Low Content Books...

      So you have heard you can create a passive income with low content books. Well, like everything it is all about timing, and I believe, what Oprah talks about: striving for excellence.
       From the research I have been doing, there are hundreds of thousands of books out there now in the form of every type of journal known to man. It is so bad, when I type in the actual title of my journal, it doesn't even show. Of course, this could change however to do so, you will have to do some work such as make sure you have good key words, something that actually looks decent and is easy to read, get reviews (and I don't mean from just your friends, they check you social media to be sure your not doing that only), and a few other things. It is intense and from what I can see, challenging. I also learned that most social media such as Facebook, is expensive and really doesn't do much good.
    I do the books because I want them for myself and cannot find them such as my INDIE LOGBOOK. I wanted a book where I can keep all the info on each book I make where will not just be journals. I have about 5 books on the go right now for children... and adults and the end game for me is to know how to properly set up and sell my murder mysteries. I am still working and simply don't have time to pursue this as whole-heartedly as I need to.(I will show inside lay-out on "low content" page.)
      And that is the bottom-line I have found on all of this; if you expect to pop a few books on and have a huge income coming in, especially if you are not paying attention to categories and keywords as well as doing work that is credible (and by that I mean not plagiarizing other folks logos and work such as making Captain America colouring books!), then it is never going to happen.
      I for one, don't expect to make money off of my low content journals. I am doing them because I want them! lol! If someone else can find them and want them, then great, if not, oh well!
       I do want the children's books I am doing and colouring art instruction books to have a fair shake. For this to happen, I have to do the work. I still need to find the sites that will review the books and so on. I am always playing with keywords and making sure the content is as close to error free as possible. I got my colouring book for the first time the other day, and I was surprised...I was impressed! I am not usually anything but self-critical however when I held that thing and started looking through it, I was able to see it for the first time physically, and damn, it is good if I don't say so myself!!!!
       I am still going to figure out if getting a couple of my books as author's copies is worth it or just have it run live and buy it since prime shipping doesn't seem to cover author's copies but it does if I buy them online regularly. See? Things to consider cost wise! There is always so much to consider.
        I also had my colouring picked up by another seller affiliated with Amazon....a storefront. The price I had was $8.00. The price they had was $36.00! I asked them to change it which they politely did and my friend says it is good because they will also get more PR but the way the wording is with the info on it. I don't know if the percentage I get of the sale is based on the price I post it at, or the price they post it at. Still have to look closely at that! I know that it may seem good that they are taking my book on to sell, however they wouldn't be doing so if they didn't get anything out of it! I do these books this way and not through a regular publisher so I have control, so I am not sure I am comfortable with this sort of thing. I have yet to make up my mind. One thing I am clear on, I am either going to have to open a new account at Ingram Sparks for my murder mysteries or find another way to get them out there...it will not be via Amazon.
       So, as I said, if you plan on just uploading a bunch of books and hope for the best, well do yourself a favour and think again. Those days are done. The market is saturated. If you have something special and good, don't sweat it as long as you have the time to do the research and take your time to do everything properly. I have watched a good many really helpful and I think, reasonable You tube videos out there. Some folks really do know what they are talking about, while others, I think, just get a kick out of being online. You will have to decide this for yourself.
       As for making journals for yourself. There is Lulu and Blurb as well as Ingram Sparks besides Amazon, (not mentioning a few others), Here is what I have found based on what I do...which is use Affinity Publisher and Affinity Photo to produce most to the content and formatting for my books.
       Blurb has a reputation for being the best quality paper and colour, etc. and I believe it. I have tried my children's book with them. A few things you need to know though:
Pros and Cons:

• Best Print quality going! Very good!
• Distribution includes Ingram Sparks and others (but percentage is quite high that they take.)
• They have no easy preview launcher.
• No fee to upload.
• The size of a PDF if you are using your own software has to be only a certain number of MBs and can be a pain to make the correct size...usually the free software for making the PDF smaller is just above the size it has to be for it to be accepted by them so often it is frustrating because the size of your content is just a little too big to work either way.
• I have had a bugger of a time with the number of pages it has to be divided by. What I mean by this is that with Blurb, the page count has to be divided by 4 however if it is a larger page count, it is six! It seems no matter what I did, they were always trying to tack blank pages on which of course, I have to include in their print cost. It was almost a joke at one point! Do it and make it the correct size, nope doesn't divide by 4. Make it the size and then nope, it doesn't divide by six! Let me tell you, it was a royal pain!!!!
• Blurb does great photo books and also you can get hard covers which isn't available everywhere.

      Ingram Sparks of course has a reputation for being difficult to set up. I had been with them from almost the start when they had their original website and what you went through to get set up! Then they changed their site to be more user friendly but I don't feel they have yet gotten the bugs all out. It is a challenging site at the best of times and they have very poor support. You cannot call anyone, you have to email and then get a notice saying they will pass it on and get back to you. It goes on and on. I had a book in draft form, I didn't even have the info filled in yet and they published the book! It was terrible. I know money was coming and going but I never even knew it was uploaded and out there! Add to this, it was of course MY NAME that it was all messed up under.
Pros:

• Best distribution available. They are not just a printer, but also a world wide distributor. When you go with them, you do not have to put your books anywhere else to get them out there. There is a distribution fee, as there is with the others, however comparatively, it isn't bad.
• For regular books without colour content, their printing is good.
• They offer the best available sizes for hardcover, with or dust jacket.
• They SEEM to be honest in their dealings with you concerning money once you figure out what they want which they don't make easy for you to find out.

