Book Advertising Guidelines and Acceptance Policies

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Overview
2. Ad format and functionality
5. Targeting guidelines

1.0 Overview

These policies apply to Book ads campaigns in Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display and Lockscreen Ads for Kindle E-readers and Fire Tablets. All advertising content must be appropriate for a general audience. As the advertiser, it is your responsibility to comply with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations that apply to your ads and any location where the ads appear. This includes obtaining any required authorizations or approvals from local regulatory authorities for the sale, distribution, or advertisement of the books that you intend to advertise with Amazon or include in your ads.

As the advertiser, you must comply with our Ad Policies for the ad campaigns that you run with Amazon. If your ads do not comply with our Ad Policies, your campaigns may be rejected until you fix the policy violation. Amazon may suspend or terminate your ad account(s) for severe or repeated Ad Policy violations.

These Book Ads policies apply in all locales, unless we indicate otherwise, and are in addition to our Amazon Ads Guidelines and Acceptance Policies. Separate non-Book Ad Policies apply to sponsored ads, Posts, and Stores. For technical requirements, please review the ad specs.

We periodically update our policies. Please check this page often to ensure that you are always up to date on our latest policy requirements.

2.0 Ad format and functionality

Please ensure that your ad format complies with our sponsored ads guidelines.

3.0 Content requirements

The following content requirements apply to all elements of your ads.

3.1 General requirements

Your ads must:

  • Accurately reflect the content of the landing page.
  • Be suitable for a general audience.
  • Be in the primary language of the Amazon site on which the ad is displayed.
  • Be clear and accurate so that customers receive correct information before engaging with an ad or deciding to purchase a book.
  • Only promote books that you either own or are authorized to resell or distribute.

3.2 Ad eligibility

Sponsored Brands requires authors and publishers to advertise a minimum of three unique titles. If you do not have three unique titles and wish to advertise different formats of the same title, you should consider creating Sponsored Products or Sponsored Display ads.

3.3 Prohibited content

Book content

We prohibit the following globally:

  • Amazon trademarks or references to Amazon products or services.
  • Content that may be considered culturally inappropriate in the geographical location where the ad will display.
  • Content that glorifies or promotes the use of illicit or recreational drugs, abuse of legal drugs, drug paraphernalia or products to beat drug tests.
  • Contests or sweepstakes.
  • Content that implies or claims to diagnose, treat, or question gender identity or sexual orientation.
  • Content that encourages or promotes vandalism, anti-social behavior, or the defacing of public or private property.
  • Content that encourages or glorifies smoking.
  • Content that claims to diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent a disease or addiction.
  • Content that promotes practices that can result in physical or mental harm.
  • Content that may infringe, encourage, or enable, the infringement of intellectual property or personal rights.
  • Content that promotes practices that may be illegal or dangerous, or that encourage the evasion of law enforcement.
  • Content that promotes, glorifies, or encourages suicide or self-harm, and young adult fiction where suicide or self-harm is a central theme.
  • Content that is threatening, abusive, intolerant, harassing, or that discriminates or shows hate based on race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expressions, age or toward any member of a protected class.
  • Content that revolves around highly debated social topics.
  • Children in adult or dangerous situations. For example, children close to, or handling, firearms or other weapons, or in situations which may contravene established child safety best practices (such as children in vehicles without their seatbelts fastened or cycling without helmets), or without adult supervision in places or situations where they cannot safely look after themselves (such as swimming pools, crossing busy roads or around dangerous equipment).
  • Cruelty toward people or animals.
  • Deceptive, false, or misleading content.
  • Erotica, pornography, or explicit sexual practices or preferences.
  • Excessive violence or gore, including, but not limited to:
    • Brutality, graphic depictions of blood, open or sutured wounds, scenes of torture, dismemberments, or mutilations of bodies (including cadavers).
    • Overt references to or images implying or depicting rape and sexual molestation.
  • Exploitation of sensitive events such as natural disasters, human-caused disasters, incidents of mass trauma and/or casualties, or the death of public figures.
  • Fake functionality such as CTA buttons.
  • Foul, vulgar, or obscene language or language containing profanity, including obfuscated text or inappropriate double meanings.
  • Get-rich-quick schemes.
  • Language that pressures customers into taking action, or creates a sense of urgency such as “Last Chance”, “Don’t leave it to too late”, “Don’t Miss Out”, “Hurry while supplies last”, or emotionally charged language.
  • Misspellings, excessive punctuation, or incorrect grammar or punctuation.
  • Obscene, defamatory, libelous, illegal, invasive of another’s privacy.
  • Shipping or delivery claims.
  • Special characters (unless part of the book title).

Lockscreen Ads and Sponsored Display

In addition to the above, we prohibit the below on Lockscreen Ads and Sponsored Display (Audiences) globally. Please also review section 4 (Book Acceptability) for further restrictions on Lockscreen Ads and Sponsored Display.

  • Content related to personal or sensitive topics.
Locale-specific requirements
  • Egypt: The following content are prohibited:
    • Content related to real estate and real estate investing.
    • Content related to educational services.
    • Content related to horoscopes, fortune telling, black magic and similar occult themes.
    • Content which includes alcohol imagery or depictions of alcohol consumption.
  • Japan: Soft adult comic covers are prohibited.
  • United Arab Emirates: The following content are prohibited:
    • Content related to real estate and real estate investing.
    • Content related to educational services.
    • Content related to horoscopes, fortune telling, black magic and similar occult themes.
Book Title, Headline, Custom Text (where available) and Images

Book Title, Headline, Custom Text or images must be relevant and accurately represent the book advertised, ads must not contain:

  • ASCII art.
  • Amazon logos, references to Kindle Unlimited (KU) or related claims such as “Free on Kindle” or "Borrow Now".
  • Text in ALL CAPS, or casing such as CaMel CaSe.
    • To uphold a high-quality creative bar for your ads, Amazon recommends that the Headline and Custom Text be in sentence case.
    • Amazon permits capitalization or casing only if the book cover, title, author or publisher name on the detail page is formatted in the same way, or the word is a well-known abbreviation such as DIY (do it yourself) or YA (young adult).
  • Emotionally draining or exploitive content (for example, a book on child raising with a distressed child in the image).
  • Excessive use of ellipses.
    • You may only use a maximum of three ellipses in your Headline or Custom Text: one at the start, one in the middle, and one at the end. The ellipses must be formatted as 3 periods consecutively without a space before or after the ellipses.
  • Full or partial email or web addresses, phone numbers, hashtags, social media addresses, or QR codes.
  • Fully visible intimate body parts: genitals, female breasts, and buttocks. All intimate body parts must be covered with clothing. See also sexual image guidelines.
  • Incomplete sentences.
  • Misspellings or incorrect grammar and punctuation.
  • Pressuring language that creates a sense of urgency for customers (e.g. “Don’t miss out!”, “HURRY - BUY NOW”).
  • Price or other pricing messages in any part of the ad (for example, “Now for only $12.99” or “Buy now for half the price”).
  • Profanity, including obfuscated or censored profanity.
  • Phrases with an inappropriate sexual undertone or offensive double meaning.
  • References alluding to an incestualized romantic relationship, or a romantic relationship with minors.
  • References or acronyms related to certain sexual practices (such as Alpha, BDSM, Dom, Sub or MMF).
  • Any reference to Amazon products and services in headline and custom text if they do not comply with the Brand Usage Guidelines and must not be presented in a way that confuses the ad with an Amazon ad.
  • Special characters or symbols, including Intellectual Property symbols (for example, ©) unless they are part of the book title.
  • Sentences ending with article words (for example, “Sample Book, The”).
  • Sentences with multiple or excessive punctuation (for example, “!!!” or “The-Sample-Book”).
  • Shipping claims.

3.4 Author profile picture and publisher logo

Some book ad formats require an author profile picture or publisher logo so that customers can identify you as the advertiser.

Your author profile picture or publisher logo must be legible and must not contain:

  • Additional text other than your author or publisher name or initials, or series title.
  • Full or partial book covers.
  • Letter or pillar box formats.
  • Poor cropping.

