Can You Make Money Selling Journals On Amazon In 2025

Selling journals on Amazon through Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) can be a great way to create a source of passive income. 

While it requires a considerable amount of time and effort upfront, journals can provide you with a steady stream of income over time. The beauty of creating and selling journals on Amazon is, that you create them once and keep making money for years to come.

In this blog post, I will paint a true picture of whether you can still make money selling journals on Amazon. I will also show you how to approach it strategically to maximize your chances of success.

Before we move further, here is my backstory (a quick one)…

I first started selling journals on Amazon back in 2017 via CreateSpace. It all started when I came across an eBook on ways to make money on Amazon without writing!

I bought that eBook for $10 and started creating prompts journals to sell on Amazon. At that time, amazon had a separate platform for paperback books aka CreateSpace.

So, after publishing a couple of writing prompts journals, I saw some sales coming which motivated me to create more of them. After that, I published a wide range of paperback books on Amazon and most of them were journals.

Here are a couple of journal niches that worked for me;

• Writing prompts journal for kids 3rd grade
• Writing prompts journal for 1st grade
• Writing prompts journal for 2nd grade
• Writing prompts journal for depression and anxiety

Can you make money selling journals on Amazon?

You can make money selling journals on Amazon in 2024 and beyond provided you manage to put together a really nice cover that targets a really focused audience.

The short answer is yes! However, the market for journals on Amazon has become quite saturated. To stand out, you need to niche down and create journals that cater to a specific audience.

People often buy journals as gifts, so having a unique and eye-catching cover is crucial.

Put it in other words, If you want to sell journals on Amazon to make money then you should create journals or notebooks around what people are searching for!

As journals and notebooks are easy to create, thousands upon thousands of publishers are creating them in bulk therefore, this niche has become massively saturated.

The fact of the matter is, that you can’t expect to make money unless your journal or notebook stands out among thousands and thousands of other journals.

Don’t worry, I will show you the right way to create to sell journals that can potentially make you a decent passive income online. So keep reading.

I just searched for “Journal” on Amazon and it shows 80,000 search results, which speaks of the huge amount of competition.

During the year 2019, I have published over 500 journals or notebooks on kdp and less than 5% of them sell only. This is because over 95% of journals are not laser-focused and they also have really basic covers.

So, after publishing that sheer amount of journals, I can say, that journals with basic covers will no longer sell on Amazon unless you have an audience of your own.

What is a Journal?

A journal is a type of low-content book, which normally has little to no text but mostly design elements like lines. People use journals in their day-to-day lives to write down ideas, thoughts, memories, and more. They are good for students to take notes.

Journals can have lined or blank pages, catering to various niches such as gratitude, meditation, cooking, exercise, business, and more.

The cool thing about journals is they are easy to create and most of the time they consist of repetitive pages. You can create one page and repeat it 100 times to create a 100-page journal. So, creating journals is pretty straightforward and effortless as compared to writing a 10,000-word book.

If you are starting with Amazon KDP, creating journals would be a great move as these are very easy to create and the demand is enormous for this type of low-content books.

Why Sell Journals on Amazon?

Amazon, being one of the largest online marketplaces globally, offers numerous advantages for sellers looking to distribute journals and stationery products. Here are five key benefits:

1. High Demand for Journals

Journal have a massive demand on Amazon. People are always looking for beautiful journals which they can use themselves and give as a gift to a friend, family member or a loved one.

2. Journals are Easy To Create

Journals are effortless to create using tools like Book Bolt, allowing you to design a journal within 60 minutes, streamlining the production process.

3. Low Startup Costs and Passive Income Potential

Amazon’s KDP platform enables you to start selling journals without any initial investment, minimizing financial risk. The best thing is KDP charges nothing for the service, making it accessible to all.

Selling journals on Amazon can generate a sustainable passive income for years, providing a steady revenue stream and allowing for business scalability.

4. Global Reach and Print-on-Demand Convenience

KDP’s print-on-demand eliminates the need for inventory, reducing storage costs and risks. Journals are printed only when ordered, ensuring efficient inventory management. Mostly importunity you can sell journals in multiple marketplaces and reach a global audience.

6. Effortless Customer Support Handling

Amazon takes care of customer support tasks, including returns and after-sale assistance, relieving sellers of these responsibilities and allowing them to focus on growing their business.

Selling journals on Amazon through KDP offers a convenient and cost-effective opportunity for aspiring sellers. With easy journal creation tools like Book Bolt, low entry barriers, potential for passive income, no inventory maintenance, and hassle-free customer support handling by Amazon, it’s a win-win platform for journal creators looking to succeed in the market.

