If we had to be completely transparent, your success on Amazon KDP depends to a great extent on your listing creation process. Sure, listing creation sounds pretty straightforward. However, it includes essential components. Missing out on core stages of listing creation could strip your listing of valuable properties that could ultimately lower your chances of generating sales.

To help you get through the process like a pro, we’ve created a detailed guide on how to create listings for low- and no-content books on Amazon KDP, step-by-step.

Research

Listing creation starts with research. Blindly creating print-on-demand book designs without any idea of optimization practices will not be rewarding in the end. Instead, it will leave a bad taste and a memory of a failed attempt at the Amazon KDP business.

Here are the fundamental areas that are to be included in the research stage of your listing creation.

Find a profitable niche

First, discover niches which are attractive to Amazon buyers, easy to compete in, and profitable. These are the three key factors that will make a niche worth your time.

To do so, we recommend using a mixture of Book Bolt features.

Approach this step by looking at different low- and no-content book categories using the Products module. Type in a keyword that you’re interested in and see what niches appear in search results.

Alternatively, jump directly to the Cloud tool and analyze recurring niches from the bestsellers. If your competitors have managed to sell volumes in these niches, this is a sure sign that the market is attractive to buyers.

Don’t forget to check how products in selected niches are priced. After all, your profits depend on the royalties that you receive from Amazon. And royalties are based on listing price. The higher the price, the higher the earnings.

Discover keywords that will attract traffic

Once you’ve selected an appropriate niche, it’s time to embark on a journey of keyword research. Keywords will come in handy at a later stage of your listing creation process when you optimize your listings. They are key to attracting more Amazon users to your listings, increasing your traffic and ultimately –  scoring more sales. Without keyword optimization, your listing won’t be discoverable.

Book Bolt offers a Keyword research tool that can help you quickly spot trending keywords. It will also enable you to analyze how much search volume a keyword receives on Amazon and how competitive it is.

Best of all, the tool will also suggest related keywords and phrases that might be of interest. Sometimes, you can uncover brand new keyword ideas from the related keywords section that are easier to compete for, leading to much more sales in the end.

Simply visit the Keywords section in your Book Bolt account and type in a keyword you’d like to inspect in detail. A ton of valuable information will appear in seconds.

Find out how your competitors are pricing their listings

Before you can create your listing, you’ll need a pricing strategy. The best way to set a price is to understand what others in your niche are doing.

Use Book Bolt’s Cloud tool to examine the bestsellers in a specific niche and category. On the results pages, you’ll notice a section dedicated to Results Data. By expanding this field, you can get additional details on bestsellers. The three pieces of data to pay attention to are lowest, highest, and average price. This information will give you an idea of how other listings in the niche are priced. It will also set your pricing boundaries.

If you’re just entering the market, it’s best to price your listing somewhere around the average price. This will give you a competitive edge over more expensive listings but will also keep you in a safe spot, where you’re not underpricing your listings.

Get inspiration from the bestsellers in your niche

Finally, seek some creative inspiration for cover designs by exploring some of the top-selling low- and no-content books on Amazon KDP. Again, you can rely on the Cloud tool to browse through the chart toppers. You’ll instantly notice that there are some recurring design practices in certain book categories.

For example, if you choose to sell coloring books to kids, you’ll need more vibrant colors on your designs than if you decide to sell puzzle books to adults.

Knowing these differences will empower you to create attractive book covers for the following stages of your listing creation.

Design

After you’ve completed the research stages from above, you’re now ready to move on to the actual creation of your low- and no-content book design.

Book Bolt makes the process a whole lot easier by offering access to tools like the Book Bolt Studio

Creating your books with the Book Bolt Studio

The Designer tool in Book Bolt is a drag and drop software that allows you to quickly and easily create both book interiors and cover designs. The tool makes low- and no-content book creation accessible to people without specific experience in graphic design.

To use the tool, you’ll need a Book Bolt account. Once you’re logged in, hover on to the left-hand menu, where you’ll find the software’s available tools and features. On the very top-hand side, you’ll see a Research section with a dropdown arrow. Click on the arrows and the field will expand to show a second option – Create. By clicking on it, you’ll be exposed to three extra creation tools. Select the Book Bolt Designer and you’ll be redirected to a new page.

The Designer will first ask you to select a few options to customize your hardcovers and paperbacks to generate a template. Alternatively, you can download ready-to-use interiors and skip this step.

From there, you can start creating the design of your book. You can customize every detail via easy-to-use buttons and ready-made icons, shapes, images, and more. The good news is that you can use premade patterns and only make slight changes to produce new books when you’re ready for a second listing.

Book Bolt’s Designer tool can save you hours of work, and thousands of dollars for professional graphic designers. It has the potential to multiply your sales by allowing you to create catchy designs.

Using Puzzle Interiors

The second designer tool inside of the Book Bolt Studio that you can use allows you to create custom puzzles. The module gives sellers the ability to quickly create different puzzle types, including Sudoku puzzles, Crosswords, Word Searches, and more. In other words, you don’t have to spend hours thinking of ways to create cool and mind-stimulating puzzles. The tool can do this for you.

All you need to do is select the puzzle category you’re interested in, go through a few clicks of a button to tailor the puzzle according to your requirements, and create the puzzle design. With a tool like this at your fingertips, you can produce a multitude of different puzzles in a few minutes and have new designs ready to be included in your puzzle book.

Listing creation

Once you’re done with your low- and no-content book designs, you’re ready for the last stage of listing creation.

To list any book product, you’ll first need to create an Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing account. Visit kdp.amazon.com and choose the Sign Up button. Provide the required data and accept the terms of use. To create a new listing, you’ll need to go to “Bookshelf” and choose the “Create” option. Next, select whether you want to create a paperback or a hardcover and provide additional information.

Amazon offers a detailed explanation of how to complete these steps. Some of the details that you’ll need for the listing creation process include:

• Details – Enter your title, description, keywords, and more. Under Categories, you will have to tick the Low-content box. This is a vital note as leaving the box unticked could lead to your book being rejected.
• Content – Select print options from “Publish without an ISBN” or “Use my own ISBN”. Upload your manuscript and cover files, preview your book, and order a proof.
• Rights and Pricing – Select the locations where you hold distribution rights and set your list price.

Once you’ve added the price of your listing, Amazon will provide information about how much printing costs will be and will provide details on how much royalties you can expect from every sale.

To get a full overview of the listing creation process on Amazon, you can read the detailed guides created by the platform. This is useful as you can also discover specific requirements or updates made to the process.

The value you’ll receive from following this listing creation guide

There are hundreds of ways to approach listing creation. However, the step-by-step guide that we’ve outlined above is a tested and proven method of getting the most out of your listing in the short and long term. By following these steps, you can rest assured that you’ve fully optimized your listings, you’ve saved time in your book design creation, and you’re now ready to enjoy the rewards for your efforts.

A listing that has been created with strategic thinking and a logic-based approach has a much higher chance of performing well and resulting in more sales. Don’t forget that Book Bolt is by your side to support you in this process and to take a large portion of the weight off your shoulders.

Use it as we’ve recommended throughout the different stages of your listing creation and watch the results unfold before your eyes.