How I Got Started Publishing Low Content Books on Amazon

Hey there, I’m April, and I am so glad you stopped by! I have been a writer for as long as I can remember, and have been publishing books on Amazon’s KDP platform since October of 2012. In 2002, before self publishing really became a common practice, I wrote a full size fiction novel, about 90,000 some words. When I was finished, I entered it into a publishing contest, thinking I had a good chance at winning. In fact, I was so sure I was going to win, I started making plans for my future as a published author. (I was in my early 20’s, and a bit naive, but aren’t we all when we are that young?)

I waited for the call, the letter, the email……whatever they would be using to notify me that I had taken 1st place. Days went by, weeks went by, and months went by, and I heard nothing. One day, I decided to call the publishing house that had hosted the contest, and ask what was taking so long. So I did. Imagine my shock when the lady on the other end didn’t even recognize my name! Not only had she not heard of me, but the contest had been over for months, and the winner had been chosen, notified, and probably had at least 3 more books published by now.

What? I hadn’t won? I hadn’t even gotten 2nd place? Or 3rd? Or 100th? I was baffled. My manuscript was awesome. After all, my Mom and close friend had both read it and loved it! How could this happen? This was a crime! The world was missing out on a darn good story! How could I have been so mistaken?

In all my grief, I took my manuscript (which was in a big white 3 ring binder), buried it deep on a shelf hidden in my basement laundry room, and literally put it so far out of my mind, it was years down the road before I even remembered I had written a book. I was so devastated, I couldn’t bring myself to write one more line……about anything…….and I no longer identified with being a writer. So I hung that pipe dream up, and moved on.

That’s the epitome of sad, isn’t it? Most of you reading are probably thinking……this girl must have been delusional. Why didn’t she just submit her manuscript to other publishing houses? Just because she didn’t win one stupid contest didn’t mean she couldn’t have gotten her book published some other way. She must have not really wanted to get published if she just stopped after one measly failed attempt. I actually ask myself those questions all the time each time I stumble come across my manuscript on the laundry room shelf. (Yes, it’s still there, I haven’t had the guts to do anything else with it.) The answer is …. I don’t know.

I had poured my heart and soul into something that got rejected, and it left an open, raw, wound. Ever have that happen to you before?

Fast forward to 2009, and I was looking for ways to make money online. I had just had my first child, and was a stay at home mom, and we needed some dough. During some Google searches, I stumbled upon the Warrior Forum (which is a big gathering of all kinds of people who want to make money online.) I think I tried to break into just about every way possible to make money online for about 3 years before I finally hit on something that resonated with me.

I tried blogging, Adsense, email marketing, CPA Marketing, online surveys, affiliate marketing, and eBay. You name it, I studied it to the death, tried to make something work, got burnt out, and quit….every….single….time.

I must have taken every make-money-online course there was to take back then. I had a folder filled with hundreds of WSO’s.( Warrior Special Offers). Those were basically the courses offered at the Warrior Forum by “experienced” and “successful” online marketers who wanted to “help” us bottom feeders out by “showing us the way”. I say that sarcastically, because after awhile, I finally realized, that half the courses I took were created by people who had just taken other courses and reworded them to sell for their own benefit. Some of these course creators hadn’t even seen any real success themselves, they were just selling reworded versions of make-money-online concepts that were being tossed around and recycled all over the web. And the only way they had ever really made money online was to sell courses in areas they had no experience in. Sigh….

I had just about given up on making money online altogether. But then, I found out about Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform, where you could actually publish your own books. Because I still had the love of writing in me, it sparked my interest. So, I came up with a plan.

I was going to write books on well researched topics that people were looking for, and I was just going to keep pumping out content. It was a great plan actually, there were so many different topics that were in demand. And all my search engine optimization research, which was really the only useful skill I gleaned from my years of trying to make money online, I could certainly find topics that had high search volumes, and low supply. And I did.

I started writing. And writing. Between my baby napping and eating, I would research and write. At night, after he would go to bed, after all the laundry was done, after the dishes were done, I would sit down at my computer and write. It was exhilarating. I forgot how much I loved to write. I put up a few short books on Amazon, and I actually started getting sales. I was so excited. So, I researched more. And I wrote more. I would stay up until 3:00 AM researching and writing. Then, at 6:00 AM, I would get up, do life, take care of my family, take care of all the housework, and write some more.

And then it happened……I just crashed. With no sleep, bags under my eyes the size of luggage, and a body that was screaming for me to just stop…..I crashed. Even though what I was doing was working, and I was creating great content, and making sales (I had made over $3000), I could no longer keep up with the demands of both raising a family and creating long, well researched, and well thought-out content. So…..I quit. And because the topics I had been writing on were not evergreen (they were based upon trends at the time and those trends faded away), my Kindle income dwindled to zilch.

