Amazon KDP enables booksellers to tap into the low- and no-content book categories and satisfy a substantial demand from shoppers. But creating a book that’s profitable will require in-depth research and a complete understanding of these two separate markets.

This article will take you on a journey to the world of no-content books. We’ll see how profitable the different categories are, identify top-performing niches, analyze the competition and recommend a category that will offer the most extensive money-making opportunities.

How profitable are no-content book categories on Amazon KDP?

At the end of the day, all your efforts as a seller on Amazon are aimed at one ultimate goal – profit. With this in mind, we used Book Bolt to determine the standard prices for all no-content book categories available on Amazon KDP.

These are:

• Notebooks
• Journals
• Music Sheets
• Sketch books

We explored each category’s lowest, average, and highest prices by looking at the bestsellers. We also recorded the average BSRs among the top-performing listings and all listings in the category. This helped us discover how much royalties sellers can expect to earn.

Remember that Amazon KDP royalties depend on factors such as whether the book is hardcover or paperback, its page numbers (necessary for printing cost calculations), and the listing price.

Here are our findings.

Notebooks

The notebook category is the one that has the lowest average price ($6.95). At the same time, the highest prices among bestselling listings are higher than those in other no-content book categories. Some of the most expensive notebooks are priced at $38.00. If you’re just entering the market and looking for a highly competitive price, you’ll want to know about the lowest price, which is $3.63 for this category.

When looking at all notebooks sold on Amazon KDP, the average BSR is 1,507,439, which is higher than any other no-content book category. This means that, overall, notebooks have minuscule sales when compared to the other three niches. However, the average BSR among bestsellers is 74,004, which is lower than most other categories.

So what does this mean in terms of royalties?

Amazon’s royalties for paperback and hardcover no-content books are 60% of the list price  minus printing costs. Because it’s difficult to calculate the printing costs of all books, let’s focus on the fixed percentage and the average prices.

Let’s say you price your listing at $7, which is around the average in the category and your product becomes a bestseller with an average BSR of 74,004.

From each sale, you will receive a royalty of $4.20 ($7 x 60%). By using a BSR calculator, we found out that a BSR of 74,004 equals 64 sales per month. In other words, without factoring in printing costs, you’ll be making an average of $268.80 from selling notebooks on Amazon KDP (64 sales x $4.20 royalty per sale).

Let’s repeat this process for the other categories.

Journals

The average price for journals on Amazon KDP is $8.48. At the same time, the lowest price is $2.11, while the highest is $41.17. When analyzing all listings, the average BSR is 2,373,781. However, a look into the top performers showed us that the average BSR is much lower, or 46,324 to be exact.

What does this mean in terms of your potential profits?

Continuing the imaginary scenario where you have made it to the list of bestsellers, you can expect to earn approximately $490 in royalties every month from selling journals. This is nearly double what you could be making in the notebook category.

Music sheets

When it comes to music sheets, the average price is $11.39, while the lowest and highest prices are $3.99 and $39.99 respectively. The average BSR of all listings is 293,588, which, so far, is the lowest result in all categories.

When researching the bestsellers, it became clear that the average BSR is very similar, or 261,456. This means that music sheets perform well overall and you don’t have to be a chart-topper to enjoy significant sales volumes. However, the BSR for bestsellers is still much higher than in other no-content book categories.

In terms of royalties, if you price your listing around the average, music sheets will net you around $140 per month.

Sketchbooks

Finally, sketch books are sold at an average price of $7.20, while their lowest and highest prices are $2.89 and $20.00. All listings from Amazon KDP in this category have an average BSR of 1,599,699, while the same metric among bestsellers is 277,015.

After calculating royalties without considering printing costs, we discovered that with sketchbooks, you could generate a profit of $78 per month.

Top-performing niches within no-content books

But what about the niches that perform well within these no-content book categories? Knowing these will help you create products with the highest potential for sales.

So, let’s explore.

