Income Report Amazon KDP | 20 Coloring Books = How Much Money?

Summary

The video offers a transparent review of the creator's experience with Amazon KDP, detailing the performance of their first 20 coloring books over seven months. It discusses sales, profits, ad spends, and the challenges of ranking and selling on Amazon, ultimately revealing the need for approximately 200 books to achieve a £1,000 monthly profit.

Takeaways

• 😀 The creator has been making coloring books for Amazon KDP for almost a year and shares transparent insights on their performance.
• 📈 The first 20 coloring books were analyzed for sales performance, with a significant boost during the December Christmas season.
• 🦖 The 'Dinosaurs in Space' coloring book was the top seller, showing the impact of niche research and keyword ranking on sales.
• 💰 The total revenue from the 20 coloring books over seven months was £1,384.29, without accounting for taxes or ad spend.
• 📉 There was a noticeable drop in sales after the initial Christmas boom, but sales steadied and showed slight growth monthly.
• 🚀 The importance of timing is highlighted, as releasing books ahead of high-demand periods like Christmas can boost sales.
• 💡 Niche targeting and keyword ranking are crucial for organic sales, as demonstrated by the success of the 'Dinosaurs in Space' and 'Lucha Libre' coloring books.
• 📉 Not all books performed well, with some failing to rank well for keywords and resulting in low or no sales.
• 💸 The creator spent approximately £723 on ads to promote the coloring books, which is a significant portion of the total revenue.
• 📊 After deducting ad spend and expenses, the net profit from the coloring books was £491.29.
• 📚 The creator suggests that to make £1,000 profit per month, one might need to create around 200 coloring books, considering their current sales data and ad spend.

Q & A

How long has the speaker been making coloring books for Amazon KDP?

The speaker has been making coloring books for Amazon KDP for almost a whole year.

What was the speaker's strategy for the first 20 coloring books?

The speaker used AI to create the coloring books and focused on niche research to improve their ranking and sales on Amazon.

What was the best-selling coloring book among the first 20 created by the speaker?

The 'Dinosaurs in Space' coloring book was the best-selling among the first 20, selling 223 copies over the past seven months.

What was the total revenue generated from the 20 coloring books over the past seven months?

The total revenue generated from the 20 coloring books was £1,384.29, before deducting any expenses or taxes.

How much did the speaker spend on ads for the coloring books?

The speaker spent approximately £723 on ads for the coloring books, including campaigns across multiple countries.

What was the speaker's total profit after deducting ad spend from the royalties?

After deducting ad spend, the speaker's total profit was £661.29.

What additional expenses did the speaker incur for creating the coloring books?

The speaker incurred additional expenses for using mid-journey AI to create the coloring pages, which cost approximately £170 over the seven months.

How much tax did the speaker have to pay on the earnings from the coloring books?

The speaker had to pay approximately £196.52 in taxes on the earnings from the coloring books.

What was the speaker's net profit after deducting all expenses and taxes?

After deducting all expenses and taxes, the speaker's net profit was £294.77.

How many coloring books would the speaker need to create to make a £1,000 profit per month, based on the current data?

Based on the current data, the speaker would need to create approximately 194 coloring books to make a £1,000 profit per month.

What advice does the speaker give for new Amazon KDP publishers regarding ad spend and keyword ranking?

The speaker advises new publishers to release their books a month and a half to two months in advance of a big sales push, go hard on ad spend, and focus on making the books rank for keywords to generate organic sales.

Outlines

00:00

📈 Earnings Breakdown of Coloring Books on Amazon KDP

The speaker discusses their experience creating and selling coloring books on Amazon KDP for nearly a year. They provide a transparent view of the performance of their first 20 books, including sales, ad spend, and overall profit. The video aims to reveal the number of coloring books needed to earn £1,000 per month. The speaker is based in the UK and uses English Pounds for all financial figures. They note the importance of timing, niche research, and keyword ranking for successful sales, with 'Dinosaurs in Space' and 'Lucha Libre Wrestling' being top sellers. The fluctuating sales post-Christmas are also highlighted.

05:02

📊 Analyzing Sales Performance and Ad Spend

This paragraph delves into the specifics of the speaker's ad spend across different countries and the resulting sales figures. They reveal the total revenue generated from the 20 coloring books, which amounts to £1,384.29, before taxes and ad costs. The speaker emphasizes the importance of not only creating the books but also investing in ads to boost visibility and sales. The paragraph also discusses the varying performance of different books, with some generating significant revenue and others struggling to sell, illustrating the unpredictable nature of book sales on Amazon KDP.

10:03

💰 Calculating Profits and Long-Term Earnings Potential

The speaker provides a detailed account of their expenses, including the cost of using AI for creating coloring pages and ad spending. After subtracting these costs from the total revenue, they reveal a profit of £661.29. The paragraph also considers the ongoing potential for earnings from the books, suggesting that while the initial profit may not be substantial, the books could continue to generate income over an extended period. The speaker also discusses the importance of improving keyword ranking and ad strategies to increase future earnings.

15:04

🚀 Scaling Up: From Part-Time Side Hustle to Full-Time Income

In the final paragraph, the speaker contemplates the scalability of their coloring book business, aiming to increase the volume of books and improve their marketing strategies to boost earnings. They acknowledge the time and effort invested in creating the books part-time around a full-time job and the tax implications of their earnings. The speaker provides a realistic assessment of the potential to make a significant income from selling coloring books on Amazon KDP, suggesting that creating around 200 books might be necessary to achieve a monthly profit of £1,000. They conclude by inviting viewers to follow their journey as they aim to increase their book sales and revenue.

Keywords

💡Amazon KDP

Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) is a platform that allows authors and creators to self-publish their eBooks and paperbacks on Amazon. In the video, the creator discusses their experience with Amazon KDP, specifically focusing on the sales and revenue generated from their coloring books published through this platform.

💡Coloring Books

Coloring books are a type of publication that typically contains illustrations or designs to be colored in, often used for relaxation or as a creative activity. The video script revolves around the creator's journey of making and selling coloring books on Amazon KDP, analyzing their performance and profitability.

💡AI

AI, or artificial intelligence, is used in the video to refer to the technology that the creator employs to generate the coloring pages for their books. The script mentions that the quality of the coloring books has improved drastically with the use of AI, particularly over the last six months.

💡Sales

Sales in the context of the video refer to the number of coloring books sold on Amazon KDP. The creator provides a detailed analysis of sales figures for their first 20 coloring books, which is crucial in understanding the revenue generated and the success of their publishing venture.

💡Revenue

Revenue is the total income generated from the sales of the coloring books. The video discusses the revenue earned from the sales, which is a key metric in evaluating the financial success of the creator's Amazon KDP publishing efforts.

💡Ad Spend

Ad spend refers to the amount of money spent on advertising to promote the coloring books. The creator details the ad spend for their books across different marketplaces, which is an important factor in calculating the net profit after accounting for expenses.

💡Profit

Profit is the financial gain after deducting the costs, expenses, and taxes from the revenue. The video script provides a calculation of the total profit made from the coloring books, which is a critical measure of the overall success of the creator's Amazon KDP publishing strategy.

💡Niche Research

Niche research is the process of studying a specific market segment to identify potential opportunities for products or services. In the video, the creator mentions conducting niche research for their coloring books, which helps in targeting specific audiences and improving the chances of sales.

💡Keywords

Keywords are specific words or phrases that users type into search engines to find relevant content. The video discusses the importance of ranking well for certain keywords on Amazon KDP to increase the visibility and sales of the coloring books.

💡Organic Sales

Organic sales refer to sales generated through unpaid, natural search results on a platform like Amazon. The creator highlights the significance of organic sales in the long-term profitability of their coloring books, as opposed to sales driven by paid ads.

💡Tax

Tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed upon a taxpayer by a governmental organization. In the video, the creator calculates the tax they need to pay on their earnings from the coloring book sales, which is a necessary deduction from their total profit.

Highlights

The creator has been making coloring books for Amazon KDP for almost a year.

The first 20 books were analyzed for performance, with complete transparency on titles and earnings.

A significant boost in sales occurred in December due to the Christmas season.

Dinosaurs in Space and Lucha Libre wrestling coloring books were the top sellers.

The importance of ranking for keywords and organic sales was emphasized for long-term profit.

The creator used AI to improve the quality of coloring books, especially in the last six months.

Sales data showed a steady growth after the initial drop post-Christmas.

The creator spent 723 pounds on ads to boost sales and ranking of the coloring books.

The lifetime value of the books is still being assessed, as they continue to generate sales.

The creator made a total of 1,384 pounds and 29 Pence in royalties over seven months.

After ad spend and expenses, the net profit was 491 pounds and 29 Pence.

The creator plans to grow their following and create more books for increased volume and revenue.

Tax implications were discussed, with 40% tax rate applied to the earnings.

The take-home profit after tax and expenses was calculated to be 294 pounds and 77 Pence.

To achieve a monthly profit of a thousand pounds, approximately 194 books would need to be created.

