Create and Sell Your First (or Next!) Journal on Amazon KDP
Let me show you how to create and sell your first – or next – journal on Amazon. What you’ll learn here is the foundation for getting started with publishing low content books like journals, notebooks, workbooks, calendars, and more. We’ll be using Amazon’s print-on-demand service, Kindle Direct Publishing, or KDP. It’s free and easy to use.
Decide on the Type of Book You’ll Create
The first thing you’re going to do is decide what kind of book you want to create. Journals aren’t the only kind of low content books, you know. There are other types of low content books and I recommend starting a list of ideas as they come to you. Once you get started brainstorming ideas, you’ll be surprised at what you come up with!
Here is a list of book types to get you started thinking:
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Personal Use | Diaries, Memory Books, Prayer Books, Journals |
| Organization | Agendas, Calendars, Planners, Trackers, Log Books |
| Education & Work | Notebooks, Notepads, Composition Books, Study Guides, Workbooks |
| Activities & Fun | Activity Books, Coloring Books, Puzzle Books, Guest Books/Registers |
Choose a Target Audience
At this point, you’ll want to choose a target audience for your book – also known as choosing a niche. Choosing a niche is an art form and takes a little practice. You’re really choosing two things: what type of book to create and who it’s for. A good place to start is to think about what you like. What are your hobbies and interests? And what kind of books from the table above could you make for those hobbies and interests? When you’re ready, you’ll want to start branching out and doing some research into more niches and keywords. Pay attention to trends, fandom, favorites, hobbies, interests, and pop culture.
Tools You Need to Get Started
For the purpose of this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to create a blank lined notebook in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. If you don’t have these programs, you can do the same thing in Google Docs/Slides. You’ll also need a way to convert PDF files to PowerPoint/Word files. You can do this with Adobe Acrobat PRO or I Love PDF.
Step-by-Step Instructions to Create a Blank Lined Journal in Microsoft Word
I’ve included the step-by-step instructions below for how easy it is to create a blanked lined page in Microsoft Word:
- Open Word.
- Set your margins to 0.5″ all around.
- Click on the Insert tab.
- Click the Shapes drop-down arrow and select the “line” shape.
- Place your cursor on the left, hold down your Shift key, and click and draw a line from left to right. Holding down the Shift key ensures your line is straight.
- To adjust the length of your line, click on it so that it’s highlighted. This opens up the option for the Format tab.
- On the Format ribbon, you can adjust the width of your line by using the arrows in the size box.
- Next, you’ll want to center your line. With the line selected, click on the Align drop-down arrow and select “Align Center.”
- Now that you have just one line perfectly formatted, you can create the rest of your page.
- Right-click to “copy” or click Ctrl+C and then “paste” or click Ctrl+V. Repeat pasting your line to create as many lines as you would like on your notebook page.
- Highlight each line – while holding down the Shift key, click on every single line.
- On the Format tab, click the drop-down arrow for the align settings and click “Align Left.”
- Click on your bottom line and move it to the bottom of your page, above the bottom margin.
- Once again, click the align settings drop-down arrow, this time choosing “Distribute Vertically.”
