able to accept and display, please see our Program Policies.
Is it really free?
Yes. The only charge you might incur through participating in this program would be the cost of shipping books to Google for scanning and processing.
What do I earn from this program?
Our technology examines the content of a book to determine its topic, then matches relevant ads to each page. These keyword-targeted advertisers pay only when a user clicks on their ad, and we share the majority of this revenue with you. You'll find more information about ads on this page.
We also provide a series of links to your book on the sites of major retailers, as well as a site of your choice. These links are not paid for by the sites featured, and clicking on a link to purchase your book at an online retailer won't generate any revenue directly.
Can I cancel my account?
Yes. You can cancel your account at any time by contacting our support team.
How do I send my book for inclusion?
We use proprietary scanning technology to prepare your book for display on Google Books. We offer you the ability to send us either a PDF file or a physical copy of your title.
Can you return my books when you're done with them?
Our scanning process requires that your books be dismantled - as a result, we're unable to return physical books to you.
How does Google benefit from Google Books?
Simply put, digitizing and indexing books puts us closer to achieving our goal of organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful.