I’d like to show you a zine…

It’s a small, hand-stapled publication.

Inside are illustrations of mushrooms, including chanterelles, fly agarics, morels, and more…

As you can see, it sells on Etsy for £9.70.

Now compare that to a generic slogan t-shirt on Redbubble.

Yes, the t-shirt might cost more – around £16-£30.

But here’s the difference…

The mushroom zine isn’t competing with large numbers of competitors.

There’s no race to the bottom on price.

There’s no sea of near-identical rivals undercutting it by £3.

The people who want it will seek it out specifically, buy it happily, and probably come back for the next one.

That’s the opportunity I want to talk about today.

An Answer to Generic POD

As you know I’m a fan of Print on Demand. It’s a way of selling physical products without needing to invest in stock, handle items at home, or send them in the post.

But as I mentioned the other week, (see Print On Demand 2.0: How to Capitalise on The Personalisation Boom) there’s a growing problem…

The same AI tools that make it easy to generate designs for t-shirts, mugs and tote bags have made it easy for everyone else, too.

Which means the platforms are now flooded with generic products.… Funny slogans… Inspirational quotes…. Zodiac prints… Cat puns.

I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of them!

To stand out in that market, you need volume, paid advertising spend, or some genuine creative flair to make something utterly unique.

None of which is ideal for someone just starting out.

But if you go narrower, weirder, more specific, then a different market opens up.

Ultra-Niche Info Publishing

Last year, one of the biggest independent zine publishers in the world – Microcosm Publishing – declared that they’ve never seen a surge in zine sales like the one that began in late 2024.

People were snapping up zines about bees, backyard building projects, mushroom foraging, sea glass hunting, amateur astronomy.

Zines are typically only 8–32 pages…. short, scruffy and handmade…

But that’s part of the appeal.

Because a zine feels like it was made by a genuine person for similar minded folk who care about the same things.

And this is why they’re booming.

In the tsunami of generic AI content right now, people are increasingly desperate for something that feels human and specific to their interests.

So we’re seeing a proliferation of zine fairs, such as ‘Black Zine Fair’ in New York or ‘Mag To Mag’ in Milan, which features over 80 independent zine publishers from around the world.

There is also a similar demand for other forms of niche publication, including field guides and micro-books.

• A field guide is more authoritative and structured than a zine, with more practical info, like species identification, route notes, seasonal guidance, illustrated reference material. They feel like proper books, even if they’re only 40–60 pages, and can go for as much as £20-£30 or more each.
• A micro-book is a title on Amazon KDP – typically 50–120 pages – covering a specific topic with genuine depth, for example, The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Canal Boat Restoration. These sell at £8–12 as paperbacks, with the option to have an eBook version for sale at a lower price.

So today I want to show you how to make physical publications on ultra-specific subjects, aimed at communities of enthusiasts who will pay for something that speaks directly to their personal passion.

Why Obsessive Niche Communities Are the Ideal Audience

Enthusiast communities are all over the internet…

Wild swimmers, narrowboat owners, urban historians, allotment growers, fell walkers, vintage camera collectors.

They’re actively buying books, joining clubs, attending fairs and events, and searching constantly for new material about the thing they love.

They do so because they are chronically underserved by mainstream publishing, which tends to focus on the broadest possible markets.

These enthusiasts also congregate on forums, Facebook Groups, Reddit threads, Discord servers, Instagram hashtags and YouTube channels.

Which gives you a lot of reach…

Because if you can crack into those communities and get a niche publication mentioned or shared, you could see an instant flood of sales.

And you don’t need to sell to thousands, you just need to find the right hundred or so people.

Then you can sell to them over and over again.

Take, for example, Wild Things Publishing, a small press run out of Somerset by a couple of outdoor enthusiasts.

They started with one niche guidebook to wild swimming spots in Britain.

It sold so well they kept going…

Wild swimming in France, Spain, Portugal, Scotland… then regional UK guides…. then foraging, walking and cycling companions.

What began as a hyper-specific book for a niche outdoor community is now a whole catalogue.

The founders say: “Ultimately… We want to live our dream… Spend summers out in the field exploring & taking photographs and wet winters, in our office, dog in our laps, writing-up and producing beautiful books.”

Not a bad goal in life!

How to Find Your Ultra Niche

The best niche has a passionate community that exists online who spend money on products.

Take, for example, wild food foraging in the UK. There are Facebook groups with 50,000+ members, active Reddit communities, a thriving YouTube scene, and dedicated events and courses throughout the year.

