The Short Answer, and Why One Account Is a Risk

The honest list of Amazon KDP alternatives for low content books is short as of September 2026. Draft2Digital's guidelines exclude journals, notebooks, diaries and planners. IngramSpark's guidelines exclude titles with material amounts of blank pages, and puzzle books are a support-desk question. Lulu lists lined, graph, dot-grid and blank notebook products on its own bookstore, but its retail-distribution help keeps them out of Amazon and Ingram distribution.

For files rather than bound books, Etsy and your own store are the working routes. Neither replaces KDP's built-in buyer traffic.

The reason to bother is concentration. If every book you own lives in one KDP account, one policy flag, one suspension or one algorithm change can take the whole catalog offline on the same afternoon.

So the useful question is not which platform replaces KDP, because none does. It is which channels give you a second source of revenue at a cost you can defend. Test each one three ways: will it accept your interior type, what is left per sale after its cut and the print cost, and who owns the customer if that platform closes you too?

Every platform below revises its rules, so the statements here are dated September 2026. Check the platform's own help page before you upload anything.

The Platforms Side by Side

A puzzle collection and a blank gratitude journal are treated very differently by the same platform, so match the second column to your actual interior.

IngramSpark and Lulu: The Two Print Alternatives

IngramSpark

IngramSpark's Catalog Integrity Guidelines, dated October 2023 and re-read in September 2026, list "content containing material amounts of blank pages like notepads, scratchpads, journals, or similar type content" among what it does not accept. The same document addresses content produced by automated means, including AI generation and mass-produced processes.

The guidelines list no carve-out for puzzle or activity books. Some sellers say support has approved such titles case by case, but that is anecdote from a single seller-blog source, not policy text. If you plan an Ingram upload, email support first with the exact title, trim size, page count and a page-by-page description of what the pages contain.

On cost, IngramSpark's pricing page says signing up and uploading a print book or ebook costs nothing (read September 2026). It does not spell out revision charges in that passage, so check the fee page before you upload a file you may have to correct.

Ingram's advantage is bookstore and library reach. Its cost is friction: stricter file checks, a more manual setup, and no guarantee a shop stocks a puzzle book. The KDP versus IngramSpark comparison covers file requirements and cost differences.

Lulu

Lulu's help center ("Creator revenue: the basics", read September 2026) says 50% of gross revenue goes to distribution channels, with no distribution fee on books sold in the Lulu Bookstore. Creators receive 80% of gross profit, and the list price must be at least twice the print cost.

Lulu's own pages on notebooks and planners show lined, graph, dot-grid and blank interiors as products on its bookstore. Its retail-distribution help says Amazon and Ingram do not accept journals, diaries, puzzle books, workbooks or books with many blank or lined pages, and it also mentions limits on blank pages. The exact wording and the context each rule applies to can change, so read Lulu's current content policy before you build a title around a mostly blank interior.

The result is a decent direct-sales tool and a weak Amazon substitute. A buyer you send to Lulu's bookstore leaves you a lot; a buyer who finds the book through retail distribution leaves very little, and for puzzle and blank-page books that retail route may be closed entirely. Lulu pays off only if you have an audience of your own to point at it.

Worked Example: A 6x9 Sudoku Book, 100 Pages

The table below prices one hypothetical 6x9, 100-page sudoku book at a $9.99 list price on KDP and Lulu. Every print cost is an illustration, not a quote: $3.40 for KDP and $3.60 for Lulu. Replace both with the figures from KDP's printing-cost page and Lulu's price calculator for your own trim and page count.

The Lulu minimum list price is twice the print cost, so $7.20 here, and $9.99 clears it. If your print cost climbs with more pages or a larger trim, that floor climbs with it.

The bookstore line looks best, but only if you bring the buyers. The real order of deductions in Lulu accounts may differ slightly from this simplified reading of the help page, so run your own numbers in the calculator.

For KDP, the undisputed part is 60% of list price minus printing cost on Amazon marketplaces and 40% through Expanded Distribution. Amazon has changed its low-price bands, so check KDP's royalty help page before you price. Large-trim books, including 8.5x11 puzzle books, use a different printing fee table than regular trim; the free KDP royalty and printing cost calculators model regular trim only.

Draft2Digital and the Aggregators That Say No

Draft2Digital's content guidelines (read September 2026) say it does not accept content with insufficient substance that is centered on being filled out by the end user. They name journals, notebooks, diaries and planners as examples. For a journal or planner publisher, that ends the search.

The guidelines do not address puzzle books by name. If a tutorial tells you to go wide with a workbook through an ebook aggregator, ask support about your exact interior and assume rejection until they say otherwise.

