How Amazon KDP Changed my Life! (with 100 books)

Amazon KDP has absolutely changed my life! It's given me an online income, it's helped me learn and grow, and the advantages of publishing books on Amazon KDP is incredible.
In this video I'll go through the positives and negatives of publishing books on Amazon and how you too can make money selling books on Amazon KDP.
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🎨 TOOLS I USE 🎨
👉 Creative Fabrica (For Fonts & Images): www.creativefabrica.com/ref/2...
👉 Adobe Suite (For Manuscript & Cover Design): www.adobe.com/?sdid=49F59KY6
👉 Book Bolt (20% off with code 'selfpublishingempire'): bookbolt.io/4598.html
👉 Everbee (Etsy niche tool): www.everbee.io/?via=SelfPubli...
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🕘 TIMESTAMPS 🕘
0:00 Introduction
0:26 Why Amazon KDP
1:59 My Journey as an Author on Amazon KDP
3:26 Switching to Medium Content
4:49 Income on Amazon KDP in 2023
5:38 Income in 2024 So Far
6:19 More Benefits from Amazon KDP
7:48 Outro
#amazonkdp #bookpublishing #passiveincome #KDP

[@selfpublishingempire]

If you want to check out some of my writing, I'd recommend starting with The United World, which is available here on Kindle for $2.99 :) amzn.to/3WxwqG6. Thanks for checking out the video and let me know the types of content you'd like to see moving forward.

[@ryancruz446]

Wow - I just finished watching your first few vids about 20 books and here you are now. I’m just starting, about to publish my first book in a week. Thank you for your honest vids and inspiring us… thanks 🙏🏼 new subscriber here 💪🏼

[@selfpublishingempire]

Thanks Ryan and welcome to the channel! It's awesome you saw the realistic struggle and then the gradual improvements :). Approach it with a long-term vision and enjoy the ride!!

[@stephenpearson-jacklin8401]

Mate, you are inspirational! I wrote a couple of children’s books while at Greenwich and actually plotted out a whole fictional village/county, but haven’t ever had the time or awareness to publish them. Will definitely take it forward now, especially as I’m leaving teaching to pursue other things. Will keep you updated! Good job again, keep it up!

[@selfpublishingempire]

That's so exciting Stephen! Really cool to hear and I bet your books will be amazing. Chat to me if you need any help with self publishing, and some of my other videos on here can help if you do go down that road! And thank you :)

[@PapaU81]

Thanks for being so sincere and real., I'm on my fourth coloring book and now my goal is to reach a 100. Because of your videos.

[@selfpublishingempire]

That makes me super happy. Good luck with it and keep us updated! :)

[@sinariesb5975]

I just started Amazon KDP this month! Thank you for setting realistic expectations and giving out great advice!

[@selfpublishingempire]

You're so welcome!

[@NeilSmit-pr9wy]

Good on you mate! Wishing you MORE sales and profit!

[@selfpublishingempire]

Thank you :)

[@mouadek]

I like your content 🎉

[@royaltywizard]

Hey Craig. Awesome hearing your journey! KDP can truly be life-changing as is also has for me 😌. Best of luck with your goals this year!

[@selfpublishingempire]

Thank you and with yours :). Looking forward to your next video

[@AngieBaby666]

I appreciated your realistic approach to your video. So many others claim thousands of dollars income right away which is just not accurate. I started with Amazon KDP a few months ago with some coloring books and absolutely no knowledge of niche research. I have been slowly climbing up that learning curve and now have a better idea of the research needed. I have put up about a dozen books, low and medium content but have only had a few sales, which turned out to be to my mother. The next thing I think I need to try is advertising. Up to now I have put in a huge amount of time and money on things like Canva and Book Bolt so I have definitely spent more than the $1.32 I earned so far. That being said, I find it enjoyable and a challenge. I am determined to make this work for me. I am in my mid 50's and am looking for an income stream to supplement my disability check. I wish I had learned about self publishing years ago. My point for making this comment is, hearing your story reassures me that I am on the right track and not to give up. It defiantly isn't a get rich quick scheme and I appreciate your honesty about this. I will be subscribing to your channel. Thanks.

[@selfpublishingempire]

Good luck. Keep going, it sounds like you've done a lot of the hard work. It is a lot of learning and developing. Id advise to slowly test ads - watch some of my videos but go very gentle with it as it's hard to get direct profit on ads. I use them more to launch a new book to help them get a few initial sales and rank for keywords organically. But it's worth looking into - just be very careful as you have to be patient with lower bids and they can be a bit frustrating etc :)

[@TheDadCorner]

This is awesome, I wish you the best of luck!

