Getting Started With KDP Low Content Publishing
Get an Amazon KDP Account
If you haven’t already signed up for your Amazon KDP account, then this is the first step you’ll need to take. Don’t worry, it isn’t that complicated and if you’ve already got an Amazon account, then you can simply use the same details for your KDP account. Note though, you can only have one KDP account.
It’s that simple, and free to sign up! No tiers to open up the full power of KDP – you’re good to go from Day 1!
Research Your Niche on Amazon
Next you need to do your research and pick your niche to target. When you are starting out, there are no fancy tools needed so don’t worry about all th paid tools out there. It can all be done for free.
Why bother to research? Because there are loads of lazy people spamming the platform that won’t spend the time needed to make a long term business out of KDP. Research is essential to get your books in front of your customers.
You already have your interior, so you have a general theme – now niche down and find a group of people that are looking for something and there isn’t much competition on Amazon.
The easiest way to start is just by going to Amazon and typing in your niche. Always start with the Category drop down at “All”. Why? Because that’s where most people start from when buying. Then, as you type, you’ll see Amazon helping you by offering search recommendations. This is what other people are actually searching for on Amazon – how cool is that!
To help, there is a free Chrome extension to build on this research and offer more options, called the AMZ Suggestion Expander available from the Chrome Webstore
Research your competition
It’s important to research your competition. Don’t be scared of competition! It proves there’s a market but check it’s not overcrowded, then make a better product.
For each of the niches you find using the Amazon search bar, type them in, search for them, and check through the results. This is your competition. If you feel you can offer some better, or more targeted to that search term,then you’re on to a goo start!
This is where you’ll need to find a good balance between competition and search volume. The winning combination for any niche is a high search volume with low competition. Remember though, if the competition is offering unattractive or poor quality product you can still stand out.
Another free Chrome extension which is invaluable is the Huge Amazon Search Suggestion Expander from Self Publishing Titans.
After going through your competition, you’ll want to gauge the popularity. The quickest and easiest is to look at the reviews for the best sellers. Lots of reviews, means a lot of people are buying them. Look at the bad reviews too. They could point to areas for improvement or a new niche you hadn’t thought of.
Another thing to check is each book’s BSR (best seller rank). A low BSR is a good seller. You can estimate how many books they are selling based on te BSR but it is only an estimate. Amazon don’t release data on how many books are actually sold or the magic behind this calculation. Try the free TCK Publishing BSR Checker.
Create Your Interior
There are many ways of creating KDP interior but if you’re new, then hop over to my Gumroad store where I have some simple, and not so simple, ones to get you started.
Normally, the next stage would be the book interior, but you have that courtesy of the Self Publishing Ninja.
Design Your Book Cover
Next is the fun part – actually designing the cover for the low content book you’ll be selling.
The invaluable resource for creating your covers is Canva. Canva is without doubt the best tool for creating covers. There is a free version to get you started (with limitations, sure) but it is the first tool I actually invested in as it is so useful and powerful. It continues to grow in features too.
Check out Canva here!
Publish your book on KDP
There are load of resources and guides to help you through each step for publishing your low content book on KDP. It can be confusing, but by far the best explanations are from these KDP gurus on YouTube – they each have a playlist to help you get started.
For a full list of invaluable resources for publishing on Amazon KDP, check out my Resources section check out my Resources section.