The following information was featured in "Publishing Poynters" Newsletter by my good friend, Dan Poynter.  See subscription info below.

Use the following information to get your book cover image on Amazon.com much faster.

If you send your cover for scanning or if you send the image file on a disk, it will take weeks to post the image of your book cover. If you send the cover by File Transfer Protocol (FTP), the image is often posted overnight.

To send a file by FTP, you will need to have software such as CuteFTP, Fetch or go through AOL. The instructions below are for use on AmericaOnline (AOL) only. Other instructions can be had by clicking on the Amazon.com link at the end of this article.

• Log on.

• In the open bar at the top, type FTP and click on Go.

• Click on Go to FTP.

• Click on Other Site.

• In the Site Address bar, type "FTP-1.Amazon.com."

• Check the "Ask for Login Name and Password."

• Click Connect.

• In the "Please Enter Your Login Name" bar, type "catalog."

• In the "Please Enter Your Password" bar, type "muchstuff."

• Click "Continue."

• That should get you in. You will see a lot of other JPG files that other people have uploaded.

• Click on upload and enter a JPG, 72 dpi image file directory and name.

Note that Amazon wants your cover to be identified by its 10-digit ISBN (no dashes needed), e.g., 6004435678.tif or 1254545332.jpg

After you have successfully transferred your materials to Amazon.com's server, be sure to send an e-mail to book-dept@amazon.com. For a speedy response please put "FTP Upload Details" in the subject line. List the names of your files and their contents in the body of the message.

Go to Amazon.com for complete details.