Author profile pictures should be your author image or likeness, your author name or initials, series title or a relevant representative image from the books advertised.

Examples of acceptable author profile pictures and publisher logos:

Author photo that fills entire frame

Author photo

Author self-portrait that fills entire frame

Author self-portrait

Name of author, publisher, or series

Name of author

Initials of author, publisher, or series

Initials of author

Book character that represents the brand

Book character

Book symbol that represents the brand

Book symbol

Examples of unacceptable author profile pictures and publisher logos:

Additional text other than your author or publisher name or initials, or series title.

Additional text other than your author name

Cut-off text

Cut-off text

Text that's too small to read

Text that's too small to read

Text that's too hard to read

Text that's too hard to read

Full book covers

Full book covers

Partial book covers

Partial book covers

Images that don’t fill the entire frame

Images that don’t fill the entire frame

Poorly cropped images

Poorly cropped images

3.5 Claims and substantiation

If you make a claim in your ad copy, that claim must not be contradicted in the product detail page.

Claims, awards, or accolades must be substantiated on the product detail page or in the ad with the source and date of the designation. For example, a claim such as “Best Seller in the US” in the headline would require “Best Seller in the US, NY Times, March 2020” on the product detail page or in the ad and must be no older than 18 months.

  • Examples of claims, awards, or accolades that require substantiation include bestselling books, bestselling series, bestselling author, award-winning book, and award-winning author.
  • Claims, awards or accolades must not be presented in a misleading way. For example, ads must not claim “This year’s best book”…if the award was given last year.
  • Amazon does not require additional substantiation for claims that are present on the book cover or subjective claims that relate to an opinion, or that cannot be objectively proven. For example, “You’ll love XXX,” or “You will feel energized after reading this book.”

If your ad refers to another title, it cannot state or imply that your book is superior to the other book, author or its central character (for example, we would not approve “more suspenseful than [Other Book Title]”).

3.6 Custom images

Custom images allow you to include compelling images that represent your book or brand in context or a lifestyle setting in your ad. Images must not contradict the landing page and must be of high resolution and quality and aesthetically pleasing. Images must not:

  • Be individual or multiple book covers on a solid or transparent background.
  • Be an individual author profile picture or publisher logo or combination of logos.
  • Be one of your selected book images.
  • Contain duplicate images.
  • Contain crowded, excessive, poorly cropped or illegible elements.
  • Contain additional text other than text naturally present in the image.
  • Contain letterbox or pillarbox formats.

Example of acceptable custom image:

acceptable custom image

3.7 Customer reviews

  • Customer reviews must be suitable for all audiences.
  • Multiple customer reviews cannot be combined into a single review.
Amazon customer reviews and reviews by authors

We permit the use of Amazon Customer Reviews and reviews by Authors. Reviews must:

  • Be verifiable in the book description or editorial review section on the product detail page.
  • Not mention customer by name.
  • Not be modified from its original form (shortening with ellipses is permitted).
  • Not include rating score or star ratings.
Third-party reviews
  • Editorial reviews are permitted and must cite to the original source in the ad, such as “What a great read, NY Times Editorial review.”
  • Customer reviews are not permitted.

3.8 Language

The language of the ad must match the language of the main Amazon site where the ad will display.

If the book title or content is in a foreign language the following conditions apply:

  • The book title in the ad and product detail page must include a language disclaimer, such as “The Book I Wrote (French Edition)” or “Un Deux Trois (French Edition)”.
  • Customizable headline or custom text, where applicable, must be in the language of the main Amazon site where the ad will display.
  • Where possible, a local language translation of the book title should be in the book title, headline, or custom text.
Lockscreen Ads

Lockscreen Ads must display the language of the book on the book cover or within the custom text.

3.9 Seasonal events

If your headline or custom text contains a promotion for a specific single day holiday event such as Halloween, Valentine’s Day (such as “A Great Book for your valentines?”), then the dates for those campaigns must start within 8 weeks leading up to the event and must end within 24 hours after the event date, or a reasonable time after that, depending on the event.