[@jumadamuharram]

Thank you for being clear and honest.

[@SquirreldomIsFreedom]

I too am learning on Amazon KDP, my Author pen name is Sqwirl Grl I wrote a book called “Skamper Learns To Share” (about a squirrel)

[@vincentmayer7517]

always interesting your video mate, I like that little motivation it gives me! There is one thing that you dont talk, you are probably well aware of it, but I reckon people tend to overlook this aspect on KDP : be smart! By this I mean niche end keyword research, competition monitoring, find the new trend, the new keywords that trend, the cover that work... Ive seen horrible book, with low quality (honestly its insane to think people buy this (they must be blind!)) selling with BSR in the 10k, just because these smart (*ss) found the right keyword, cover, niche. Some people focus too much on willing to do a good book, its not just about that. I know you said it in the video, make books that people want to buy is the key, and that really all one has to understand about the KDP game.

[@selfpublishingempire]

100% agreed, there's no point in just pumping out books. Thanks for the comment Vincent!

[@AyeshaKhan-ht6eh]

I've also recently started on Amazon KDP. Please make a video on the tools or softwares you're using for creating low/medium content books. Would appreciate it.

[@christopherpeacock5693]

Great video dude. Really encouraging.

[@selfpublishingempire]

Glad it was helpful!

[@positivemanifesting3492]

Many congratulations on your 100 books success.

[@selfpublishingempire]

Thank you so much!

[@helenaye364]

I'm so happy to hear that you are doing well on Amazon kdp. I've just quit my job in March, and came across Amazon kdp after I quit (because I was looking for something to do and make money online). It's only my second month, and I've only sold a handful of books, spent more money on ads than revenue. It's story like your's that reminds me I can make it one day!

[@selfpublishingempire]

That's completely normal. If you go back through my income report videos you'll see I did that too. Keep at it and pull back on the ads a little bit perhaps and keep going with the book creation 😀 good luck!!

[@42and18allthewaybaby]

Facts are people are making money by selling their techniques NOT by publishing low content books on Amazon. Sorry to say but o wrote my first book on credit repair 10 years ago and recently last 6 months published 6 more books and I’ve spent more on ads than I ever made. Amazon gave my first book away for free by mistake 100 books I made $6.35 and in the past year I’ve made about $63.00. Honestly street beggars make more than that… This author got lucky on his dinosaur coloring book, but most don’t make $.10

[@selfpublishingempire]

@@42and18allthewaybaby The fact is that if you make a book where there's not much interest and a lot of competition, you'll not make any money. It's also a numbers game. More books/more products = more entry points to your work. That's why series are important, as is email marketing etc. You also need the covers to be as good as possible and on-point for the genre. It's very hard to do and to build, but that's why I'm out here trying to help people who want to do it.

[@42and18allthewaybaby]

@selfpublishingempire My books are unique and exquisite the covers are phenomenal. I did my research I’ve done my marketing. This is my own personal experience with the results not everyone is going to get the same results. It’s just my personal opinion $17,000 gross in a year yet have to remove taxes you have to remove expenses and then you may have 10,000 left but that’s 100 books for 10,000 so in some countries that might be Great money, but in the United States, that would barely pay the light bill. in my observation if someone wanted to do it for fun, that’s one thing, but to really make money at it there is a Dunedin type of business uncle Brother, and dog think they can put a book online that’s just not how it works. However, by you giving classes and teaching, you will probably make a lot more than you would be publishing KDP that was my first observation and comment not putting you down for what you’re doing just saying. I really half you feel this is a good experience and I wish you well in your venture. I do listen to your KZbin vids! Have a great day

[@selfpublishingempire]

Good to hear your point of view and yeah fair points!! But to a lot of people earning an extra 1k a month is a lot of money. Also the aim is to get that to say 5k a month for me personally :). I also think maybe 40 of my books are poor quality as I was just learning, so my figures are probably from more like 60 books. So the aim now is to keep building and creating better books and hopefully scale. Will it work? Not sure but I'll document it any way :)

[@mouad_paypal]

Hello Hope you make a practical video about how to find niches i don't know how to find niches 😥 Thank you

[@AvisPope]

Congratulations 🎉 I have self published 2 books and 6 journals on Amazon. I have a ways to go to catch up with you ✍️📚💯

[@selfpublishingempire]

Well done that's great going! keep at it :)

[@informaticaonline5423]

Thanks for sharing your story!

