A great passive income stream for busy moms is creating and selling low content books. These are books which you can create and then sell on Amazon, which are more for filling in than reading.
These are not novels or guide books, instead they are planners, or log books, or notebooks, or journals, or activity books, etc. They are books in which its more about the user filling it in than about you the author filling it in. Hence the name low content.
In fact, notebooks are technically no-content books since the pages only contain lines as opposed to planners or journals which may include a little more from the creator.
Since Amazon is a huge marketplace filled not only with individual creators like you, but also huge businesses, it takes a little effort to stand out. The key is niching down.
For example, if you want to create a journal for reflecting on inspirational quotes, don’t just make a generic journal that anyone might want. Or at minimum, make a generic template, but then individualize it in some way before selling it.
Make it a journal for female entrepreneurs and include quote from famous female entrepreneurs. Make it a journal for mothers and include inspiring quotes about motherhood. The basic lines of the journal can remain the same, but you can switch out the quotes, the embellishments, and the cover art.
Similarly, for planners, you can make a planner specifically for Jewish people and include all of the Jewish holidays and feasts. You can even include a guide to the different practices on those different days. You can do the same for any religion.
You can make a planner for moms who use a certain home school curriculum. You can make a planner for girl scout troop leaders. You can make a 90 day goal planner for Christian women. You can make a bible study planner or a book reading log.
Where to Start
I think the best place to start is in an area you are familiar with. For example, I initially created books for dance teachers and choreographers because I had experience teaching dance. I knew the type of info I would want to record, so I created a book that neatly organized it.
Think of something that you do or someone close to you does that could benefit from a planner or log book or journal. If you know someone who collects Pop Vinyls, find out the type of information they would want to keep track of. If you know someone who bird watches, find out what they record about the birds they see.
If you garden, what information do you want to track about your planting to see what worked or didn’t work so you can learn for the next year or next season.
You can make a book just for making lists so people can keep all their lists in one place. Really think about all the things you have ever wanted to jot down or track and make a book for it.
Once you run out of inspiration from your own life or those close to you, you can move out to a wider group of friends and associates. You can also find inspiration anywhere. What hobbies do the characters on your favorite show do? Find out what kind of book would be useful for that hobby.
Definitely start with what you know and move out from there. You can also make a few different cover designs for the same interior to appeal to different design aesthetics. If you start with what you can your closest friends and family know, you can have a healthy collection to sell in no time.
Cheers,
Emily