One partial exception is a book with real text value, such as a puzzle book with a substantial written introduction, history or solving guide. Even then, the primary content decides how a reviewer sees it.

Barnes & Noble Press, Blurb, BookBaby and File Sellers

Several other names come up in forum threads, and they are worth a short check rather than a rebuild of your catalog.

• Barnes & Noble Press: its site confirms self-publishing for books and ebooks. Check its help pages for whether print paperbacks are offered and what they say about blank interiors.
• Blurb and BookBaby: both are print-and-distribution services. Check their current terms and their stance on low content as of September 2026 before investing time.
• Gumroad and Payhip: these work like your own store for downloadable files, with no built-in demand. Check each one's current terms and fee page.

Selling the Files: Etsy and Your Own Store

The most independent option is also the least like KDP. Instead of a printed book you sell a downloadable file: printable puzzle pages, a planner spread, a worksheet pack. The customer prints at home or at a copy shop.

Etsy

As of September 2026, Etsy's US fee structure is commonly published as a $0.20 listing fee, a 6.5% transaction fee and payment processing of 3% plus $0.25. Etsy also runs an Offsite Ads program with its own percentage fee. Confirm every figure at etsy.com/legal/fees before you plan margins.

As a simplified illustration, a $10 download with no tax or shipping costs $0.20 + $0.65 + $0.55, or $1.40, leaving $8.60. Processing is charged on the full buyer total in practice, so tax and shipping change the result.

Etsy applies creativity standards to what counts as a shop's own work. Read them before listing AI-assisted, templated or mass-produced files, because a listing that breaks them can be removed.

Etsy has its own marketplace search, so listings can get some organic views, but far less guaranteed demand than an Amazon book listing, and it has no public bestseller rank for sizing a niche. Start with a small test batch. A free tool such as the connect-the-dots generator or the multiplication worksheet generator can produce sample pages to list while you learn what buyers click.

Your own store

A standalone shop has the lowest fees and the highest demand problem. Nobody browses it, so it only works if you already have an email list, a social account or a search-optimized blog that sends people there. For most low content publishers it is a second-year project, not a first-week one. What it buys you is independence: no other company can close it.

Reusing the Artwork on Design Marketplaces

Coloring illustrations, quote sets and themed patterns can also go on stickers and apparel through Redbubble or TeePublic. Redbubble caps uploads at 30 works per day across all your accounts. TeePublic caps them at 25 per rolling 24 hours for Pending and Apprentice accounts and 50 for Artisan, as of the September 2026 help pages.

Trademark checks matter more here than in books. Read Redbubble versus Merch by Amazon for how the alternatives differ, and remember Merch is an Amazon program, so it does not spread account risk. For a non-Amazon marketplace, selling on TeePublic covers setup. This is not legal advice, and trademark rules vary by country.

These marketplaces diversify income without needing a book file, but they do not diversify book sales. Treat them as a separate revenue line.

The ISBN Trap When You Move a Book

The first snag a publisher hits is the ISBN, and the answer differs by channel. KDP's free ISBN is assigned by KDP and lists the imprint as "Independently published"; as of September 2026, KDP's help pages describe it as usable only on KDP, so verify that on KDP's "Get an ISBN" page. IngramSpark expects the publisher's own ISBN. For Lulu, check whether its free ISBN or your own is right for your goal, and remember that a free ISBN from any platform lists that platform as publisher.

Buying your own ISBN costs money per title, and in the US it comes from Bowker. In return you choose the imprint name shown on every channel. A book already live on KDP with the free ISBN cannot simply be relisted elsewhere under that number; expect a new edition with its own ISBN and its own barcode.

Read KDP's "Change or view your ISBN" help page before you touch a live listing, because swapping identifiers on a title that already has sales can affect its reviews and listing. When in doubt, use the new ISBN only on the new edition.

A Five-Step Plan to Diversify One Title

What Diversifying Does Not Fix

A second channel spreads platform risk. It does not fix weak books. If a puzzle book has no reviews and no search demand on Amazon, it will not sell better on Lulu, where nobody is looking for it.

It also does not protect you from catalog quality. IngramSpark's stated guideline on automated and mass-produced content means the same low-effort files that risk a KDP flag can be refused elsewhere. Original puzzle selection, a written introduction and a checked layout are a better safeguard than a longer platform list.

Uploading the same title in several places also raises admin. Keep prices, ISBNs and descriptions consistent, and make sure the imprint tied to your ISBN is right on every channel. Do fewer channels well.

FAQ