[@selfpublishingempire]

Thanks for watching!

[@justathought7221]

Thank you for this. Gives me hope. It’s harder for me because I have a full time job. Pulse I’m an artist and so I put one day in just for KDP. I use my work for covers but also have been creating medium content. Not many books yet so they get lost. Trying to keep up with A+. Would love another video from you for people like me. 🙏🏼✌🏼☺️

[@danevans1791]

Still think Watchers is my favourite book. Feels raw and exciting.

[@selfpublishingempire]

My one fan! 😍

[@mouadek]

Are still there opportunities for new publishers ? I am beginner Thanks Also first comment 😊

[@selfpublishingempire]

1000000%! You'll likely not sell many books at the beginning as you get going and learn what you're doing, but as you learn and get better, there's every chance you'll be successful :). Practice makes perfect!

[@TAHSOUSA1]

you inspire me, I'm from Brazil

[@asdfgzxcvb4761]

I have 23 days of studying left.. after that i’ll start asap

[@selfpublishingempire]

Good luck! Focus on long term growth rather than short term gain. Good quality, keep the costs down, learn what you can yourself, and keep growing and improving as you make books :)

[@ezeigbobenedict]

Thanks for this encouraging video, i hopped into Amazon KDP 2 years ago, I started seeing reasonable sales last year only to get my account terminated last month. This video just gave me a boost, I know i can do this, I will try again and become financially free like you one day. Thanks once again

[@selfpublishingempire]

What happened with the account :(. Good luck, I'm sure you can do it!

[@ezeigbobenedict]

@@selfpublishingempire It was due to copyright infringement i wasn't aware about for 2 years

[@selfpublishingempire]

@@ezeigbobenedict Sorry to hear that. Good luck with the next books :)

[@nicolemstevens4185]

Thank you for your honesty!! My husband and I have taken up KDP as a dual hobby we can enjoy together and have published one journal each so far! It's pretty cool seeing our work in print😊 I do have a question...can i use creative fabrica illustrations in my books with no worry (copyright or trademark stuff)? Do i need to be sure the images are at least 300dpi for my coloring books and covers? Thank you for your content!

[@selfpublishingempire]

That's great to hear :). Yes, just double check the rigths on each illustration, but I believe all give you rights with a subscription to include in your books. I'd stay away from pre-made interiors, as then you can very easily be uploading the same interiors as other people (which is a no no), but I use illustrations/fonts/elements from Creative Fabrica as part of my books successfully :)

[@thebillybonney]

I've only just begun my journey on Amazon KDP. I currently have two books in the review stage for ebooks ( at the time of writing this ), I'm not sure of the timeframe in which they'll ( hopefully ) get accepted, but it's been about three days now. I want to publish them as hardbacks and paperbacks also, just to increase the potential for additional streams of income. My biggest learning curve is ensuring that the covers and contents are correctly formatted as I've had several pushbacks from Amazon that certain things need changing. Because I'm so new, it's hard to know how to fix these issues, but I'm learning each day. Great channel by the way, and I'm enjoying hearing about your progress. Keep up the great work.

[@selfpublishingempire]

Good luck. You're at the start of the journey and you'll learn as you go. Check out my formatting video for tips on bleed if you are going to publish a paperback/hardback :)

[@thebillybonney]

@@selfpublishingempire Thank you. And yes, as I progress, I'm sure I'll learn more as I go. I was wondering your opinion, would you say it's best to get a few books published first and 'across the line', or go all in from the start and look to publish as many high-quality books straight away? I'm in two minds about whether to wait for my first two books to get accepted and then start to add more. Or, whilst waiting on those books, start adding more now. I was just curious about your thoughts on this.

[@selfpublishingempire]

@@thebillybonney Long term high quality is the way to break through and make sales, at the beginning though, as long as you're not making poor quality books, I'd say quantity is just as important :)

[@thebillybonney]

@@selfpublishingempire Thanks. And I appreciate your advice. Just actually watching more of your videos now to get a better understanding of the whole KDP process. I'm very much enjoying your content. Very happy I found your channel. You gained a loyal subscriber.

[@selfpublishingempire]

@@thebillybonney Ah, thanks Bill! :)

[@denisedeakins4828]

Your progress with KDP is amazing, good for you! I have around 145 books since I started end of 2021. A fair few will not sell now as they're dated or for events gone by. I have struggled to make sales on KDP, mainly due to limitations on spare time for research etc. I also haven't made very many medium content books yet, I hope to improve my sales in the future.

