Since many of you on Merch By Amazon are diving into the lucrative waters of KDP, I want to share with you one of my biggest KDP discoveries: Low-content tends to beat no-content.

What’s the difference?

It all boils down to the first page of the journal or notebook. I no longer leave the first page of any published book — from a schedule tracker to a lined notebook – blank or looking identical to every page in the book.

My journals and notebooks begin with a unique introductory page, which often features a quote or reference to the journal owner or recipient. This not only lends a degree of niche authority to the work, it is also an immediate distinguishing factor between my works and the vast majority of my competition (remember, tens of millions of Amazon customers still shop on their computers, where previews of a book’s interior are available).

KDP lined journalConsider the example of the Mother’s Day gift journal pictured on the right. Essentially, it’s a book for a mom to document thoughts, ideas, or perhaps advice for her kids (these types of books sell extremely well around Mother’s Day).

My KDP notebooks and journals are cohesive works from the cover to the last page. Even with a touch as simple as taking a faded silhouette pertinent to the publication’s niche and gently gracing every page of the interior with it, no small gesture goes to waste.

While it is easier to just upload a pre-made template that lacks messaging uniqueness, I believe that enough customers (those shopping on a desktop computer) click on the inside preview feature from Amazon to see what they are getting. A powerful quote or visual pertinent to the niche or niche audience at hand is a compelling purchase influencer.

Does it take longer to create KDP books using this approach? Yes. But has it improved my sales? Dramatically! This is why I put so much emphasis on quality writing and original quotes (I shy away from using famous quotes or the words of others in my book introductions).

Low content high-quality books will remain my KDP focus.  And I will never allow the quest for quantity to come at the expense of the quality of my uploads.

Quantity vs. quality is an age-old battle that has perpetually raged across the POD landscape since the dawn of print on demand itself.

In the early days of its existence, the Merch By Amazon space was impacted negatively (and continues to be impacted negatively) by waves of low quality content.

Many of you here have soared to stellar heights of success by going against the grain and putting quality above quantity at every turn.

Little by little, however, I fear that quantity is overtaking quality today on KDP.

With so many Merchers wisely expanding their reach into KDP, now is the time to re-emphasize quality over quantity. And with good reason! In numerous cases, the sellers having the greatest impact and sales success on KDP are those who are committed to three things:

  • Creating unique and compelling books that serve a specific purpose for a specific audience
  • Creating covers that extend original illustrative elements or themes to their interiors
  • Creating low-content books vs. no content books

Merch By Amazon and KDP will remain the dynamic duo of Print on Demand for the foreseeable future. If you bring to both platforms a commitment to originality and consistency, you will be far better positioned than most of your POD peers to monetize these platforms and create handsome streams of revenue with long-term potential.