I hung up that endeavor as well, and resigned myself from trying to make money online. I knew it was possible, people were out there doing it, but I just couldn’t make it work. Not with the time constraints I was working with.

Fast forward to 2019, where we found ourselves in a season of financial need again, and what popped into my head? Self publishing. (I must be a glutton for punishment right?) I knew it had worked in the past, and I knew if I could just buckle down and do it, I could pump out some great content. This time, on evergreen topics. The money may not roll in as fast as it did with the trending topics, but at least it would be continuous and not run out because the times change.

I knew I had to do something, but the thought of actually sitting down to research and write, and remembering how long it all took, and how much mental energy each book took, made me drag my feet. I wasn’t looking forward to getting burnt out again, but I made a promise to myself that I was just going to do it no matter how painful it was.

Then, one day, I stumbled across the concept of low content / no content book publishing. I had no idea what that could possibly be. How could one publish a book with no content? But when I found out what it was, it all made sense. In fact, it made so much sense, it was literally like an “aha” light-bulb moment went off in my head.

Low content books are books like journals, planners, log books, guest registries, activity books, coloring books, event books, lined notebooks, health trackers, devotionals, any kind of book where the user can write in and enter in their own personal information.

Big light bulb moments here. What? I could actually create a book like this and sell it? Yes! I could! (And since October of 2019, I have been doing just that.) In fact, I could create a whole lot of books like this and start building an empire for myself on Amazon to bring me in passive income for life! I always knew there was something special about this self publishing opportunity. It has opened up so many amazing doors for authors and writers everywhere!

I began researching all I could get my hands on about low content book publishing, and I found out that it is a HUGE, little-known way for the common person to make money online. And out of all the ways I have tried in the past, this is BY FAR, the easiest, the least time consuming, and the most fun. And it’s legit!

Check out this article titled “San Antonio Couple Finds Niche on Amazon’s Self-Publishing Platform” about a couple who have published this gratitude journal , and since, it has become a huge best seller (with a BSR (best selling rank) of 54 at the time of this writing), which means out of all the millions of books on Amazon, it is the 54th best selling book on the entire platform! It is selling over 2500 copies a day! Let that sink in…..

And that’s only from ONE BOOK. This couple were able to quit their full time jobs and solely focus on creating their self publishing empire.

Take a look at this article titled “Amazon Sellers Are Self-Publishing ‘Blank’ Books and Turning a Big Profit ” on MONEY.com. This is a real way to make money! Isn’t this exciting!?

Since October of 2019, I have published lined journals, log books, note taking journals, and I am just now breaking into the adult coloring book niche. I have 121 low content books on Amazon under various brands, and every month since November of 2019, I have made passive income. I know what you are thinking…..121 books! That must have taken you FOREVER!

Nope, not at all. In fact, I created all 121 in just 2 months, and honestly, if it hadn’t been such a busy time of the year (Christmas), I would have gotten even more up. It’s so easy, and my goal for this site is to show you how you can do this too.

My business plan is to keep researching and creating. And the best part is, I am not burnt out, this is not tiring work, and I am seeing instant results.

I even have time to write blog posts like this on the side!

Where did I learn all the ins and outs of this business? Well, after my own attempts at just Googling around and joining different low content discussion groups, and gleaning all I could from my own research, I finally buckled down and took a course called that teaches you how to not only create these books, but how to create them in bulk, so you can easily create hundreds of high quality books in niches that are in high demand, in a short amount of time. It taught me the proper way to do research on Amazon to find out exactly what people are looking for, so that I am not only creating books, but selling them too! (see bottom of post for more information) (which is vital to know, because you can create hundreds of books that people either buy or don’t buy) There is a strategy to this.

I am also a member of the mastermind Facebook group that comes with the course, and there is a sleu of information and people that talk daily about strategies, niches, software, interior templates, anything and everything low content.

I finally feel like I have found “my thing“, after all those years of trying to make something work online, I have finally found something that works. And it is doable. And it is easy to put into action, so I am not sitting here trying to figure out best ways to do things, I have a strategy, and a plan, I am surrounded by like minded people that I can turn to for help, and I am working on this business a little bit each day to build my self publishing empire on Amazon.

I am so grateful that self publishing actually exists, and I am so grateful to Amazon for their huge platform full of opportunity. I hope this site can serve you as you navigate through your own self publishing journey with low content books.

Shoot me a comment and let me know how you got started in the low content publishing business.

 

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