Ah! It’s here! I finally received a copy of the first product we made through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing or Amazon KDP. Later in this post, I’ll share the 3 tips for starting Amazon KDP I learned in this process. But first…

Introducing my beautifully aesthetic lined notebook, “In my Manifestation Era.”

What is Amazon KDP?

If you don’t know what Amazon KDP is, essentially, it allows you to self-publish your own books. You can create hardcover books, paperbacks, and eBooks all through their KDP portal online.

The digital passive income world has leveraged this service to easily create paperback composition notebooks, planners, journals, and much more. By pairing this service with an easy-to-use design program such as Canva, anybody can invest the initial time to create products, set them up on Amazon KDP, and then Amazon does the rest of the work.

This creates an effective passive income stream… so long as you create quality products and can get eyes on them to convert to sales. I’m sure I’ll write another post on how to get eyes on your products, but first, let’s dig into some tips for when you are starting Amazon KDP.

In my manifestation era

Let’s take a moment to give our beautiful, aesthetic, lined notebook a moment to shine. We’re all about manifesting the life we want; envisioning working from home with our sweet babies will be a reality. This inspired our “Manifestation Era” lined notebook. I opted for a hardcover because I like the durability it provides. A journal or notebook you plan to use needs to travel with you; a hardcover allows that to happen without damaging your book.

This book is the perfect addition to your desk, and with its beautiful design, it can even be featured in your flat-lay desk photos. Be sure to grab your copy today!

Here are three tips I learned while starting Amazon KDP and publishing our first notebook:

1. Skip the Author or Proof Copies

If you’re outside of the United States, skip the proof stage. All author and proof copies are produced and shipped in the US, which means you have to pay conversion rates, shipping, and even duty! It makes your proof or author copy very expensive.

You have to review the book digitally before you can publish it, so the majority of the errors you will catch before you have a physical copy in your hands. If you still want a physical copy, just wait for the book to hit Amazon.ca or your country.

Plus – chances are nobody is buying your book right away. You have to market it, promote it, and let people know it exists. So, you’ve got time to make changes if you need to.

2. Add branding to the second page of your manuscript

The first page of your notebook is likely going to be a “this journal belongs to” page or something along those lines. Typically, you don’t start right on that first page. This means your third page is where your lined pages will start, leaving an empty second page. This page in a normal book features the publisher’s information, where it was printed, etc. With your notebook, make sure you add your website, logo, QR code, or something for people to link back to your brand.

Need a QR code generator?

I love using Me QR. It has a great free version for up to 10,000 QR codes with unlimited scans. The only downside is users have to view an ad beforehand, but, this is typical of any free QR code generator. There is also a lite version that offers one QR code that is always ad-free. I purchased the Premium version as I also generate QR codes for my clients through Bexlyn Creative.

There’s a good chance your branding is not very predominant on Amazon. This second page is the perfect opportunity to get your branding in front of them and redirect them back to your website or product pages.

3. Create a Paperback version of your notebook as well.

There’s a huge market of people who will want to leverage Amazon’s Prime delivery. People no longer want to wait for their products these days – especially on Amazon. While the hardcover is beautiful, provides more durability, and is a higher-quality piece – to capture this other market, you can easily create an alternate paperback version.

I made the mistake of adding “Hardcover” in my title, thinking it would help with SEO purposes. Ultimately, all it did was prevent me from adding a paperback version I believe. So I’m off to figure out if I should archive my first edition, and create a second edition without hardcover in the title!

Have you created products on Amazon KDP? What tips would you share with people looking to get started?