For multi-day seasonal events such as Christmas, please ensure the campaign ends within a reasonable timeframe after the event, such as 7 days.

If you extend the campaign after the seasonal event ends, you must modify your headline or custom text by removing the messaging that no longer applies.

4.0 Book acceptability

All books advertised must be appropriate for a general audience, conform to Amazon Ads Guidelines and Acceptance Policies, and comply with all laws, rules, and regulations that apply to the advertiser, the advertising content, and any location where the advertisements may appear.

Amazon permits ads for books in most categories provided they comply with the content restrictions outlined in this policy. To help provide a welcoming experience to all customers we place additional restrictions on the categories listed in this section.

4.1 Books on drugs

The policies in this section cover books whose content is related to drugs, drug abuse, and drug-related activities.

Ads must not:

  • Contain images of illicit or recreational drugs or images of drug use.
  • Make claims to cure drug addictions.
  • Promote or glorify the consumption or use of illegal or recreational drugs and related paraphernalia.
  • Promote or glorify the abuse of legal or prescription drugs.
  • Promote the drug trade.
  • Provide guidance on the preparation and/or consumption of illegal or recreational drugs and related paraphernalia.
Locale-specific requirements
  • Canada: Cannabis is legal in Canada, so books that have a central theme regarding the use of cannabis are permitted, provided that they do not:
    • Display the use or consumption of products, including smoking
    • Glorify, encourage, or promote the use or irresponsible consumption of cannabis and related products, particularly the use or consumption by minors.
  • Egypt and United Arab Emirates: Book content related to illegal drugs, including images, are prohibited.

4.2 Gambling books

The policies in this section cover non-fiction gambling books such as gambling tutorials or tips and tricks on how to gamble.

Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products

Gambling book Ads may run in Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products provided they do not:

  • Depict or refer to behaviors associated with gambling problems.
  • Deny that gambling is risk free or leads to addiction.
  • Encourage or glorify gambling.
  • Imply that the game is simple to play and win.
  • Link gambling to social, financial, or sexual success.
  • Promote or encourage gambling to solve financial problems.
Lockscreen Ads and Sponsored Display

The following books are prohibited on Lockscreen Ads and Sponsored Display (Audiences):

  • Non-fiction gambling books.
Locale-specific requirements
  • Egypt and United Arab Emirates: Books related to gambling are prohibited.

4.3 Political books

The policies in this section cover books related to elections, politicians, or that have politics as a central theme.

Permitted books
  • Works of fiction with political themes.
  • Non-fiction books about politics in general or political science (for example, an historical book about a former US president, or a book about the evolution of a political party in the past 100 years).
Prohibited books
  • Books that contain a personal attack on a specific political candidate or elected official.
  • During an election year: Books about a specific political party, issue, or candidate.
Lockscreen Ads and Sponsored Display

The following books are prohibited on Lockscreen Ads and Sponsored Display (Audiences):

  • Books about a specific political party, issue, or candidate (including autobiographies and memoirs).
Locale-specific requirements

Egypt and United Arab Emirates: The following content are prohibited:

  • Books about a specific political party, issue, or candidate.
  • Content that may undermine or criticize traditional Arab culture, its politics or its leaders.
  • Content that may encourage political unrest or the disruption of public order.
  • Content related to political disputes or armed conflict.

4.4 Religious books

The policies in this section cover books that have religious content.

Permitted books
  • Non-fiction books about religion in general.
  • Fiction books with religious themes.
  • Non-fiction books with a central theme revolving around a specific religion.
    • The keywords must be specific to that religion.
    • Product targeting must be directly related to that religion.
Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Products, and Sponsored Display

Product targeting must be directly related to the product promoted.

Lockscreen Ads and Sponsored Display

The following books are prohibited on Lockscreen Ads and Sponsored Display (Audiences):

  • Non-fiction books with religion specific content (such as sacred texts or commentaries on sacred texts).
Locale-specific requirements
  • Egypt: Religious book products including books depicting symbols associated with religions are prohibited.
  • France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, and Sweden: Content related to Scientology is prohibited.
  • Singapore: Restrictions apply to religious content as required by Singapore law.
  • United Arab Emirates: Religious texts and content related to atheism, paganism, and polytheism are prohibited.