Cons:

• There is an upload fee although they do give pro discounts or waiver promo codes from time to time.
• YOU WON'T FIND IT WRITTEN ANYWHERE, BUT YOU HAVE TO USE A CHECKING AND NOT SAVINGS ACCOUNT if you want to see any money from them.
• Canadian citizens are supposed to have a GST number which is a pain!!! (however it never stopped them from uploading my draft!!!)
• The Taxes info is insane you have to fill out!
• I know the price reduction for bookstores is sketchy and I would be very surprised if the store itself gets to see much of that deduction that is expected...in other words, there is a whole lot of hidden cream being skimmed but that can now be said for all of them...when compared to having it published by a publisher, I don't think you really get that much more of the royalties any longer. They are trying every which way to make a profit from it...much more than ever before. Indie publishing has caught on, and these places are looking for more and more ways to cash in on. Like I said, it is all about timing. Those who did this even five years ago, really were in the best time frame out there for being an Indie publisher especially for low content books.
• I would have had my children's books out there years ago however THE PAPER QUALITY EVEN WHEN IT IS WITH THEIR BEST COLOUR IS TERRIBLE! I had two drafts done of my children's book, and one was so bad the colour ink literally wrinkled the paper; it was so thin, it was nothing short of newsprint! The second time, I increased to the top of what they had and it was still not something I found even close to acceptable. This was a few years ago however I won't waste my time now with colour with them! Just isn't worth it. I will use Blurb and the Ingram Sparks distributor before I would use Ingram Sparks itself.

      LuLu has very high prices and not the greatest ways to upload if you have your own programs to make your books however for those who just want books for themselves or family and friends, it is fine. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother. Not a great site to make a profit on for many reasons I don't want to get into here.
      Amazon has it strong and weak points. I think for ebooks and things you don't care if they go into bookstores or anywhere else, they are great.
Pros:

• It is easy to upload to Amazon.
• No fee to upload or edit and re-upload
• it has a previewer
• they are starting to get into hardcover books
• Customer support is very good but don't rely on them for your pre-launch check to catch things because I know for a fact they don't! I have a book on their now that has an ISBN on the cover that doesn't match the website one.
• Read wording when you are doing things carefully. Fine print reading is important.

Cons:

• Hardcovers do take much longer to get and are expensive.
• you won't get distribution in stores
• If you go with Kindle Direct, you are with them and only them.
• It may be that the print is not much, but they take other fees also because if you look carefully at the royalty you get from your book, it is much less than the print cost alone deducted. It is not so easy to see this.
• It has to be over 100.00 before you will get a check for sales from Amazon.com since they want a US bank account (and not one that accepts US currency). There are ways to work around this and I am looking into it.

Be Aware:
     In Canada, to sell a book that does not contain at least 60 percent written content, it is to be sold with a bar code and not an ISBN. The ISBN is free however PHYSICAL COPIES of your book is to be sent to their National Library Archive in good faith. A bar code can be up to $60.00 or as a package for a little less.
     For this reason, using the codes provided by the place you are using to print and distribute your book can be worth your while. On Amazon for instance, my journals are with them, and I use their code provided. THIS MEANS HOWEVER IT CAN NOT BE USED WITH THIS CODE ANYWHERE ELSE. You still own your rights, but it limits the place it can be distributed under that code. For this reason, my high content books have an ISBN while the lower ones do not. I only intend to make journals through Amazon and use their code provided.
     There are many other ways to get your books out there and other companies that specialize for instance, in photo-books, however, these are the ones I have looked into so far.
    In conclusion Ingram Sparks is still the best for murder mysteries and other books that are popular categories such as Romance and so on. You can get your book into more places and yes, they do distribute on Amazon.
     For low content journals, Amazon is still the best as far as I can see because there is no upload fee, and it is easy to do.
Book Baby is expensive but works. LuLu takes a lot in fees for much of what it does but it is fine for those who want a few books only.
    Blurb is getting there. Hopefully they will get a launch preview that is easy to use and can deal with this whole multiples of 4 or 6 and sizes for their PDFs. Not one I would ever use for low content books.  It costs more to use the Ingram Sparks distribution platform however the print quality is much better so the books is worth a few pennies more.
NOTE: If you are doing a literary work of art, then you are better off going through a regular publisher with a platform or a company that will help you out if you have the money. You still need real reviews in their field of serious writing.
     If you are like me, and can do many things such as illustration and writing and so on, then being an Indie publisher of books is great especially if you love to do it as I do.
     If you are a determined soul who is good with computers and can find locations for low content content that can help you crank out the journals, etc, then perhaps it is a good way to go as a hobby that may turn out worth your while if again, it is something you want to do really badly and have the time.
    If, on the other hand, you are a dream who procrastinates and THINKS about doing something but hardly ever gets around to it, or expects to get rich quick without putting things in place and plodding along learning from your mistakes (which there are many to make!), then forget it. There are other ways to make money online, and low content books, now, is not for you. As I said, even 5 years ago things were different.
    Whatever you decide, good luck!

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