People in this community already buy books and the foraging book market is well-established.

So to make this business work you’d look at gaps in the market like regional editions, seasonal guides (‘What to Forage in Autumn’), beginner-specific zines (‘Your First 10 Wild Edibles’) and habitat-specific guides (‘Foraging the Coastline’, ‘Foraging in Urban Parks’).

To find your own niche, I recommend you start with what you already know or love.

Is there a hobby, local interest or area of knowledge you’re already part of?

Some other niches worth exploring:

• wild swimming spots
• canal and waterway history
• urban nature and rewilding
• vintage market stall culture
• allotment growing
• fell walking routes
• amateur astronomy
• local industrial heritage
• home brewing/fermentation
• balcony gardening

Also think about specific art, music and film genres, comic books, fashion tribes and architecture.

For instance, here’s one seller who makes zines with Tokyo Street photography and charges $26-$35 for each one.

If you’re starting from scratch, then here’s what to do…

• Browse Etsy search results for ‘zine’, ‘field guide’ or ‘pocket guide’ – look at what’s selling and, more importantly, what’s missing
• Look at Facebook Groups and search Reddit for communities (subreddits)
• Search Amazon KDP for niche topics and look at what’s thin on the ground

You can also ask an AI tool like ChatGPT to give you a list of options.

“I want to create a high value zine aimed at a super-niche with a strong community who buy products and are actively engaged in the topic online. I need there to be strong demand without too much competition. Give me [X] ideas.”

Once you find a niche, here’s how to put together a product.

Research & Writing

You can use AI to research your niche, structure the guide, and write all the copy.

Perplexity.ai is good for finding stats, quotes and research, or you can use the pro versions of Chat GPT or Claude.

A prompt like ‘Write a 32-page beginner’s field guide to hedgerow foraging in the English countryside, with an informal but knowledgeable tone, covering 12 plants in detail’ will give you a working draft in minutes.

But it’s important to add your own voice, style and personality.

Creating Illustrations

Midjourney, DALL-E (via ChatGPT) and Canva’s AI image tools can generate botanical-style illustrations, maps, diagrams and decorative elements that look genuinely beautiful.

Try prompts like ‘botanical line drawing of elderflower, vintage field guide style, black ink on cream’…

Or ‘watercolour illustration of a hedgerow in autumn, English countryside, detailed’.

If you want to avoid AI, you could try Public Domain images that are out of copyright. A good place to start is Public Work packed with 100,000 ‘copyright-free’ images.

You could also try:

Old Book Illustrations www.oldbookillustrations.com

Comic Book Plus www.comicbookplus.com

In terms of putting these into a book or zine, you can use Canva (or Photoshop) to get an image how you want it….

But if you’re struggling, try Nano Banana, which takes an AI-created image and makes targeted changes for you in under ten seconds.

Layout

The design tool Canva has specific templates for zines, booklets, A5 guides and saddle-stitched publications.

Drop in your AI text and images, adjust fonts and colours, and export a print-ready PDF. Canva handles all the sizing for you.

Printing and fulfilment

For zines and guides, Printify and Printful handle saddle-stitched booklets and small-format printed publications.

For micro-books sold on Amazon, KDP handles the printing and fulfilment entirely – you upload a PDF and a cover, set your price, and Amazon does the rest.

Pricing

With a niche publication the buyer isn’t comparing prices with ten identical products. They’re buying something that feels made for them, which they cannot get anywhere else.

This allows you to price accordingly…

• A 24–32 page A5 zine: £9–14
• A 40–60 page field guide or pocket guide: £12–22
• A micro-book paperback (80–120 pages): £7–12

The print cost on a 32-page A5 saddle-stitched booklet via Printify is typically £3–4.

At a retail price of £11, after Etsy’s fees, you’re making £5–6 per sale.

That means 100 sales across a year – achievable in an active niche community – could make £500–600 in profit without you touching a single order.

But the best way to make money is to create a larger catalogue, adding another zine every month…

Ten titles and you could be looking at £5,000-£6,000 in passive income over a year, from something rewarding and fun.

Is The Ultra-Niche Model for You?

Obviously, this isn’t a big money, push-button, get-rich opportunity.

But if you want a way to generate a small, passive income doing something that makes you proud, this could be for you.

You could make beautiful objects that serve a community you understand and care about.

If this idea appeals to you, and you have a niche in mind – however obscure – hit reply and tell me what it is.

I’d love to hear what you’re thinking!