Printable products are always popular and creating and selling them is one of the best ways I know to create multiple income streams and earn money online. If you’ve been selling your printables in single pages or only as digital downloads, it might be time to think about a new way to make money with them.
Low content books include products such as coloring books, journals, workbooks, and planners. These items are commonly sold as printed books. You might think that publishing a book is difficult and requires a publisher, but that’s where I come in. Follow these steps to turn your printables into a low content book.
Review Your inventory of Printables
You can’t publish a low content book without content. That means you’ll need to take a complete inventory of your existing products to get an idea of what you have on hand as well as what you’ll need to round out the book you publish.
For example, if you have created dozens of worksheets for kindergarten and first grade students, it’s possible you have enough to create a workbook for children in that age group. You might have an array of coloring book pages for adults.
It’s a good idea to organize your inventory with tags or categories to help you find content later.
- Coloring pages for adults
- Coloring pages for kids
- Workbook pages for kids (by grade or age)
- Journal pages
- Planner pages (by type of planner: wedding planner, bullet planner, etc.)
Going forward, you can tag new content immediately, so that when you decide to publish your second low content book, this step will be taken care of already.
Decide on a Theme for Your Book
Every book needs a theme. Your theme might be a school subject, a topic, or a style. Here are some examples of themed low content books.
- An adult coloring book with mandalas
- A kids’ coloring book with zoo animals
- A math workbook for kids in the 3rd grade
- A wedding planner for people who want to get married on a budget
You get the idea. These topics will make your book more marketable because they appeal to a specific audience. You’re not going to get anywhere trying to market every book to every person. The more specific you are, the better your book will do.
Identify Missing Content
Once you’ve decided on a theme or topic, the next step is to identify the pages you want to include in your book and make note of potential holes or gaps in your inventory. If you need more content to round out your book, this is the time to brainstorm and conceptualize it.
There’s a wide page range for low content books. I suggest that, after you have chosen your theme, you use Amazon for product research. I looked at adult coloring books and found a range of products from 60 pages up to 128 pages.
If you don’t have many pages, then you’ll need to decide if you want to publish a short book that earns you less money per copy or a longer one that will necessitate an additional investment of time and resources.
Review Formatting Requirements
You might expect the next step to be creating missing content, but nobody likes to duplicate effort and that’s why I’m suggesting that at this point, you should decide where to publish your book and make sure that you understand the formatting requirements.
One of the easiest and most affordable choices is to publish your book through Amazon with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP.) Don’t let the name fool you: you can self-publish print books with them as well as eBooks.
Amazon’s formatting requirements can be found on the KDP site, here. You should keep in mind that the formatting requirements may feel daunting, and you always have the option of outsourcing the formatting to a professional. Amazon has a list of companies that provide formatting, editing, and other services here and it may be worth the investment if you think that formatting your book for publication is going to be too much for you.
That said, it’s going to be helpful to make sure that any images you create have the proper resolution and are the proper size for the book you’re publishing. Even if you’re planning to hire a pro, using the proper formatting from the start on any new content you create will save work down the line.
Create the Content You Need
Once you have figured out the formatting for your low content book, you should take a step back and create any new content you need to round out the book.
You might need some new workbook or planner pages or a few more coloring pages. This is also a good time to write a foreword or acknowledgement, create a glossary if you need one, and write your dedication.
Create (or Outsource) Cover Art
You can’t publish any book without a cover. Here again, you have two options. The first is to create the cover yourself. That may be easy. For example, if you’re publishing a coloring book, you could take one of your images, color it digitally, and use it as your cover image. Simply add a title and subtitle (if you have one) and your name.
Keep in mind that, for a print book, you’ll need images for the back cover as well. If the book is large enough to have a readable spine, you’ll need to put the title and other relevant information there, as well. Here again, you should check the formatting requirements and make sure that your images will work for the size of your book.
Get an ISBN for Your Book
To publish a paperback on Amazon, you will need an International Standard Book Number (ISBN.) Amazon will assign one to your book for free or you have the option of obtaining your own ISBN, which allows you to choose the imprint for your book. You can buy your own ISBN from Bowker.
Submit Your Book for Publishing
The final step in creating your book is submitting it for publishing. Once it has been submitted, Amazon will send you a proof. You will need to review it to make sure everything is done properly before your book will be available for sale.
Once you have approved your book, you’ll also need to create an Amazon listing for it. That’s another topic for another day, but my best tip for creating a compelling listing is to review bestsellers in the same category as your book and use them for inspiration.
Do you need help turning your low content books into profits? Click here to work with me!