Kindle Direct Publishing, or KDP, is a platform that allows you to upload your own books to sell to Amazon customers. You simply create an interior, design a cover, input some basic information and the book is available for anyone to buy (subject to approval from Amazon). You don’t need to write the next Harry Potter to sell books on Amazon, people are making a lot of money selling low content books with KDP, these are things like notebooks, journals, diaries, colouring books and workbooks – anything you can think of.
KDP appeals to me because it aligns with my skills and interests. I’ve always liked fiddling around with designs in Photoshop and there’s minimal financial outlay in the beginning. Unlike a job, where people’s opinion can greatly influence your earnings, Amazon offers you direct market access where the results will be 100% in your control. If you create a good product and market it well, you will make money.
Because there is such a low barrier to entry, Amazon is full of crap books that will never sell. Some people upload a standard lined notebook, ‘create’ a terrible cover using a scanner from the mid 90s, use a product description that Google translate would be embarrassed by and expect to earn passive income. Good luck with that. This is where I feel I have some sort of edge over a lot of people trying to earn money with KDP.
I don’t claim to be any sort of expert, I’m just documenting my opinions, my journey and my results.
How I create my books
I do think I have a slight edge over a lot of other people uploading books. As I’m born in the UK, English is my mother tongue so I can research and create products that make sense in the UK, US and Australian marketplaces. I’ve been using Photoshop for nearly 20 years. This means I don’t need to rely on services like Canva to create unique, appealing covers. I’m also fairly proficient across Microsoft Office so I can create unique book interiors using PowerPoint. I already pay for this software (around £300/year) so there’s no additional cost.
I currently subscribe to 2 paid for graphic services; Freepik and Creative Fabrica. These websites are great when I need a particular graphic for a new book. I usually heavily modify the original graphic to ensure my books are unique and harder to copy.
My results
I published my first book in March 2021, a simple to-do list notebook. It was more about going through the process rather than creating a well-researched product. I then created a load more generic notepads thinking it was a numbers game. If I created 10,000 notepads, surely some would sell? This is not the case, there are literally millions of these on Amazon, the chances of your generic notepad making loads of money are minimal. Not surprisingly, none of these have sold to date.
My wife wanted a particular layout for a diary and couldn’t find an existing product. We were able to create the exact layout she wanted and I published the diary on Amazon. To my surprise, I started to sell a few copies. Not loads, but it at least worked as a proof of concept.
Once I was confident in the process, I created a few more diaries and notebooks in areas I considered to be niche. Just random things like dog breeds or hobbies, nothing based on any research. As you would expect, results stayed fairly modest for the next several months.
In September, I decided to get a bit more serious. I started watching YouTube videos learning how to research and advertise. I installed the Self Publishing Titans Chrome plugins and learned what all the figures mean. I created a few more books based on research and more optimised product descriptions / keywords. I also created a colouring book from scratch using Inkscape, this would prove to be a game changer for me.
As you can see, sales started to increase in October. Once I realised this book could be quite popular, I learned how to run advertising campaigns. My sales exploded in November and December. The one caveat here is Christmas, I would expect sales to drop off but I don’t know to what extent, I’m still new at this.
Show me the money
Having made a few quid across the year, the last couple of months have shown that it is possible to make serious money with KDP.
This shows that KDP is not simply a numbers game, 2/3 of my revenue has come from one book. The majority of that has come in just 2 months, I’m hopeful that this book will generate over £1,000 across a 12 month period. 99 more of those and I’ll have a six figure passive yearly income!
Costs
Most of the software I use to create books is either free or already owned. I pay £30 per months for my graphic resources. There is one bigger cost to consider, advertising.
This is not an insignificant amount of money, around 1/3 of income has been spent on advertising. However, the overall result is net positive so it should be scaleable. I’ve only been running ads over the last few months so I haven’t messed around with it too much. Overall, I was profitable and I didn’t want to mess that up. The sales I make directly from advertising just about break even, maybe even a very small loss. However, it has ramped up organic sales so there’s a definite increase in organic visibility if your ads make sales.
I’m really excited to see what I can do in 2022 in order to grow this side business. I will post updates throughout the year so check back if you’re interested. If you have any comments or questions, reach out to me on twitter @themindofsi.