The creator aims to improve niche research and ad strategies for better performance in the next 20 books.

An honest account of the creator's experience with Amazon KDP was provided, setting realistic expectations.

Transcripts

how many coloring books does it take to

make 1 000 pounds on Amazon per month

stay tuned to find out

I've been making coloring books for

Amazon KDP now for almost a whole year

so let's take a little look at the first

20 books I've created and see how

they've performed

in this video I'm going to be completely

transparent with all my titles how much

every single book has made how much

money I've spent on ads in order to

gather the sales right at the end of the

video we'll look at the total profit and

then I'll also tell you how many

coloring books you need to make in order

to make a thousand pounds a month

so just to caveat this video

everything's going to be done in English

Pounds seeing as I'm based in the UK but

hopefully for everyone else it's pretty

easy to understand how much that is for

you in your country

so ever since mid-journey came out last

year I've been using AI to create

coloring books

quality of those coloring books has

improved drastically especially over the

last sort of six months so we're gonna

have a quick look at 20 of my coloring

books from the first one I ever made up

until the last one I produced maybe a

couple of months ago so let's look at

these 20 books on the Amazon KDP

royalties dashboard and see how many

sales we've made over the past

approximately seven months

so as you can see here we started

publishing coloring books towards the

end of November in 2022.

fortunately for me this was just in time

for that December Christmas boom on

Amazon and therefore we got a nice boost

in December

but then as you can see after that there

was a big drop off but then they have

steadied and and shown a little bit of

growth every month

so I started with a dinosaurs in space

coloring book and a Lucha Libra

wrestling coloring book

those were the two that really took off

in December and got most of the sales

but then as you can see here on the

December bar we did start publishing a

few more in time for Christmas

I also don't think it's a coincidence

that these two tended to be our best

sellers most of the months so it kind of

shows that once something starts selling

once something starts ranking for a

keyword that you're going to get organic

sales along the way for a good period of

time

so for the past seven months the

dinosaurs in space has been my number

one coloring book every single month

and if we scroll down we can see our top

selling coloring books over the past

seven months

okay so number one dinosaurs in space

this was my first ever coloring book uh

I did put a lot of time and effort into

it and did some Niche research around

dinosaur clearing books for adults so it

ranks quite well for a few keywords and

the interior is really really nice

especially for mid-journey at that time

this was created back in November as I

mentioned

um so if I was to recreate this book now

it would be a lot stronger but it's

still a really fun coloring book and the

reviews have generally been really

positive about this book

so this one has sold 223 copies over the

past seven months

coming down to the wrestling coloring

book Lucha Libre one we sold 93 of those

and as you can see here the majority of

our sales are in the US but then we do

have a good amount in the UK and some in

Canada and just occasional purchases in

other countries

coming down further we've got a lazy

Labrador coloring book I wanted to

Target the dog lovers Niche

um I did find it quite hard to get this

one to rank and most of these uh orders

were actually from ads in the end and

I've not really got this one to rank

very well for keywords so I'm not sure

how many that's going to sell moving

forward

then we have another dinosaur coloring

book I created this one because of the

popularity of of the first one the

dinosaurs in space coloring book but as

you can see here it's only got 10 of the

sales of the first one so it also shows

that Amazon publishing can involve a bit

of luck uh it can be about the time that

you publish what keywords you end up

ranking for how the ads perform and all

of that can help generate your organic

sales which is where you're going to

make the most money in the most profit

in the long term so this one didn't

perform as well as the dinosaurs in

space one

and then coming down we've got a few

more we have an insects coloring book

which ranks pretty well but there's just

not that much demand for the keywords

that I ended up ranking for

I tried a few different fun ones here so

we've got the book of beards again I was

thinking like really Niche down uh beard

coloring book found it quite easy to

rank for that keyword but again I think

outside of Christmas how many people are

really going to be searching for that

and probably not that many and the sales

kind of show that

um I then went a bit broader with a fish

coloring book I think this is probably

one of my best covers you can see here

it stands out really nicely on thumbnail

view uh it's using a later version of

mid Journey so the pages are really nice

but again the sales are pretty low

so I'm still working on that one with

getting the keywords to rank for fish

coloring book fish color in the book for

adults Etc but I'm hoping that come

Christmas some of these books will start

taking off and getting a few more sales

and then moving down to some of the ones

that didn't really perform very well

you've got an alien coloring book

a cat's in space coloring book again

trying to play on the popularity of the

dinosaur dinosaurs in space I thought

maybe a cat's in space and again I'll