What Type of Journals Sell on Amazon?

Journals that have a quote or message on the cover that is either funny or relates to a specific group of people do still sell. I have some journals with funny quotes and they sell a couple of copies every month. On the other hand, I have a lot of journals that don’t sell at all.

While generic journals might struggle, those with targeted themes and attractive covers can still find success. Here’s what sells well:

Popular Niches Ideas

Journals with a specific focus, such as “Fitness journals for runners,” “Gratitude journals for moms,” or “Travel journaling prompts for couples,” resonate more with buyers.

Creative Options

Coloring books, puzzle books, activity books and workbooks are some creative forms of journals you can create and sell on Amazon. These type of books have a huge demand and tend to sell well throughout the years.

Eye-Catching Covers

Think of strong visuals, relevant quotes, and a clear message that speaks to your target audience. Think of the cover as your product’s advertisement.

So, What Makes a Good Journal to Make Money?

If you want to make money selling journals on Amazon, then you need to spend some time finding low-competition keywords.

This will help you make a journal around what people are searching for. Once you are done with the research process, then you need to create an eye-catching cover that stands out!

For instance, I just searched for “teacher appreciation gift notebook” and on the first page, the below notebooks caught my attention!

This teacher appreciation journal has a nice quote, “The World Needs More Teachers Like You” and it has an eye-catching cover. The selection of colors and font is amazing, which makes this cover stand out!

Let’s have a look at another journal in the same niche (Teacher Appreciation Gifts);

This teacher appreciation journal has a best-seller rank of below 57k which means it is selling roughly 3-5 copies every single day. And it follows the same principle, it is targeted and it has a nice cover!

How to Make Money Selling Journals?

As we saw in the examples above, the journals with awesome covers still sell on Amazon. People buy journals from Amazon to gift them to a friend, family member, or co-worker.

So, keeping all this in mind you need to target professions, hobbies, and relationships to make a journal around these niches!

Below I will walk you through the fundamentals of creating a journal that sells on Amazon. Let’s do this step by step…

Step # 1 – Finding a Niche

Finding a niche is not hard, you need to focus on one thing and that is, who will buy this journal and why?

Don’t just pick a broad topic. Consider trending interests, your passions, or areas with limited competition. Here’s how to brainstorm niches:

• People’s Interests: What are people passionate about? Hobbies like gardening, cooking, or writing are good starting points.
• Professions: Doctors, engineers, teachers, and other professionals might appreciate niche journals related to their work.
• Relationships: Family, couples, and friends often gift journals. Explore themes like father-daughter journals or self-care journals for busy couples.
• Current Events: Is there a popular mindfulness trend? Capitalize on it by creating meditation or gratitude journals.

So, niches are all around us! Just pick one of these niches or topics to start with the next step of keyword research!

I have many videos on kdp niche research on my YouTube Channel. One of those videos is pasted below;

Related posts;

Step # 2 – Keyword Research

Once you are done with the niche selection your second step should be finding as many low-competition keywords as many as you can!

These keywords are usually long-tail keywords and you can find these keywords by using a free Chrome extension called AMZ Suggestion Expander or you can use Titans Pro, the latest amazon kdp keyword research tool.

I use Titans Pro as it allows me to download keywords as an Excel sheet. I have a video on that as well, you can have a little watch of it below!

In this video, I shared a step-by-step process to find low-competition niches and keywords. You can use this method to find low-competition journal niches.

For example, If I type the keyword journal in the Amazon search bar, Titans Pro shows me a lot of long-tail keywords that I can use to create and publish journals.

As you can see, I found a couple of long-tail sub-niche ideas for journals.

• Journal for girls ages 8-12
• Journal notebook no lines
• Journal set for girls ages 8-12
• Journal for women leather
• Daily journal with prompts

Step # 3 – Create An Eye-Catching Cover

Lastly, you can create a really nice cover that appeals to your target audience. To do that you can add a quote or message on the cover!

For example, if you would like to create a journal for teachers, then you can find/write a quote that relates to the target person who will receive that journal as a gift from someone!

You can find quotes online but make sure the quote is in the public domain and is not copyrighted otherwise you will be at risk of losing your kdp account.

You can use sites like Pinterest, Etsy, Redbubble, and Teepublic to find best-selling designs, and then you can model those designs to create your own version!