[@selfpublishingempire]

Are they mosltly low content? None of my low content sells, it's so so so conpetitve

[@denisedeakins4828]

@@selfpublishingempire notebooks and logbooks/planners etc. I've recently made a few prompted journals too. I only have coloring books for certain events so no evergreen ones yet.

[@selfpublishingempire]

​@@denisedeakins4828Keep at it :). All it takes is literally one well placed, high quality book to rank well in a certain niche and it can bring money in organically every month. It just takes a lot of testing, learning, some ads potentially to rank the books to begin with, good luck and keep at it :)

[@denisedeakins4828]

@@selfpublishingempire thank you. I do have one log book which sells every month and one of my coloring books did well last year. I run low cost lottery ads and monitor them regularly and a small amount of social media but I don't have enough followers to make a difference so the low cost ads are best for me. I feel I know so much about KDP now but don't have the sales to demonstrate it yet :)

[@selfpublishingempire]

@@denisedeakins4828 Keep going Denise :). The next step will be turning that one logbook that sells into two, and then on from there! I know it almost feels a bit lucky as to what book will sell organically, but persistence pays off!

[@servicemarche]

Hello Hope you make a practical video about how to find niches i don't know how to find niches 😢😢 Thank you

[@selfpublishingempire]

Will do! I've done a couple of videos on this so far, I will share some products I use soon as well.

[@JennsCorner777]

Try bookbolt.

[@ElisiasEvolution]

Congratulations on 100 books new sub Ive just put my book on there it is tricky, mine is due out any time,Marnie & Rob The red envelope

[@selfpublishingempire]

Thank you :) and good luck with your book!

[@ElisiasEvolution]

@@selfpublishingempire Thank you so much 🥰

[@KarolinaFerro]

What is your weekly rhythm with kdp? Do you designate days that on Monday you searching a niche on Tuesday you make a cover, etc.?

[@selfpublishingempire]

Great question! To be honest I will basically have a list of things I want to do in a week - normally record 1-2 videos and edit them, make 1-2 books, marketing, and other things like Etsy, emails, etc... and I just do what I'm in the rhythm with. I like to publish a video on Monday, so try to work around that where I can

[@eratechsglobal]

I've posted some topics on Amazon. Only got my first order January, hope to hear from you on marketing strategies to make more money from KDP

[@JamieEdwards-ge7ey]

Please can you do a video showing exactly how you do Amazon ads?

[@selfpublishingempire]

I've done videos on this already :)

[@nandanrupapara]

Hello, I love your content. I have already published my three coloring books. Some say that there is high competition in the coloring book niche. Should I continue my journey in the same niche because I am not well versed in any other subjects?

[@selfpublishingempire]

If you can make coloring books that are better than others out there then sure. If you're just adding ok books, I'd say try to find other areas where you can stand out :)

[@nandanrupapara]

@@selfpublishingempire Thanks For Your Reply. Can You Check My Coloring Book To Confirm Its OK Or Not. Can I Mail You Link Of My Book? Please Provide Me Your Mail Id If It's Possible. Thanks.

[@nandanrupapara]

​@@selfpublishingempireCan you check my books if it's possible? I can mail you please it could help me if you review my book!! Thanks a lot 😊

[@onyi4180]

I wanna make coloring books or children books with illustrations. Can i draw everything on my own with my pencil? How do i make it more professional? I'm a beginner who's too broke rn

[@selfpublishingempire]

Yes! Authentic drawing is great :). I'd either draw it straight on a tablet with a tool like Procreate if you have a tablet, else draw by hand on white paper and scan it in.

[@onyi4180]

@@selfpublishingempire Thanks a lot, I'd go with the latter

[@KT97379]

Say I start KDP from zero, have zero money for Ads! But if I have a couple of good books after lots of research and very good SEO, is it possible to sell even if I spend $0 on ads. (Taking a couple of weeks/months is fine for me)

[@selfpublishingempire]

It's definitely possible to make a few sales without ads, but it depends on the niche really. I'd try to market your books on social media etc if you're not using ads to try and get some sales when you launch them :)

[@KT97379]

@@selfpublishingempireOk Nice ! Thanks a lot 👍

[@Mishalkhan-xh6th]

how much we can earn minimum??

[@selfpublishingempire]

Minimum is 0 unfortunately. It takes time, effort, skill... but if you make good enough books and market them you'll make money.

[@Mishalkhan-xh6th]

@@selfpublishingempire how much you made??

[@selfpublishingempire]

Watch my income videos 👍👍

[@onyi4180]

My dream is to quit my shitty job and live off my businesses like kdp 😢