try that again here with the dogs in

space but you know even though that this

is one of my favorite coloring books

that I've ever created the dogs in space

one

it's got six sales and I think every

single one of those was fire ads so

it kind of shows that it doesn't really

matter how good your coloring book is

it's all about ranking for those

keywords or getting it out there and

getting sales

uh we've got a few more here Sweet

Treats a hipster coloring book

this was my uh kids Halloween coloring

book that I was trying which I found it

really hard to to get sales for I found

that the kids Halloween uh keywords very

very expensive

um and so I ended up turning off Those

ads and just uh accepting that that one

might not sell

we've then got a swear word coloring

book which uh the ads don't work for con

I can't run ads for that book due to

swearing so they were just four organic

sales I think they were like me and my

friends

um and then you've got a few here which

we've got a couple of sales

so you can actually see here the bottom

before

uh this one actually bought a copy

myself so the bottom four have got zero

sales on Amazon apart from this one

which is the one that I bought for

myself so out of the 20

4 have got zero sales

so that's about 20 of the books that

I've created have literally not sold at

all it'd be really interesting to hear

if that's uh similar with you so for me

it seems like one or two tend to perform

really well you've then got a decent

amount kind of in them in the middle and

then the bottom twenty percent just

aren't selling okay so overall we

managed 534 sales for the 20 books

pretty much over the past seven months

but I suppose what you want to know is

how much money that is and so those

orders equate to 1

384 pounds and 29 Pence

so what you need to remember about this

figure is that it doesn't include any

tax and it doesn't include any AD spend

or expenses so this is the amount of

Revenue that I've brought in for myself

that will have to take tax off of

that'll have to take expenses out of

which we'll go into a little bit later

but for now let's have a little look at

how much money each book has made as you

can see here the dinosaurs in space

coloring book has made 603 pounds over

the past sort of seven months so that

kind of shows the power of Amazon KDP uh

once you start ranking well for a

keyword and get those sales coming in

coloring books can make a decent amount

of money

but then as we scroll down you can kind

of see a lot of these books are making

sort of between

10 and 80 pounds so that's not really

much money especially if you need to pay

for cover creation and taking into

account how much time that you're going

to spend on these books

then then scrolling right down to the

bottom seven of these 20 books haven't

even made 10 pounds and that is the

experience that I've found so far with

Amazon KDP

you either rank well and sell well or

it's very very hard to sell your books

so if I'm looking at this and thinking

are my best coloring books selling the

best my answer would actually probably

be no

I think the reason why this dinosaurs in

space book is selling so well and has

sold so well is I released it just

before Christmas so there is an active

audience there looking for coloring

books

um I investigated the niche and I was

trying to rank for some key keywords

that I knew people were searching for

and then I've then had organic sales

coming to that book from those keyword

Search terms

the wrestling coloring book actually got

a few sales organically through Reddit

and Facebook

and then the rest of the sales have

pretty much been through ads and some

organic Search terms

so if I was taking some learnings from

this it would probably be release your

book a month and a half to two months in

advance of when you're trying to like

get that big sales push so if you're

releasing a Christmas coloring book you

might want to release at the end of

October early November go hard on your

ad spend and then hopefully you'll get

those organic sales when people are

searching for it as well

and so this is the amount of money I've

made off these 20 books but there's

nothing to say that these won't continue

selling and making me money over the

next one to 10 years even so that'll be

something interesting to come back to

and actually figure out what the

lifetime value is of these books because

they are still generating a few sales

per month but I think this is a really

good indication for now especially

within the first first sort of seven

months of how much money you can expect

to make on your coloring books

the one thing I do want to say is that

if you just create 20 coloring books

upload them to Amazon don't put the

niche research in and don't spend any

money on ads you probably won't make

that you probably won't even make that

much money

so as you'll see soon we'll go into how

much money I've spent on ads which has

helped to rank some of these coloring

books for their keywords and help to

almost get the ball rolling with Amazon

with pushing those books out and getting

sales

okay so going on to ad spend there are

20 books here I've got tons of campaigns

running for them across multiple

countries so I had to go and tally up

how much money I've spent on ads in the

past sort of seven eight months on these

books and the results are I've spent 230

pounds in the UK Marketplace

582 dollars in the U.S Marketplace

thirteen dollars and twenty cents in

Australia

and seventy dollars in Canada

so once I've changed all of those values

to pounds and rounded it up a little bit

I have spent approximately

723 pounds on ads on these books now if

you're not great with maths don't worry

I'm going to put the numbers on the

screen right now and that we and we can

