Make money selling low content books on Amazon

[Savvy cash]

Thought I'd give an update.

I've been doing KDP for just over a year now and have made just over £11000 in royalties (gross earnings)

My aim for the next year (July 2021 to June 2022) is to earn £30000 net. To do this, I need to have steady regular months as well as an outstanding Christmas.

That's amazing! Well done!

 

[Annie Beau]

Thought I'd give an update.

I've been doing KDP for just over a year now and have made just over £11000 in royalties (gross earnings)

My aim for the next year (July 2021 to June 2022) is to earn £30000 net. To do this, I need to have steady regular months as well as an outstanding Christmas.

Amy, do you purchase the interors? I cant get my head round the interiors, soneone mentioned doing them with canva but i can only see wall planners on there, was thinking of looking into tangent templates but its about £50

 

[amyjay]

Amy, do you purchase the interors? I cant get my head round the interiors, soneone mentioned doing them with canva but i can only see wall planners on there, was thinking of looking into tangent templates but its about £50

I create all my interiors from scratch.

I use canva and use the lines, shapes and text to create what I want.

The problem with templates is that your product is not unique. And I prefer to make unique books that are better than my competitors.

If you do use templates, I'd advise editing them slightly so that theyre slightly different

 

[amyjay]

Just had my best day so far.

I've made £270 so far today and I expect I'll probably make it over £300 by the end of today.

Edit - just calculated I've spent £200 on ads this month and have made £800 in royalties.

So £600 profit from work I did in the past. In July so far I've probably spent less than 10 hours working on kdp so far.

 

[Annie Beau]

cant get to grips with the planners on canva and sizing them onto an a5 word document. I don't know if its because the canva planners are by default an A4 size (even though Ive resized to A5 on canva). But when I create and download it, supposedly resized to a5, I open the template I've downloaded from the kdp site, select 6x9, paste the planner onto it...and lo and behold there is an A5 size document with a TINY TINY version of my amazing creation. If I leave the canva document as A4, it is too big for the A5 page I want to create.
What am I doing wrong with this?
TIA
Annie

 

[rninja]

@Annie Beau, why don't you just create your planner interior in Canva instead of Word? Or do you need a specific element or function in Word?

 

[Annie Beau]

@Annie Beau, why don't you just create your planner interior in Canva instead of Word? Or do you need a specific element or function in Word?

I've created it in Canva but the kdp template is Word. This is the information on the template page on kdp

2Decide what kind of template you want and find your trim size. You can download blank templates or templates with sample content. The blank templates have the page size and margins set. If you want help formatting the other parts, see our step-by-step guides for preparing your manuscript in Word for Windows and Mac. The templates with sample content include formatted front matter (e.g., title page, table of contents) and chapters with placeholder text. You'll customize the parts you want to keep and delete the sections you don't.

The most common trim size for paperbacks in the US is 6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm), but you have several trim size options. If you're unsure which size to pick, find books with content similar to yours to get an idea of what readers expect.

To find your template, click Download, open the ZIP folder, choose your language and trim size.

Download (Blank templates)


Download (Templates with sample content)

Does your manuscript contain images or graphics that bleed to the edge of the page? If so, you need to increase the page size. Add 0.125" (3.2 mm) to the width and 0.25" (6.4 mm) to the height. For example, if your trim size is 6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm), set the page size to 6.125" x 9.25" (15.54 x 23.46 cm). To change the page size in Word:

1. In the "Page Setup" section of the Layout tab, click Size.
2. Select More Paper Sizes. This opens a dialog box.
3. Enter your book's trim size, including bleed, into the "Width" and "Height" fields.
4. In the "Preview" section, select Whole document from the "Apply to" drop-down menu.
5. Click OK. This will resize your pages and change your page count.

Does that look right? Wouldnt be at all surprised if Ive got the wrong page/templates etc

 

[rninja]

@Annie Beau, my understanding is you don't need to use Word. Instead, create your interior in Canva at the required size (say 6 x 9 inches). Then download your finished interior as PDF print and upload to KDP.
I also make covers in Canva and download as PDF print.