4.5 Romance books

Ads for Romance books may only feature minimal provocative content. Ads must not contain nudity, overt sexuality, clearly prurient content, or sensitive words and titles.

  • Please see section 6.5 Sexually suggestive content below for image guidelines.
Lockscreen Ads and Sponsored Display

The following is prohibited on Lockscreen and Sponsored Display (Audiences):

  • Partial nudity (such as a bare chested male model) that occupies a majority of the ad.
  • Partial nudity that contains a clearly visible waistline, below normal height.
Locale-specific requirements
  • Egypt: Partial nudity, depictions of intimate contact, and sexually provocative images are prohibited.
  • Japan and United Arab Emirates: Partial nudity and provocative content is prohibited.

4.6 Self-help books

The policies in this section cover books whose content is sensitive or personal in nature. The following book categories are prohibited on Lockscreen Ads and Sponsored Display (Audiences).

Diet and weight loss

Books that reference, or are marketed in way that focuses on weight management, weight loss or other weight related issues.

Financial misfortune

Books on financial failure (or success if marketed on the basis that it will solve financial problems), bankruptcy, and career changes.

Health issues

Books on personal health issues such as sexual dysfunction, chronic illness, mental or physical diseases, addictions and recovery, or other sensitive conditions such as incontinence and anxiety.

Personal life events

Books on relationship and parenting issues, pregnancy, success or failure in dating, marriage, divorce and other personal or unfortunate life events such as dealing with mourning and grief.

Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Products, and Sponsored Display

Product targeting must be directly related to the product promoted.

4.7 Weight-loss books

Ads must not speak directly to customers, such as “Are you overweight?”, nor make any unrealistic or excessive claims, including, but not limited to:

  • That customers can lose weight by merely reading the book and without following a calorie-controlled diet or exercise program.
  • That results are effective for everyone, or that they are permanent.
  • Weight loss of a specific amount over a defined period of time.
  • Substantial weight loss no matter what or how much the customer eats.
Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Products, and Sponsored Display

Product targeting must be directly related to the product promoted.

Lockscreen Ads and Sponsored Display

Books whose primary purpose is to promote weight loss are prohibited on Lockscreen Ads and Sponsored Display (Audiences).

5.0 Targeting guidelines

Ads must not target or appeal to children through messaging, imagery, or other targeting.

The keywords or products targeted in your Ads must be relevant to the product being promoted. Ads must not target keywords or products that could result in an offensive, insensitive, or undesirable shopper experience

For instance:

  • Books whose content is sensitive or personal in nature, such as weight loss, medical, religion and self-help can only use keyword or product targeting directly related to the book promoted.

6.0 Image and video guidelines

In addition to the requirements above, the following content guidelines apply to the image and video content in your ads.

6.1 Image quality

  • If the image contains a border, the border must be evenly distributed.
  • Images must be high quality, professional, and visually appealing.
  • Lockscreen images must have a width:height ratio between 0.6 and 1.
  • The image must be a 2-dimensional representation of the book promoted.
  • There can only be minimal text on the image.

6.2 Video guidelines

Video asset requirements
Please ensure your video complies with the following guidelines:

  • Letterbox or pillarbox formats: Videos must not have bars on any side of the video content.
  • We do not permit blank or black frames at the start or end of videos.

Content guidelines
Videos must be suitable for general audiences and include your author name or image, publisher logo, or book that clearly represents the author, publisher or book promoted. Videos must comply with our policies.

Sponsored Brand Video ads autoplay and launch on mute, with customer-initiated on click audio, therefore we recommend videos that can easily be understood and are still engaging without sound.

Videos without audio tracks are acceptable, however:

  • It must be clear to the customer that the video has no audio (for example, the ad has a disclaimer that reads “no audio” or there are no characters that appear to be speaking).
  • Customers must be able to understand the video without audio.

Captions or subtitles are strongly recommended.

