Amazon KDP Income Report October 2023

This month’s KDP income is not what I expected it to be. I’ve said in my previous post how much I have looked forward to the Q4 period where the most sales happen. But sadly, it didn’t happen. It is lower than the income reported in September 2023. In fact, it’s the lowest of all time this year as you’ll see below.

In my previous post, I’ve predicted the October to December months to be the most profitable time of the year. But this is not the case this year.

It seems like online businesses selling products and services are affected as well. (Phew! Not only my KDP business is down!) I do watch other businesses that have online presence on Youtube and they have reported sales are quieter this year. Not sure about retail shops or brick-and-mortar businesses though.

It might be that people are tightening their wallets due to economic situations, such as retrenchments, inflation, etc. They aren’t spending as much as previous years.

Plus the increase in printing costs I mentioned in this post is a double whammy as it shrinks my overall profit margin.

October 2023 Income Report – With No Ads

Now on to the numbers for October 2023!

This month’s KDP income is not as good as what I expected it to be. It’s down 7% from September’s income, and it fell below my minimum expectation of $300 monthly. It’s the lowest it has been this year.

Highest day: $22.18

Lowest day: $1.27

88.4% comes from the US marketplace, which makes up the bulk of my earnings. 6.4% comes from the UK marketplace, 3.2% from Canada, 1.1% from Australia, and 0.9% from Germany.

My Top-Selling Books

Not all my books sell. In fact, only a handful of books contribute to my KDP earnings. I can see the 80/20 rule (Pareto Principle) in my KDP business here – 80% of outputs result from 20% of inputs.

The % of books that brought in my KDP income every month is even much lower than 20%! Out of the 1,100-ish books I had published as of October 2023 (I have not published any new books this year), only 3% of my books sell this month.

My top 3 books have remained the same as last month’s. Let’s see what they are.

The #1 best-selling has remained in its place ever since I published it in April 2020. It’s a book in the children’s niche. It brought in 40.5% – almost half of my KDP income this month! Keep it up!

#2 goes to a book in a specific children’s niche. It brought in 11.6% of my income this month. It has been one of my top sellers ever since I published it in January 2021. I’ve bought a domain for this niche and I’ll be building a brand around it.

My #3 goes to a specific type of tracker in the women’s niche. It brought in 8.6% of the total income this month. This was published in October 2020 and it continues to sell for me every month.

Any surprises this month?

It’s interesting to see what books sell every month. There are a few books that have never sold before, sell this month. They are mainly notebooks, and this happens occasionally.

What I Made in October 2022 – With No Ads (In Comparison)

Compared to last year’s October, this month’s KDP income is down by 32.8%. It’s below the $300 baseline I’ve set. However, happy with whatever I can get from this passive income source to pay for my gas and bills. I did not publish any books this year and it is still generating me some pocket money from the initial efforts I put in.