I love having multiple income sources. When you rely on just one method of income, you really put your finances at risk, should something cause that income to cease.
One of my sources of revenue is KDP low-content books. You don’t have to be good at writing to start your own KDP empire.
Keep reading to learn how you can earn a nice chunk of change by selling low-content books on Amazon.
What Are KDP Low-Content Books?
Low-content books are any type of book that has little to no writing. Below are just a few examples of books that fall into this category:
- Notebooks
- Journals
- Sketchbooks
- Log books
- Yearly, monthly, weekly and daily planners
- Budgeting workbooks
- Puzzle books
- Coloring books
- Kids activity books
- Recipe books
- Writing prompts
What is KDP?
Amazon allows authors and low-content creators to sell their books through their KDP platform, which is short for “Kindle Direct Publishing.”
This platform is easy to use and anyone can sign up to sell through the site. All KDP published books are made available on Amazon’s website.
Since the platform is “Print-on-Demand,” you won’t have to collect any payments or hold any inventory. Amazon takes care of all of that for you.
When uploading your finished low-content book on KDP, you’ll follow these steps to get your book published:
- Sign in to your account (if you don’t already have one, it takes just a few minutes to create).
- Choose whether you want to create an ebook, paperback or hardcover. A paperback will work for most low-content books.
- Choose the language the book is being printed in.
- Add your title and subtitle (optional).
- Add your author name. This can be a pen name.
- Create a description for your book.
- Check your publishing rights.
- Add seven relevant keywords.
- Choose two categories for your low-content book.
- Answer yes or no to the question, “Does this book contain any adult content?”
- Allow KDP to give you an ISBN for free, or upload one you bought somewhere else.
- Choose the size of your book, the color of your pages and whether you want a glossy or matte cover.
- Upload your book’s interior file.
- Upload your book’s cover file.
- Check the preview of the book to make sure everything looks good.
- Create a price for your book. KDP will show you how much profit you will make based on the purchase price you select. I try to make sure I’m making $2.00 on each book.
- Click publish.
- Wait for KDP to review your book. Once they approve it, the book will go live.
How to Create KDP Low-Content Books
Research is where you’ll want to begin your KDP journey. You’ll want to visit Amazon and look for niches that aren’t completely saturated.
For example, you wouldn’t want to create a unicorn coloring book for kids because there are over 4,000 of these currently available.
It would be hard to get your book to stand out from the rest.
Now, if you typed “Clarinet Notebook” into Amazon’s search engine, you’d find there are only 105 results.
You could easily make this notebook geared toward music lovers who play the clarinet, as you wouldn’t have much competition.
Once you’ve got an idea for your book, you’ll need to create the interior. There are several ways you can do this. Many creators use Canva, but you’d need the paid version.
I myself found that Tangent Templates was an excellent place option when I first started out.
Tangent Templates comes with over 100 interiors that are already done for you. There are also a slew of videos that will show you have to put together an interior using their site.
There’s an interior creator, so you can alter or create your own interior pages. It didn’t take me long to figure out how to use the tools provided by Tangent Templates.
Another plus is that you can get Tangent Templates for life for just $59 one-time. You’ll find many other sites charge monthly for their services.
I personally have found this online software to be worth every penny!
Next, you’ll need to create covers for your KDP low-content books. Again, you can use Canva, as many creators do. I prefer to use Book Bolt.
Book Bolt is super easy to use and it won’t take you long to get the hang of things. This company also has plenty of tutorial videos, so you can see how to create a cover step-by-step.
Book Bolt costs $9.99 per month or you can save and pay yearly at $89.99. You can also start out monthly and switch over to yearly once you are sure that you enjoy the service.
You can get 20% off the cost of your Book Bolt membership when you use our code: fivebagsofgold.
Tips for Success When Selling Low-Content Books on Amazon
Once your low-content book is live on Amazon, you’ll want to use the contact form in your KDP dashboard to request your
book be added to more categories for better exposure.
They used to have a limit of eight categories; however, I believe they have recently increased it to 10.
Reviewers are pretty quick to add your categories once you request them.
Create multiple versions of your book (same interior but different covers). I try to target multiple keywords when I create a low-content book.
For example, I have a Budget Planner that is targeted to everyone, a Budget Planner for Couples, a Budget Planner for Women and a Budget Planner for Young Adults.
I like to make sure I always have one cover that is plain and others that are more eye-catching.
Floral is very popular. Funny enough, the cover I end up liking the least is always the one that sells the best, so you just never know.
Don’t forget to advertise. You can use free advertising through your blog, website or social media pages. You can ask friends and relatives to share your new book as well.
You can also go the paid advertising route. Many gurus, however, say to only do this after you identify that one of your books is a hit.
In Conclusion: KDP Low-Content Books
I have over 100 books in my KDP account and I only got started about 8 months ago. I have sold many copies without advertising by narrowing my niche and choosing great keywords.
It takes practice. My first couple of books never sold a single copy, but they were necessary to get my feet wet. All the gurus say to just get started creating.
Once you get the hang of things, you’ll be able to focus on fine-tuning your craft so you create winning books for an excellent passive income!
Check out our article on our latest KDP Creation: 22 Money Savings Challenges
This is a great article on KDP Low-Content Books. I would have never considered myself to sell these on Amazon, nor would I have thought that I could gain money from this. But what a good idea, I am going to definitely start out doing this! Thank you so much for this informative article.
I’m so glad you found the article helpful. I know I stumbled upon KDP low-content books awhile back and had no knowledge of them before that. I’ve been learning and growing my library ever since!
Wow, what a unique way to diversify streams of income. I love that you are able to utilize the “on-demand printing” feature of selling on Amazon to make this work without a significant investment upfront.
I already pay for a premium canva account (can’t say enough good things about it), but I may look into Book Bolt to compare their platform.
Thanks so much for your insight into the KDP low-content book idea!!
Yes, a lot low-content creators use the premium Canva account. It’s definitely a great option. I just fell in love with how easy Book Bolt made things, and I think it’s a great choice for beginners as they learn.
Wow, your story is really inspiring. It’s fantastic to learn that you produced 100 books in just eight months. That’s why I believe I’ll be able to make it as well. In my case, I believe I will use Canva because I use it frequently when producing menus and other graphics, so I am familiar with it. I’m also looking forward to setting up my KDP account.
Great article.
Yes, Canva is a great choice, especially if you have experience with it. I don’t think you can use the free version licensing for images on books you’re selling, so hopefully you have a premium account. Just check the licensing agreement.
Thank you for this helpful article about low content books. I’d like to make a little extra cash and that source of income got me very interested because you gotta be a little creative. And I like that! It’s still your creation that you are selling and not someone else’s. I have learned a lot thanks to your detailed explanation of the process!!
Yes, it’s a great way to express your creativity and make money at the same time!
I agree with you it is good when you can have more than one source of income that way it can make it easier in life. However, this is the first time I have heard of this system but from what you have said it seems to be worth the time and the investment which is a small price to pay for what you can get in return. Thanks much for sharing.
Glad you liked the article! I’m always looking for new revenue streams and this has turned out to be a good one!
As a fan of bullet journals and sketchbooks, I was wondering about if I could design some low content books on this area, and I’m glad I found your article as you’re already working on it and it looks like you’re doing great, thanks so much for sharing great information that helped me to learn more about this.
Bullet journals are quite popular! If you niche down enough, you should be able to make some good money!