Choosing the right sales strategy for your no- and low-content books can be a game-changer in the world of Amazon KDP.

As you embark on this journey, you’re faced with a challenging decision. Should you concentrate on evergreen niches that remain relevant year-round, or cash in on the dynamic appeal of seasonal themes?

In this blog post, we’ll walk you through the key factors to consider when shaping your sales strategy.

Evergreen vs seasonal themes: Why do they matter?

If you’re a new Amazon KDP seller, you may be wondering what all the fuss is about concerning the evergreen vs seasonal themes saga.

Here’s a short explanation.

To walk on a path to success as a low- or now-content bookseller, it’s vital to select the right niches.

Niching down is essential as it guarantees a competitive edge, sets you apart from the rest, and enables you to target a specific customer audience. Not to mention that it also means focusing your efforts on a particular segment, ultimately rewarding you with experience and professionalism in that space.

But from the range of diverse themes to choose from, some are evergreen, while others are seasonal.

For most sellers, this differentiation creates uncertainties and dilemmas.

Now, let’s uncover what these two theme categories represent in the first place.

Understanding evergreen themes

In a nutshell, evergreen themes are topics that remain trendy and attractive all year round, transcending seasons and trends. These themes often address universal needs or interests, such as productivity, wellness, or creativity.

Some popular examples from Amazon KDP include journals and planners with productivity tips or wellness planners and trackers focusing on mental health or fitness. These can even include funny gag gifts for the office.

The main perk of evergreen themes is that they generate consistent sales throughout the whole year. This offers peace of mind to sellers who prefer to feel certainty.

Products centered around evergreen topics are also less reliant on seasonal marketing and help build a loyal customer base with recurring needs.

However, they’re also usually associated with higher competition, especially in popular niches. To outperform others in such a market, you’ll need to create timeless, high-quality products.

Exploring seasonal themes

In contrast, seasonal themes align with specific times of the year, events, or holidays. They can range from holiday-themed activity books to summer travel journals.

For instance, some of the items that would fall under this category include Christmas coloring books, summer vacation sketchbooks, and back-to-school planners.

The reason why some sellers opt for crafting seasonal products on Amazon KDP is to capitalize on high demand during specific periods. Seasonal themes are also linked to much more room for creativity. At the same time, you can leverage seasonal marketing and trends.

The downside of seasonal niches is that sales are often limited to a specific time of year. This means that you’ll either have to shape a powerful combo of seasonal niches for your portfolio or rely on a cocktail of seasonal and evergreen themes.

How to make the right decision

When putting your finger on one or the other – seasonal or evergreen themes – we recommend backing your choice with data.

In the following section, we’ll show you how to make an informed decision using Book Bolt’s features and capabilities.

The core metrics that you’ll need to examine are:

• BSR (Best Sellers Rank)
• Historic data
• Search volume
• Royalties

Let’s dive into each one in more detail.

BSR

The metric that reveals the most about the sales potential of a theme is the BSR.

When researching a niche, check the average BSR of the segment.

Ideally, we recommend focusing solely on the bestsellers. This will help you create a picture of the best-case scenario. You can do so by performing your research in the Cloud module in Book Bolt.

Before you start your investigation, make a list of evergreen and seasonal themes. Check each one to see which topics have the lowest BSR.

Remember, a lower BSR indicates a higher sales potential.

Historical data

Next, it’s key to examine historical data.

Observe what the sales volumes of niche products look like throughout the whole year. This will help you establish two things.

First, it will enable you to understand whether a niche is truly evergreen or seasonal. For example, imagine you notice that female-inspired goal trackers are trending around May, while general goal trackers seem to sell well throughout the whole year.

This is a strong signal that Mother’s Day is creating waves around women’s goal trackers. At the same time, goal trackers as a whole can be an evergreen theme in your portfolio, bringing in sales all year round.

Second, historic sales volumes will show you how popular specific themes are in numbers. Best of all, you’ll be able to see their performance at specific periods.

Search volume

Although you cannot analyze search volume back in time, you can use this metric to establish user interest in seasonal and evergreen themes. Your findings will help you choose between the two.

For example, say Halloween-inspired coloring books generate around 300,000 monthly searches. On the other hand, wellness journals accumulate nearly 1,000,000 searches per month.

The logical choice here would be wellness journals. They have a significantly higher search volume and are evergreen, bringing in sales throughout the entire year.

Royalties

Last but not least, consider the royalties potential of both evergreen and seasonal niches.

How?

Select two bestsellers – one from a seasonal and one from an evergreen niche. Make a note of the listings’:

• Monthly sales
• Price
• Page length

Using an Amazon KDP royalties calculator, find out how much money each listing is generating per sale. Next, multiply this number by the monthly sales volume. As a result, you’ll understand how much royalties the two sellers are earning on a monthly basis.

Keep in mind that you’ll need to repeat this process for more than two listings if you want to make the right decision between evergreen and seasonal themes.

A few real-life examples

Using the tips from above, you can confidently research a wide array of evergreen and seasonal niches.

However, to help you visualize the process, we’ve researched two lucrative themes from both categories – Christmas coloring books and fitness journals.

Here’s what we found.

Christmas coloring book bestsellers have an average BSR of 41,546, which is extremely low. However, this doesn’t come as a surprise, as our research is performed towards the end of November when Christmas sales start picking up.

One of the top-performing items in the space is the “Christmas Coloring Book for Toddlers and Kids: 50 Fun & Simple Christmas Designs for Toddlers and Kids ages 1-3 | 2-4 | 3-5” listing. At a price of $5.95, this listing has a BSR of 3,578 and scores 474 sales per month.

According to Amazon KDP’s royalty calculator, the seller earns $1.27 per sale. Working out the maths, it turns out that this book creator brings home around $600 from this product alone.

Looking at the past performance of this book, we discovered an interesting trend. On December 2, 2022, the listing’s BSR was exceptionally low – 2,774. On June 5, 2023, it rose dramatically to 445,918. In a similar pattern, on November 5, 2023, the product’s BSR dropped again to 3,578.

In other words, we can confirm that this Christmas coloring book only performs tremendously well around the holiday.

Next, we examine the fitness journal domain as an evergreen niche.

The average BSR of bestsellers here is 89,628. Although this number is twice that of Christmas coloring books, it represents a market that is attractive throughout the whole year.

From that perspective, we can conclude that the sales potential of this theme is very attractive.

When it comes to search volumes, nearly 90,000 Amazon shoppers browse for “fitness trackers” every month.

One listing that successfully leverages this demand is “I am Doing This for Myself: Weight Loss Journal for Women | Cute Food & Fitness Tracker | Daily Motivational Diet, Exercise and Workout Planner”. At $7.99, this listing has a BSR of 14,623 and lands around 360 sales per month.

Amazon KDP’s royalty calculator informs that this listing earns $2.40 per sale. With a monthly sales volume of 360, this translates into $864 in revenue.

Inspecting the historical data of this product, we can see consistent sales throughout the whole year. For instance, on July 27 the listing’s BSR was 12,702, while on November 26 it was 14,623.

There are no sudden drops in sales, meaning that the seller enjoys consistent returns.

The best of both worlds

The right choice between evergreen and seasonal themes ultimately comes down to your goal as a seller.

Ideally, we recommend enjoying the best of both worlds. Diversify your portfolio with a few evergreen niches that you can rely on for stable earnings. Meanwhile, keep track of seasonal trends and benefit from demand peaks.

Regardless of the choice you make, remember to use Book Bolt throughout your journey. Take advantage of powerful tools and real-life market data.