About six months ago, I decided to try out Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) to see if it lived up to the hype....
For those unfamiliar, KDP is a business model where you create ebooks, upload them to Amazon, and make money through royalties when people read them for free or through a flat fee if they purchase the book. It sounded like a great opportunity, especially since digital products allow you to sell continuously without any upfront inventory costs.
The main components for a successful ebook are pretty simple: the script (or book), the cover, and the formatting. But to make money, you need to start with an in-demand topic that's not oversaturated. If you choose a category that's flooded with competition, your book will struggle to stand out, and sales will be low.
On the other hand, if you pick a topic no one cares about, even with zero competition, you won't get any sales either. The key is finding that sweet spot—a topic with enough interest and not too much competition, where you can rank and grab a piece of the sales.
A great tool to help you with this is Seller Sprite. With Seller Sprite, you can quickly identify profitable niches and keywords instead of manually searching. The keyword research tool is incredibly valuable because it provides data on search volume, allowing you to make informed, data-backed decisions about whether your book idea will attract traffic. The niche analysis tool helps you research various niches and sub-niches to determine if your chosen category is a goldmine or an oversaturated market that will drown your book in competitors.
The competitor analysis tool is also key, as it allows you to assess your top competitors and validate whether they're actually making sales. By analyzing your top keywords, competitors, and niche trends, you can confidently move forward with writing your book, knowing it's positioned to succeed.
You can try Seller Sprite here and use the code BRYAN30 to get 35% off for a year or 45% off for a month
Now that we've validated the book idea, how do we write and launch it to make money?
After taking several courses and watching hundreds of videos, many recommend outsourcing to an expensive freelance writer. While this ensures a well-written book, it can be quite costly. If you're just starting out, you're probably looking for a more affordable option, and that's where ChatGPT comes in. If used correctly with the right prompts, ChatGPT can write a great book for you at no cost.
However, you can't just tell ChatGPT to "write me a book" and expect a perfect result. It’s essential to start with an outline—chapter by chapter—so ChatGPT knows what to write about. The outline doesn’t need to be super detailed, just enough to guide the AI. Then, instruct it to write each chapter individually. Make sure to review the output, edit where necessary, and you'll end up with a well-written and informative book.
As for formatting, hire someone on Fiverr for $5 to $10 to convert your manuscript into Amazon KDP format. The same goes for the book cover. I found a Fiverr designer who charges $10 and does a great job. Don’t skimp on the cover—just like a YouTube thumbnail, it’s critical for drawing attention. A poorly designed cover will deter readers, no matter how good your content is.
I've personally launched three books so far, all written with the help of ChatGPT. One flopped, despite what I thought was great content, but the other two performed well. The first book didn’t succeed because it was in an oversaturated topic, while the second had a better chance because I used Seller Sprite to research a less competitive but still profitable niche.
The first book was based on an idea I thought was good, but I didn’t use any data to back it up. It flopped. For the next two books, I took a different approach. I used Seller Sprite to ensure the niche wasn’t oversaturated, confirmed that top-ranking competitors were getting sales, and validated that my target keywords were driving traffic and offered enough opportunity for me to rank. The results were significantly better.
This research approach removed the guesswork, allowing me to spend my time and effort on books that were more likely to succeed.
In my honest opinion, KDP is a legitimate business model. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme, and it won’t make you a millionaire overnight, but with some consistency, it can become a real income stream and provide passive income. The best part? Once your book is published, you don’t need to do anything else. You just collect royalties as your books gain reviews, more page reads, and improve their search rankings.
Did you charge for your books or did you list them for free? What do you think a good price would be to get sales? How do you measure it?