 

[Annie Beau]

thanks i will try that tmrw

 

[Annie Beau]

@Annie Beau, my understanding is you don't need to use Word. Instead, create your interior in Canva at the required size (say 6 x 9 inches). Then download your finished interior as PDF print and upload to KDP.
I also make covers in Canva and download as PDF print.

Thanks ....as expected I was looking in the wrong place for a whole day!!

 

[Annie Beau]

Wonder if KDP will offer a spiral bound product at some point

 

[Annie Beau]

What category would you select for planners/organisers? Just a general one, not like a maternity one for instance

 

[Annie Beau]

Anyone who reads this thread and eiither attempts to create a book, gets pissed off with it and bins the idea OR thinks 'I don't think I can do it'...Ive spent nearly a week faffing about . Then I discovered Creative Fabrica and used it with Canva. First book now in review and its not too bad for a millionth attempt!

 

[nate99]

Would you guys recommend buying courses on this?

I liked the sound of that Stackin Profit guy.
How long would you say it would take for a total beginner to make a book?

Thanks

Nate

 

[curiousandgeeks]

There are loads of YT tutorials that are completely free. I would suggest you watch them first and then go from there.
Check The Home Boss, Chris Raydog, Rachel Harrison-Sund, these are just examples.


For the time needed to make a book, it depends on what you want to make.
Blank notebooks can be done relatively quickly if you know how to make the covers, it could take less than 2 hours.
Activity books/coloring books etc, do take way more time.

 

[nate99]

There are loads of YT tutorials that are completely free. I would suggest you watch them first and then go from there.
Check The Home Boss, Chris Raydog, Rachel Harrison-Sund, these are just examples.


For the time needed to make a book, it depends on what you want to make.
Blank notebooks can be done relatively quickly if you know how to make the covers, it could take less than 2 hours.
Activity books/coloring books etc, do take way more time.

Thanks for that. Wondered if it's worth it to do any outsourcing for some or all of the books?

 

[curiousandgeeks]

What type of books are you thinking about?

 

[nate99]

Really not too sure at the moment. I heard planners are easiest to start with.

 

[curiousandgeeks]

Before outsourcing, you need to know what type of book you want to make, the niche, the style, how is it going to be useful to the buyers and why would they buy yours over someone else.
You need to spend some time understanding and finding topics/areas you are happy to work on (you can outsource the interior, but you will still need to spend time researching the niche, the keywords, the title/subtitle).

Planners are always trendy especially in Q4 but you have to be able to stand out in the crowd as a lot of other sellers will be going for the same thing. You have to narrow it down to more specific niches. It could be budget planner, meal planner, yearly planner, monthly planner, weekly planner, 5 years planners etc.. You will also need to make them appeal to a specific niche, will it be for moms who love their pugs, video gamers, etc..

Lets say you want to make a 2022 weekly planner and don't want to make it yourself. You could get one on Canva/Creative Fabrica (be sure to take one that you can edit).
Then from that same template, you could make different versions by changing the fonts, adding images of pugs on every page, adding a floral background, adding the UK holidays,etc.
This way you will have different versions using one template.

 

[nate99]

Before outsourcing, you need to know what type of book you want to make, the niche, the style, how is it going to be useful to the buyers and why would they buy yours over someone else.
You need to spend some time understanding and finding topics/areas you are happy to work on (you can outsource the interior, but you will still need to spend time researching the niche, the keywords, the title/subtitle).

Planners are always trendy especially in Q4 but you have to be able to stand out in the crowd as a lot of other sellers will be going for the same thing. You have to narrow it down to more specific niches. It could be budget planner, meal planner, yearly planner, monthly planner, weekly planner, 5 years planners etc.. You will also need to make them appeal to a specific niche, will it be for moms who love their pugs, video gamers, etc..

Lets say you want to make a 2022 weekly planner and don't want to make it yourself. You could get one on Canva/Creative Fabrica (be sure to take one that you can edit).
Then from that same template, you could make different versions by changing the fonts, adding images of pugs on every page, adding a floral background, adding the UK holidays,etc.
This way you will have different versions using one template.

Wow. Thanks for the detailed information!
I'm tempted to buy that Stackin Profit course. I know there's great free stuff on YouTube. Don't know if you or anyone else has bought it and can review?

Thanks again.

Nate