Step # 4 – Optimize Your Amazon Listing

This is the forth and one of the most important step of creating and selling journals on Amazon. You can optimize your book listing on amazon by using;

Marketing Strategies for Selling Journals

Creating and making your notebooks and journals live on Amazon KDP is the half part of the equation. The other part is advertise them to get more balls on your book listings. This is where the effect book marketing strategies come in to play.

Below, I have listed a couple of useful book marketing strategies you can use to promote your journal on Amaozn.

Leveraging Amazon PPC Advertising

This is the first and most useful way to promote books including journals and notebook on Amazon. You can use Amazon’s PPC advertising aka Amazon ads to promote your journals directly on amazon. The is the most direct and efficient way of book marketing and it gives you best ROI (return on investment).

Once your journal goes live on Amazon, you will see an option to advertise and promote directly from your KDP dashboard. You can read more about running Amazon ads (KDP Ads) for your journals and other books here: Amazon KDP Ads: Complete Guide To Sell More Books on Amazon!

Promoting Journals via Social Media and Influencers

You can also promote your journals on social media platforms like Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. If have budget you can hire an influencer to promote your journal his/her audience.

Encouraging Customer Reviews and Social Proof

Within your book you can ask the customers customers to leave their honest review on Amazon about your book or journal. This will build a social proof and boost your book sales in the long run.

Scaling and Growing Your Journal Business

Once you have one journal up and live on Amazon, you can create more by doing proper niche and keyword research. Below are some useful ways you can use to scale your journal business on Amazon.

Create a Journal Brand

The is the route most successful KDP self-publishers take to make more book sales on Amazon. All you need to do is publish your journals under one pen name and create an author central account for it. This is especially helpful as people can see all your books publish under a single pen name.

In this way you can get repeat customer and more book sales. For example there is popular journal brand amazon call Pretty Simple Press. They have multiple journal under their name all with very good reviews.

Creating a Series of Journals for Various Niches

You can scale your journal business by creating journals that cater various niches. For example you can create;

• A gratitude journal for men
• A gratitude journal for kids
• A gratitude journal for women

Then you can target slightly different niches like prayer journals, mindfulness journals, and so on.

Exploring Advanced Strategies for Search Optimization

Once you start seeing good sales, you can learn and apply techniques that go beyond basic SEO practices to maximize the visibility of your journals on Amazon and other search platforms. For example you can;

• Target long-tail keywords that matches your buyers intent (e.g., “gratitude journal for teens”).
• Use tools like Helium 10 or Titans Pro to find low competition keywords for backend slots.
• Reverse-engineer your competitor and analyze their SEO strategies (e.g., examine their descriptions, titles, and keywords).
• Create a blog and start creating content related to the type of journal you are selling on Amazon.
• A/B Test variations of titles, subtitles, or descriptions to see what drives more clicks and conversions.

Tools and Resources for Journal Creation

Below are a few useful tools are resources that can help you streamline your journal creation and publishing business on Amazon.

Book Bolt

Book Bolt is one of my favorite all-in-one Amazon KDP tool. It comes with tools for niche research, keywords research, competitor analysis and book creation. With Book Bolt you will also have access to a wide range of journal interior templates.

Their book creation tool aka Book Bot Studio allows you to create journals, notebooks, planners, and puzzle books in hours not days.

I have written a detailed blog post about how to create and sell a journal using Book Bolt under 60 minutes. You can read it here: How to Create a Journal to Sell On Amazon in 60 Minutes.

Titans Pro

Titans Pro is one of the best KDP niche and keyword research tool. It helps your find low-competition niches and keywords in minutes. The best thing is it shows you helpful data like Amazon search results, search volume, demand score and opportunity score for all keyword and niche ideas.

Canva

Canva is another very useful tool you can use to create book interior and covers for you journals. The best thing you can pretty much do everything in terms of journal creation using free version Canva. It comes with a lot of pre-made templates that you can customize to your needs with ease.

Conclusion

Today in this post, I have answered a really common question about Kindle direct publishing: “Can You Make Money Selling Journals On Amazon”.

The short answer is Yes, you can still make money selling journals on Amazon if you manage to niche down and create an appealing cover.

People buy journals from Amazon as gift items and most of the time they look for an amazing cover. So, as a self-publisher, you can provide people with what they are looking for and make money by doing so!

❤ Subscribe To My YouTube Channel To Learn More About Low Content Books:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHTJzdE7bzvL8cU0ES6X7mw?sub_confirmation=1

❤ Check out my resource page for tools and resources I personally use to scale my Low Content Publishing Business.

Tools and Resources I Use

❤ Share this post on your favorite social media site. Thanks!

Subha Malik