I’m a newbie Amazon author who’s yet to sell much. But hey, at least it’s a fun hobby (I’m obsessed). I’m enjoying it so much that I won’t mind if it never becomes profitable.
I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type person, so I jumped right into Amazon publishing after watching a couple of YouTube tutorials. I’m pretty sure I’m going to make a lot of mistakes, but I’m planning to share my misadventures here on my blog.
Publishing a Full-Color Notebook on Amazon
I heard that it’s possible to make a profit with low-content books and decided to create a full-color notebook. The notebook (see it here) has writing space on one side and art on the other. Scroll to the bottom to see some screenshots of the finished product.
After a search, I couldn’t find anything similar on Amazon and thought I’d go for it. It’s all about finding a niche-market, right?
I spent hours creating this notebook, perfecting every detail. I even showed it to my son, telling him it was a masterpiece and probably the best notebook in the world.
His brows furrowed as he looked at me with concern. Even so, he watched patiently as I scrolled through the 150 page PDF.
It’s Time for Publishing
Next, I headed over to Amazon Publishing.
After spending way too much time deciding on a title and subtitle, I moved on to the book description section. I spent a good hour trying to get this just right, too. How can I convey that the book is full color, with art on every other page? How do I let people know that they can write in this thing? Should I call it a journal or a notebook? There were so many decisions.
Now it’s time for the cover. I went to this page on Amazon for the template. If it weren’t for this publishing tutorial video from Paul Marles, I would have wandered the internet aimlessly for days trying to find it. I downloaded the cover template and opened it. Because I know Photoshop like the back of my hand, I thought creating this cover would go fast.
That didn’t happen. I spent hours creating this cover. Literally hours.
Finally I have it uploaded along with my book interior. After previewing and approving the book, I went to the next page.
Proofs/Comparing standard and premium paper
This is when I discovered how expensive my book will be. Before I jumped into this project, I should have used this Amazon printing and royalty calculator before getting started.
As it turns out, my book printed on full-color premium paper will make a twenty cents profit if I price it at $22. Luckily there is a standard color option, which can be priced at $12.50 for a twenty cents profit (still well above most notebooks listed on Amazon).
There are different required page counts on standard and color books, too. You can find that information here.
Premium color interior printing:
Standard color interior printing:
Mistakes I Made:
- Not using a printing cost calculator before I started the project.
- I spent too much time on every step. I need to sell a thousands of notebooks to make a profit from the time I spent working on this.
- Check the required page counts on the different ink options here.
Links:
- Paul Marles videos on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@paulmarles/videos
- Print Cover Calculator and Templates: https://kdp.amazon.com/cover-calculator
- Printing Costs and Royalty Calculator: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/royalty-calculator
- See my published books on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/author/myawoods
- Read more about my artwork here.
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Update (2/20/2024)
Here is the notebook, published 10/11/2023. After all of my hard work, guess how many I have sold? Zero.
150 Page Custom Created Journal
On one page, journal about your day, your thoughts and feelings, your dreams and goals. On the facing page, let stunning gothic artwork featuring castles, fantasy scenes, and more inspire you. The Castle Notebook is the perfect place to let your thoughts and creativity flow freely.
Here are some ideas on how to use this notebook:
- Guestbook: Use the castle notebook as a guest book for your wedding, graduation party, or other special event.
- Journaling: Write about your day, your thoughts and feelings, your dreams and goals.
- Creative writing: Use the blank lined pages to write stories, poems, songs, or any other kind of creative writing.
- Art journaling: Use the blank lined pages to write about your art, your inspiration, or your creative process.
- Dream journaling: Write down your dreams and interpret them.
- Gratitude journaling: Write down the things you’re grateful for each day.
- Goal setting: Write down your goals and track your progress.
- Habit tracking: Track your habits and see how you’re improving over time.
- Brain dumping: Write down all of the thoughts and ideas that are swirling around in your head.
- Mind mapping: Create mind maps to help you brainstorm ideas, solve problems, or organize your thoughts.
- Note taking: Use the blank lined pages to take notes in class, at meetings, or during your research.
My next project is to try to promote it with Amazon Ads. I’ll keep you posted.
