Exploring the world of low content book publishing

I’ve been reading a lot about developing passive income lately - a stream of money that comes from selling something. This something should require little to no maintenance after initial setup. It should be something that you can sell over and over again with little to no up front cost.

There are myriad ways to do this, but they all fall into a few big categories:

• You can sell a physical product - Drop shipping is a common thing you'll see here. You can also buy or create inventory to sell from your own shop or through a retailer like Amazon.

• You can sell a digital product - Creating a software solution that people will pay a monthly fee for can be a very lucrative business. But the up front costs are significant, and there's no guarantee of success.

• You can sell information products - E-books, online courses, how-to guides - you get the picture. These require some effort up front and a way to reach an audience.

• You can earn attention and sell ads or any of the above - Think Youtube channels. If you have a large following on Youtube or TikTok, you can monetize via ads in some cases. You can also make money by selling other people's products as an affiliate.

As a product manager in the email marketing space, I've spent my career helping people sell their wares online, but I've never attempted selling something of my own. I've found myself curious about how to start and grow a business in this space. So, I'm going to give it a try.

Low content publishing

I've decided to dip my toes into these waters by selling low content books on Amazon. What is a low content book? It's any book that doesn't require any in-depth writing to produce. Good examples are:

• Journals and notebooks

• Planners

• Log books and trackers

• Coloring books

• Game books

Amazon provides a service called Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) that makes this easy to do. You create your pages and cover, upload your book and you're ready to go. Amazon will print the book on demand when it's ordered, and you are paid a commission. Pretty simple, right? No inventory to buy or hold, little to no overhead to get started, and you either make money or you don't.

Why low content publishing?

What I am interested in learning is how to build a business online. I'm not particularly married to any one product. Low content publishing is appealing because:

• These books are easy to create

• There's no financial risk involved

• It allows me to focus on the more "product focused" pieces of this - presentation, audience research, keyword analysis, design, etc. These are the pieces that interest me most.

Hopefully, I'll also develop some design and marketing skills along the way that will serve me well in the future.

Current state of things

As of right now, I have five books "Live" on Amazon, with three more "In Review." The review process typically takes a few days. I have made exactly zero dollars so far. My expenses have been minimal, but here's a list:

• Tangent Templates - $49 (one time fee)

• Canva - $119.99 - (yearly subscription)

• Book Bolt - $15.99 (monthly subscription)

Expenses I'm considering:

• A PDF editor - $79.99 (one time fee)

• A puzzle creator - $82 (yearly subscription)

So, in total I've spent $360.87 for a year of attempting this. If I do add the final two items, my total will be $522.86 Not bad for starting your own business, right?

What’s coming?

I have no idea where this will go. I may never make a penny. I may become a low content publishing mogul. Who knows? Expect posts about book cover design, niche selection, keyword research, failed experiments and maybe a little success along the way. I will likely learn some interesting things about selling products online. By sharing my experience via this newsletter, I hope you will too.

If you’re interested in following along, please sign up. I’m going to aim for weekly updates on my progress while also trying to figure out some of the finer points of low content publishing. My hope is to become a better product manager by selling my own product.

Let the experiment begin!