So apparently, there is a thing called Kindle Direct Publishing – or KDP short. This platform allows you to self publish books, and Amazon takes care of production and distribution.
Being a big fan of anything Kindle and book related, I decided to join… Don’t worry, I didn’t write a book… yet 🙂
Anyway, there is a thing called “low content books” that are quite popular within the print-on-demand community. Those are various sketchbooks, notebooks, journals, etc. – usually stuff the buyers get to fill out themselves.
This means – not only do I get to design the covers – I also get to design the insides of these notebooks, every single line and other stuff I think of. After that, Amazon makes and sends the books to order.
My first Amazon KDP project – the NIGHTMARE JOURNAL
This is a lined journal (150 pages) for you to fill out – it is here to listen to your fears and help you understand your daily struggles.
Nightmares can seriously affect our lives, and it is important to understand why they occur. They are often just a symptom of an underlying emotional or mental issue, and keeping a nightmare journal might help you understand it better.
Even when a dream (or a nightmare) seems so real while sleeping, just a few moments after waking up we start to forget details and they soon become a blur.
Keep the journal by the bed so you can write down all the details before they fade from your memory.
What was the bad dream about? Who were you dreaming about? Where did it take place? How did it make you feel – scared, angry, sad, annoyed, nauseated?
Now when you have it in writing, you can go back to the nightmare while awake and review it.
Try to recognize and write down the occurring symbols but in regards to what happened to you before you went to sleep. Maybe a cat is a metaphor for something, maybe you just watched too many kitty videos online the day before – and your brain was processing it while you slept.
What do you think triggered the nightmare? Write down every possible reason you can think of – maybe you ate some spicy food, maybe something awful happened recently? Write down everything you can think of.
Nightmares are often confusing, but by keeping a journal it will be easier to make sense of it all. By connecting to your nightmares, you will be able to understand yourself better.
The second project – SKETCHBOOK
This is not an ordinary sketchbook, it includes dark art prompts on the left page and blank pages on the right for you to draw on.
The prompts aren’t there to tell you literally what to draw – play around with the ideas and see where they take you, they are mere suggestions. You can always skip some and come back later, you can dismiss it and draw just the opposite of it, Maybe you want it to look cute or funny or even twisted and disturbing – it is your sketchbook and do whatever you want to!
Since I create dark art almost every day, all the prompts are macabre/horror/supernatural related. I hope they will help you to get those creative juices flowing. Also, nothing would make me happier than to see what you come up with! You can tag @von.kowen on Instagram if you would like to show me what you came up with!
Whether you want to just doodle, make quick sketches or create detailed intricate drawings, I hope you will find this sketchbook useful and fun to fill out!
Future plans
I am thinking about making a food/fitness journal, more dream diaries, some blank notebooks and even an adult coloring book 🙂
Maybe I could write some short horror stories and illustrate them… I can do whatever, but it will take time to get used to this new platform… Meanwhile, you can follow my author page on Amazon:
Well, wish me luck 🙂