An Experiment in Income Streams: KDP Low Content Books
A look into my latest money-making enterprise.
I’ve found myself in need of money.
Well, I guess I’m always in need of money, since we live in a capitalist society, etc. etc. But recently I’ve found myself in more need than usual, because my main source of income mostly dried up over the course of the last couple months.
And because I have chronic pain that comes and goes when it pleases with no regard to my needs or desires, working a “typical” job outside of the house with set hours doesn’t work for me right now. I’ve been delivering with DoorDash to make ends meet, but even driving in the car for a couple of hours taxes my body to the point where I ideally need a day to recover.
So I’ve been on the hunt for income streams.
While I hope to one day support myself with my writing, I’m nowhere near close enough yet. In the meantime, I have bills to pay.
I thought I’d write about my attempts to develop income streams in case anyone is interested, and also to help/inspire anyone else who might be in a similar situation.
The first one I’ve been working on: KDP low content books.
If you’re like me a few weeks ago, you may not know what a KDP low content book is. Basically, it’s using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform to publish books that have little to no written content, like journals or planners.
This was the first video I watched in full about KDP low content books, and I think it gives a pretty good overview of what they are and how to go about making your first one.
The video recommended using the software called BookBolt* to aid in designing these books, so I went ahead and signed up for a six month subscription. So far it’s been helpful, though it’s definitely not necessary and I’m learning there are ways to do everything you need to for free. The biggest help so far is that it’s a big time-saver when it comes to making the interiors.
In addition to BookBolt, I use Canva to create the covers.
Apparently, some people are making bank creating these low-content books. Like, thousands or tens of thousands of dollars per month. I don’t expect I will reach that level of success, but I’m hoping this can at least bring in a little extra cash.
I uploaded my first low-content book, a journal, on November 13th. Since then, I have uploaded a total of seven books, six standard journals and one dot-grid notebook (AKA “bullet journal”). I plan to continue uploading more books and I want to get 15 up in my first month.
If you are curious and want to see the whole collection and any I put up in the future, you can view my author page here.
I plan on updating my progress here on Medium monthly, so if you’re interested in seeing how this goes, check back for future posts or subscribe to my posts for updates.
Have you heard of creating KDP low-content books? Is it something you would want to try?
*This is an affiliate link. If you make a purchase through this link, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!
Grace Moore is a writer of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Her interests include travel, reading, and doing any activity that involves supplies from the craft store. She lives in Washington with her husband, where they can often be found discussing Doctor Who in-depth. She’s passionate about helping writers find their motivation and unlock their creativity. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter.