My Amazon KDP diary!

amyjay

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Ive recently started putting some effort into Amazon KDP with the hope of creating a passive income for the future.

I'd tested it out by making 1 book back in February (sold 1 copy) and then spent time in May doing some proper research and started doing it daily from June.

I've got a few books due to be produced this month and hopefully some of them will be successful.

I currently have around 50 books. Most of my sales are coming from 3 specific books.

For June I've made £23 but for July I've already made £25, so I'm hoping this month will continue in this pattern.
 

homie

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By books do you mean books with actual content or is it more the diarys, note paper, journal sort of thing?
 

amyjay

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By books do you mean books with actual content or is it more the diarys, note paper, journal sort of thing?

So I do low content books. Which are log books, puzzle books and diaries.

No content books are ones which are notebooks or journals with just lines inside them. The market is very saturated with these so I'm not aiming to do these much. I've only produced a few which compliment my log book which is selling very well.

The low content books take longer to produce but can give some amazing outcomes! My log book that is selling well took me 15 hours to produce the interior. Compared to an hour or 2 for some of my other log books, just due to the fact that there's a lot of content inside it.
 
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rninja

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This is interesting stuff. I've been watched a few YouTube tutorials so far.

Just a few questions, if you don't mind.

What resources are you using to research niches?

Are you creating your interiors using Canva or a different programme?
And are you using pixabay or another public domain image site?

I've got a few ideas, but yet to start. Low content books seems similar to related areas such as printables and print on demand. It'll be good to see your progress.
 

amyjay

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This is interesting stuff. I've been watched a few YouTube tutorials so far.

Just a few questions, if you don't mind.

What resources are you using to research niches?

Are you creating your interiors using Canva or a different programme?
And are you using pixabay or another public domain image site?

I've got a few ideas, but yet to start. Low content books seems similar to related areas such as printables and print on demand. It'll be good to see your progress.

For researching niches, I don't use any paid programmes. I use Amazon. I use AMZ expander chrome extension and that's all I use.

I also use that for my keyword research.

I use canva for cover and interior.

I'm not using anything like pixabay. I use canva free images only ( don't use pro images, you don't have the copyright to use them for kdp) be care with sights like pixabay, often they have been stolen off other sites and aren't actually royalty free.

I'd say just get stuck in, I put off starting for a few months, but now I'm really enjoying creating them.
 
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homie

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Is there still much call for puzzle books in these days of apps and internet? My Nan used to get through loads of those.
 
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Jon

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Is there still much call for puzzle books in these days of apps and internet? My Nan used to get through loads of those.
I will go out on a limb and say the old folk still do love the puzzle magazines!!
 
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amyjay

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Is there still much call for puzzle books in these days of apps and internet? My Nan used to get through loads of those.

Some people do really well with puzzle books. I've not made any yet. I've got 2 specific word searches that I'm going to make at some point, as I've identified a niche where there's not too much competition but with people buying them.
 
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Kingsavvysaver

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Some people do really well with puzzle books. I've not made any yet. I've got 2 specific word searches that I'm going to make at some point, as I've identified a niche where there's not too much competition but with people buying them.

This is really amazing, well done.

Juts a quick question, how are you designing the puzzles, are you creating these from scratch?
 

amyjay

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This is really amazing, well done.

Juts a quick question, how are you designing the puzzles, are you creating these from scratch?

Essentially yes.

There's a number of different programmes out there (paid and unpaid) where you put in the words you want and it'll create a puzzle for you.

At the moment, my bestsellers are log books.
 
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amyjay

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I've also been experimenting with posting in FB groups.

I posted in a FB group in the niche (with permission from admin) and I've sold at least 4 with a profit of £14.64. I will be donating £4 of that to a charity, but I also used my Amazon affiliate link so will get some of that back.
 
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Kingsavvysaver

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I've also been experimenting with posting in FB groups.

I posted in a FB group in the niche (with permission from admin) and I've sold at least 4 with a profit of £14.64. I will be donating £4 of that to a charity, but I also used my Amazon affiliate link so will get some of that back.

if you need any help in doing this. Please let me know.

I am happy to work for free - commission based :)
 

amyjay

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if you need any help in doing this. Please let me know.

I am happy to work for free - commission based :)

Thanks, I'll let you know.

Do you do kdp yourself? Cause the only thing about that is, that would involve me telling you my niches, which you aren't really meant to do, incase someone else also copies your niche.
 
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amyjay

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Is there still much call for puzzle books in these days of apps and internet? My Nan used to get through loads of those.

Actually forgot that I've just completed a kids puzzle book and waiting on Amazon approving it.
 

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Crikey, I didn't realise that not all Pixabay images are public domain images. I watched some YouTube kdp tutorials that advise not to use Canva free images, but use Pixabay illustrations or vector images. How confusing.
 

amyjay

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Crikey, I didn't realise that not all Pixabay images are public domain images. I watched some YouTube kdp tutorials that advise not to use Canva free images, but use Pixabay illustrations or vector images. How confusing.

Vecteezy has been recommended but I'm not wanting to spend huge amounts just now.

Did they give a reason for not using canva free images?

To be fair, when I'm making log books, the interiors rarely have any images.
 

amyjay

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I'm up to £47 for this month so far. I was hoping to reach minimum £60 this month and would have loved to reach £100. Now this is looking more likely
 

rninja

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Vecteezy has been recommended but I'm not wanting to spend huge amounts just now.

Did they give a reason for not using canva free images?

To be fair, when I'm making log books, the interiors rarely have any images.
The YouTube tutorials said that Canva's terms and conditions are ambiguous regarding the use of free images/elements. It may cause legal issues if you are making a profit from using Canva free images. Personally, I'm a total newbie to this, but I saw this advise repeated in numerous videos. The KDP marketers were all using free publc domain images (such as Pixabay, Unsplash, etc), then modifying the filters and colours in Canva to make the images unique.
 
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amyjay

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The YouTube tutorials said that Canva's terms and conditions are ambiguous regarding the use of free images/elements. It may cause legal issues if you are making a profit from using Canva free images. Personally, I'm a total newbie to this, but I saw this advise repeated in numerous videos. The KDP marketers were all using free publc domain images (such as Pixabay, Unsplash, etc), then modifying the filters and colours in Canva to make the images unique.

I double checked canvas licence agreement, all free media on canva can be used free for commercial use. Attribution is not required.

The pro images, only give you one time use and can't be used in print.

I think by modifying royalty free images, you can then use them. But I'm not a designer so I'm not going down that route. I've just seen lots of people say not to trust the free websites, as people will take other people's content and put it on.

I'm trying to be extremely careful with copyright issues, as I don't want to do anything accidentally that will get my account banned.
 
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amyjay

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I'm up to £85 now for July.

Just published another book so I'll see how that sells in a few days when Amazon approves it.

I'm off work on furlough for the next week and a half (I've been brought back part time at work) and I've got a few new niche ideas, so my aim is to get them created before I'm back at work on the 23rd.
 
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