Notebooks

The number one best-selling listing in the notebook category has the following attributes:

• Title: “Graph Paper Composition Notebook: Grid Paper, Quad Ruled, 109 Sheets, 8.5×11”
• Price: $3.99
• BSR: 210
• Estimated monthly sales: 733

As you can see, the niche here is “composition notebooks”.

Our follow-up research revealed that the phrase “composition notebook notebook” is one of the most popular keywords among Amazon shoppers. It receives a monthly search volume of 18,735, which means there’s a strong customer demand for these types of items.

Journals

Dissecting the journal niche on Book Bolt led us to conclude that the motivational niche performs very well in this category.

The listing with the most sales in the space serves as proof:

• Title: “You Fucking Got This : Motivational Swear Words Coloring Book: Swear Word Coloring Books for Adults: Swearing Colouring Book Pages for Stress Relief … Funny Journals and Adult Coloring Books)”
• Price: $4.99
• BSR: 162
• Estimated monthly sales: 800

In actuality, the product here is a coloring book rather than a journal book. We see this listing in Book Bolt because of the use of “journals” as part of the keywords in the listing title. This is why we chose to use a second example to prove our point:

• Title: “The Sadness Book – A Journal To Let Go”
• Price: $12.99
• BSR: 2,051
• Estimated monthly sales: 513

This is another listing that motivates people to let go of their sadness. It performs better than most others in the space and attracts a wide range of buyers.

Music sheets

The most successful listing in the music sheets category is:

• Title: “Music Manuscript Paper: 100 Blank Staff Pages with Music Notation Guide”
• Price: $6.00
• BSR: 1,931
• Estimated monthly sales: 541

Here, the niche is staff music sheet pages and music notation guides. This listing performs exceptionally well and satisfies a substantial demand on Amazon KDP. Other popular niches in the category include piano music sheets, as well as music sheets for beginners or experienced musicians.

Sketchbooks

A deep dive into the sketchbook bestsellers uncovered that the most popular niche in this category is anime.

The listing with the highest sales volume is one targeted at a viral anime series. It’s a “how to draw” sketch book designed for beginners.

With a price of $7.00 and a BSR of 16,813, the listing is certainly an example to observe. It generates around 353 monthly sales and is undoubtedly a success story.

Winning strategies spotted when analyzing the bestsellers

Inspecting no-content book categories with Book Bolt enabled us to extract a few valuable conclusions regarding the successful strategies employed by top sellers.

Niching down

We noticed that most bestsellers’ systematic approach is to sell in a particular niche. Niching down allows sellers to offer competitive products and to attract specific buyer types to their listings. When we say niching down, this could be:

• Choosing a sub-niche of a larger niche (like selling piano music sheets)
• Niching down in terms of the level of experience (like creating listings for beginners, intermediaries, and advanced users)
• Targeting a certain audience (listings designed for adults, kids, women, men, or others)

Most of the profitable sellers in the no-content book space rely on this tactic to generate more sales.

Satisfying a specific demand

Next, we detected that sellers with skyrocketing sales usually satisfy a specific demand. Buyers’ demand can easily be uncovered via keyword research using the Book Bolt tool.

By being aware of the keywords that users are searching for on Amazon, you can make strategic decisions about the types of listings that would lead to maximum profitability. A great example of this is the composition notebook listing we explored earlier.

Adapting the product to the target audience

The final common approach is adapting the no-content book to the target audience. This can usually be seen by simply looking at the book cover design. For example, products created for children and adults vary in terms of colors, font types, and even font sizes. Plus, many of the products are tailored in size to make them convenient to use.

For instance, sketchbooks tend to be smaller. This enables the user to transfer the product anywhere comfortably.

Conclusion: The top 3 most profitable no-content books to sell

From the extensive research conducted on no-content book categories, we can conclude that the most profitable categories to sell in are:

1. Journals
2. Notebooks
3. Music sheets

Of course, you can be equally successful in other no-content book markets with a bulletproof strategy. However, these three categories have proven to be the most profitable for sellers on Amazon KDP.

No matter which category you choose, remember to use a reliable business intelligence tool like Book Bolt for your research. This way, you can make informed decisions every step of the journey and enjoy outstanding results in the end.