Audio and any text within the video must be in the primary language of the locale in which they are displayed.

Video format and quality
To ensure a good customer experience the videos in your ad must not contain:

  • Blurry, unclear, or unrecognizable visuals.
  • Creative elements that interfere with legibility of ad templates, for example, the Sponsored tag or mute button. Please review our Video Safe Zone templates for more information.
  • Customer reviews (including star ratings) even if these reviews are on Amazon.
  • Deals, discounts, or other savings promotions.
  • Distracting images (for example, flashing, spinning, blinking, pulsating objects or text, or high-contrast transitions).
  • Distracting, shrill, unexpected or violent, and jarring sounds. This can include sudden changes in volume, uncommonly high-pitched voices, or unexpected or contextually irrelevant sounds.
  • Illegible text.
  • Poor audio quality such as static, crackling, faint messages or low tone voices, fast paced, inaudible, unclear, or unrecognizable sounds.
  • Poor video quality and low resolution.
  • Pressuring, combative, or urgent language intended to elicit a click or a sale from the customer.

6.3 Alcohol, tobacco, and drugs

Book covers, image and videos cannot display the use of alcohol, tobacco, drugs, or drug paraphernalia.

Ads should not encourage or glorify the use of alcohol, tobacco and drugs.

Locale-specific requirements
  • Egypt and United Arab Emirates:
    • Images of alcohol are prohibited.
    • Images of drugs and related products are prohibited.

6.4 Weapons

Weapons include firearms, swords, cross bows and other inherently violent objects.

Ads may feature images of military equipment and vehicles (tanks, warplanes, helicopters, etc.).

Weapons (including realistic and non-realistic firearms, swords, bows and arrows, etc.) must not be shown:

  • Directed out toward the customer.
  • Handled by or associated with a minor.
  • In a gruesome way (for example, covered in blood).
  • In a violent, threatening manner, for example in the process of injuring another character.
  • Pointed at a character.
Book image
Locale-specific requirements
  • Egypt, United Kingdom, and United Arab Emirates:
    Lockscreen Ads: In addition to the above restrictions, we prohibit images of bladed weapons including knives and swords.

6.5 Sexually suggestive content

The policies in this section apply to both human and cartoon imagery.

The following are prohibited in all ads:

  • Ads that draw undue attention to body parts, such as breasts or buttocks.
  • Depictions of minors in sexual situations.
  • Fully visible intimate body parts such as genitals, female breasts, and buttocks.
    • Ads may feature semi-revealing attire (models showing bare skin without revealing any intimate parts or showing contours or simulation of sensitive areas) if modest and relevant to the product or service promoted. For example, an image of a woman in a bikini may be used to promote bikinis, but the same image cannot be used to promote a car because a woman in a bikini is not relevant to a vehicle.
  • Images of suggestive undressing, such as pulling down a bra strap or underwear.
  • Models in sexual lingerie such as stockings, suspenders or paraphernalia such as whips and chains.
  • Provocative embraces or embraces in a provocative setting such as in a shower or on a bed.
  • Sexually suggestive poses emulating a sexual position or alluding to sexual activity, whether clothed or unclothed such as the parting of the legs or the accentuation of the hip, along with amorous or sexually passionate facial expressions.
  • Sexual innuendo in text, image, or video.
Locale-specific requirements
  • Egypt: Images must be modest and must not contain sexually provocative content or partial nudity.
  • United Arab Emirates:
    • Bare Skin: Images must be modest and must not contain sexually provocative content.

Examples of acceptable and unacceptable book covers

Examples of acceptable and unacceptable book covers
Lockscreen Ads and Sponsored Display

Due to the shared nature of Kindle E-readers or Fire tablets that may be used by any members of the household, including minors, Amazon applies a higher bar for ad content on these devices.

In addition to the above, Lockscreen or Sponsored Display (Audiences) ads must not display:

  • Partial nudity (such as a bare chested male model) that occupies a majority of the ad.
  • Partial nudity that contains a clearly visible waistline, below normal height.
  • Visually imposing images or text (Lockscreen ads only).