see from the royalties of 1 384 pounds

and 29 Pence

taking off the ad spend of 723 pounds

that we have made

661 pounds and 29 Pence on these 20

bucks

however in order to make these coloring

books we had to make the coloring pages

which kind of makes sense as mentioned

I've been utilizing mid-journey AI to

create these coloring pages and that

costs approximately 30 pounds a month I

did have a break for one month which

I've taken off and I did a couple of

months on a lower tier so over those

seven months my mid-journey expenses has

been 170 pounds approximately give or

take and in terms of other expenses I

could take up other things like a

creative Fabrica subscription but those

are things I already had in place and

that aren't bespoke to these coloring

books and I would have had anyway so for

this video the only expense I'm going to

remove is the mid-journey cost now

if we're taking that 661 pound profit

minusing the expense of mid-journey

we come out with

491 pounds and 29 Pence

so almost 500 pounds that is how much

money I have made off of my first 20

coloring books across the last seven

months now has it been worth all of my

time and effort to make these coloring

books in order to make 500 quid

definitely no is the short answer but

what I'm hoping to do is to grow my

following to create more volume of books

and as it keeps growing and growing and

growing I'm hoping to make more and more

money

also over the long term I'm hoping that

these books continue to earn a small

amount of money which will keep

improving the amount of profit that I

make

I'd also like to think that I'm getting

better at needs to research I'm getting

much better on my Amazon ads and turning

off ads that aren't working properly

trying to make the books rank for

keywords Etc so I'm hoping that this is

a really good starting point to build on

with my first 20 books and then for my

next 20 books I hope to make even more

money

so one thing I've not mentioned yet

about these books is I was creating them

part-time around a full-time job so I

also need to pay tax on these earnings

and I'm not sure if you know how the UK

tax system works but with the amount of

money I made through other income these

books would be taxed at 40 percent so

the amount of tax I'd have to pay on

this would be approximately 196 pounds

and 52 Pence

that actually means the total amount of

money I have in my pocket after paying a

tax man after paying all of my expenses

from all the time and effort spent

making 20 coloring books is

294 pounds and 77 Pence

whilst that is not a lot of money over

seven months it is additional revenue

and the idea is this is going to create

income over a large amount of time and

that I can keep replicating this success

building on it and making more profit

over the next 20 40 60 80 coloring books

breaking this down because tax differs

in different countries and you might not

need to pay tax if you're below a

certain threshold

the amount of money that I've made per

book is 24 pounds and 56 Pence

and then taking off the tax for me that

means that each book has made me a take

home of 14 pounds and 63 Pence

that means for every coloring book I

create I can expect to make about 15

quid

now you know that are you still gonna

pump out all of those coloring books

I hope so

this is of course just my experience

with these coloring books some people

might have made no money other people

might have made 50 000 off of 20 books

you just don't know this is just an

honest account of my experience

publishing on Amazon KDP

the aim of this channel my aim and

hopefully your aim as well is to

generate some decent income through

selling books

if we take a thousand pounds profit as a

good first Target using this data we can

see that you would need to create

approximately

194 coloring books to make a thousand

pounds profit and if you're doing this

around a full-time job and you are

within that 40 tax bracket for example

you might even need to make over 300

coloring books to hit a thousand pounds

take home every month

for now we're going to focus on the

profit area so just under 200 books

that's 10 times what I've done in the

past six months

now I'm getting quicker at my coloring

books my coloring books are getting

better AI is getting better and that

gives me a good Target to aim for and

the hope would be within those 200 books

that I create some of them are going to

rank better for keywords some of them

might go viral on social media and get

shared around and then hopefully you're

also going to continue to generate money

over the long term as well

so I always love to look at data like

this what it does is it just puts it on

the page there it shows how much money

I've made per book and it shows me how

many books I would need to make in order

to generate a thousand pounds profit a

month

unfortunately this video isn't one of

those where I claim to have made twenty

thousand dollars from a single coloring

book you know those are few and far

between and I feel like this is a

slightly more realistic look at what

publishing on Amazon KDP could look like

especially for newcomers who haven't got

the head completely around ads yet as I

had in a few months ago

what I think would be really useful is

in say six months time have a look at my

next 20 coloring books knowing adds a

little bit better creating better

products and seeing how they're

performing compared to these 20. that'll

give us even more data and then we're

well on our way to creating those 200

coloring books that I need to make a

thousand pounds per month I hope that

you found this honest and transparent

review of my first 20 coloring books

useful don't forget to hit that like And

subscribe button and I'll see you in the

next one