8 Ideas to Create a Notebook Today

Growing your business often means adding new products to increase your sales. Easier said than done if you’re primarily selling books, I know. That’s why I suggest you create a notebook. Or two. Or three!

Print-on-demand is making it easier and easier to give your buyers a wider variety of options. So even if your primary goal is to sell your book, also selling a notebook (or one of hundreds of other products) is a great way to supplement those sales. 

And thanks to templates and easy-to-use design tools, publishing and selling a notebook is simpler than ever before.

Why a Notebook?

Notebooks, journals, and planners are books meant for consumption. No, please don’t try to eat a notebook or season your journal. 

By consumption, what I mean is that you use them and then you need another one. When a fan buys your book, that’s it. They’ve got it. Unless they really want to send a copy to a friend or something, there’s little chance that readers will buy from you again until you publish something new.

But publishing a complete book takes time. Months if not years. You risk losing that reader’s interest and you certainly aren’t making any money from them while you write your next masterpiece.

That’s where secondary products like merchandise and supplemental works come in. 

So what kinds of notebooks should you add to your online bookstore? 

Notebook and Journal Ideas

If you read the title and thought “How is this dude going to come up with 8 different kinds of notebooks?” you should buckle up. Most of the variations will center on different interior layouts and/or adding guided sections. But the constant will be your cover. One of the cool things about the custom notebooks is that we carry them around. Take them out at random places to make a note or check a list.

Your notebook cover is marketing gold.

Don’t skimp on your notebook cover. Use it to highlight alternative art for your book’s cover. Or to showcase a character or place central to your novel. Or your brand’s logo, your podcast cover art, or your Instagram-famous dog. Make it unique and memorable so your readers are excited to show off your covers for you.

Lined Pages

Let’s start with the most basic kind of notebook—plain lined pages. 

Lined notebooks are the classic way to write just about anything. From your next bestseller to a grocery list, lined notebooks will never go out of style. This is why creating a simple, lined notebook might be the perfect way to promote yourself and your products.

Remember that notebooks (of all kinds) are often meant to supplement your other products. They’re an ‘add-on’ like the candy and magazine racks clustered around the register at a grocery store. 

I’ll repeat this (and probably will again before this post is done): your notebook is all about conveying your branding through the cover. Lined notebooks are incredibly useful and are plentiful. Make yours stand out.

Blank or Dot Grid Pages

Right up there with lined notebooks are the blank or dot grid-style interiors. Again, you’re creating something with a simple, useful interior that’s meant to promote your cover art. 

Blank pages are great if your audience is creators or if art/drawing is inherently connected to your other products. And dot grid interiors are growing in popularity because they afford versatility—you can both draw and write easily along the grid lines.

Along with plain lined notebooks, blank and dot grid notebooks are what I think of as ‘basic’ interior designs. They’re largely meant for anyone to use for almost any purpose, from taking notes to doodling to journaling. If you’re adding your first run of notebooks to your product catalog, starting with one of these kinds of notebooks is a good way to gauge your reader’s interests.

Planner

Okay, from here on out, we’ll look at some specific kinds of notebooks you can offer. Planners are a great additional offering if you sell productivity or inspirational content. 

Despite our smartphones often providing more versatile ways to stay productive, planner notebooks are still very popular. One reason that I still write all my to-dos and daily schedules by hand is that I find it more interactive and thoughtful. Committing pen to paper is (sort of) permanent. I can dismiss that reminder to work out or clean the gutters, but if I write those tasks in my planner, it’s not going anywhere.

Planners are beloved by a huge segment of people. So if you have some overlap in your audience with the kinds of people who like to keep a planner, you should consider offering one with your own unique cover. 

This is also a chance to design the planner yourself (or to work with a graphic designer to do so). Do you need more space to write tasks each day or do you prefer a monthly grid with boxes? Do you prefer a couple of lines for notes or a couple of pages? 

This is your planner and you can customize it to reflect your style–something your fans may well appreciate having an insight into.

Task-Specific Planner

General planners are cool, but what if you could offer a niche planner that also ties in with your other products? The more unique and specific to your audience, the more likely they’ll find your planner useful!

You can see from the examples below that anything you do repeatedly can lead to a planner. And since this is your task-specific planner, there’s no reason you can’t use it to speak to the value of your other books or products. If you sell cookbooks, you could offer a meal planner. If you sell fitness guides, a daily workout log.

The key with task-specific planners is to zoom in on what makes your product unique and connect that to something your readers do regularly.

Reading Journal

If you’re selling books, it’s probably safe to assume your readers like to read. Yes, there are plenty of ways to track reading online, like Goodreads or StoryGraph. But some people like to track their reading by hand.

A reading journal is also a fun and simple way to promote your books – either through quotes, art, or even adding pages specifically for recording your books. 

Daily Writing

If you’re a writer—and if selling books is your thing, you’re a writer,  trust me—then one of the most important exercises you can do is to write every day. Professional athletes don’t get to the top of their game by playing pick-up on the weekends with their friends.

There are lots of great online and app-based options to help you write. Daily Prompt sends writing prompts to your phone every day to help keep you on track. 

But, if you like pen and paper like me, you’ll love a daily writing journal. These can be simple, like the lined or dot grid options I talked about earlier. But if you’re trying to offer something unique for your audience and you know you’ve got some writers in your following, a custom daily writing journal will be a great addition to your catalog.

Guided Journal

A guided journal is pretty similar to a daily writing journal, though I think it’s worth noting that guided journals are great for a more general audience. If your followers are interested in self-care and mental health, guided journals are terrific notebooks for them. 

The beauty of a guided journal is that you can plan it around your reader’s interests. Are you an artist who sells guides to drawing? A guided daily sketch journal might include simple prompts or lessons for each day to help your followers develop their skills.

A lot of guided journals focus on mental health, personal growth, and empowerment; all things we work on regularly. Crafting your own guided journal for growth and health might be the perfect way to resonate with your audience. 

Another popular kind of guided journal is a prayer journal—a place for your followers to better understand your take on spirituality and to engage with the religious texts that are important to you.

Tracker

Last on my list of suggested journals are trackers. A tracker journal is a lot like a planner but with a specific daily (or otherwise regular) task in mind. Trackers are often most useful for fitness or dieting, as they create a concrete record of the work you’re doing.

When you create a notebook focused on tracking a single activity, you’re giving your audience a highly specialized tool they can use every day. Again, that’s our goal here; to give your followers something from you that they can consume, and that they want to use every day.

Notebooks Creating Connections

Journals, notebooks, and trackers give you a way to offer something active to your followers. For example, if you write cookbooks and create a meal planner or recipe tracker for your followers, they can enjoy tracking their cooking journey. Maybe you prompt them to share stories and pictures on your social media and BAM you’ve got a personal, direct connection with those readers.

If you’re an author or entrepreneur, you should consider the many benefits of adding a notebook to your catalog offer. They’re (relatively) easy to create, cost little or nothing to offer, give you a new revenue stream, and (most importantly) offer your readers something unique from you that they can use in their day-to-day lives.