Amazon KDP Income Report August 2023

My KDP income has continued its slide for Aug 2023. As if the revenue for July 2023 is not low enough, this month’s even lower (as expected)! I have to admit it’s rather disappointing even though I’d expected it to be so.

On a happy note, Q4 – my most favoritest (is there such a word?? :D) time of the year – is just around the corner! If you’re new to this and don’t know what Q4 is, it’s the period between October to December. It’s where the most sales happen – the most profitable time of the year!

All businesses (online/offline, retail shops, brick-and-mortar businesses) benefit from Q4. It’s the holiday season – the time of the year where people spend (and a lot!). People get together, buy gifts for family and friends.

In my last Q4 in 2022, I made more during the last 3 months compared to the rest of the year. I will detail this in a future blog post.

Can you sense my excitement yet? I am so looking forward to see what this Q4 brings!

Amazon KDP AI-Generated Content Disclosure (New)

Before I go into my income report for Aug 2023, I’d want to talk about this important update that had caused much unrests in the KDP community.

If you had published your books on the KDP platform recently, you’ll noticed you’re now required to disclose whether you’re using AI tools to create your books. You can find this disclosure under the ‘Paperback Content’ tab.

If you scroll down after the ‘Book Cover’ section, you’ll come to this ‘AI-Generated Content’ section:

You’re further required to disclose how much of the content are generated using AI tools for each section – texts, images and translations:

Amazon does differentiate between AI-generated and AI-assisted content.

The content is classified as AI-assisted if you generated the idea from scratch yourself and used AI tools to merely edit or improve it. Or if you used AI tools to help you generate ideas, but created the content yourself thereafter. You do not need to disclose in these cases.

If you had used the AI tool to create the content from scratch, it’s considered as AI-generated. This is even if you made major edits to the content afterwards. You do need to disclose this, and which program you used.

Simply, it’s whether you created the content from scratch yourself or not. Regardless, you are required to adhere to all of Amazon’s publishing guidelines.

Is it Safe to Use AI for KDP?

With the rise of AI usage, it’s inevitable for Amazon to implement this new disclosure. They are not anti-AI here. However, if you do use it, disclose it. And if you do use AI, there will likely be additional checks for any copyright and plagiarism issues.

Some people are saying that this disclosure gives Amazon the reason to start terminating KDP accounts. This is certainly not true, and there are no signs of that happening.

What I gather is that Amazon is simply embracing AI as it becomes more prominent in our lives. The whole AI landscape is growing so fast that it’s unclear what steps Amazon will take next. They may add additional rules to their publishing guidelines. We shall see what happens in the near future as AI evolves.

If you’re worried about this whole AI thing, I’d suggest you don’t use AI for KDP at all. Create your own content from scratch. The good old way of creating books is still the best way to go!

August 2023 Income Report – With No Ads

Enough of rambling. Now on to what you’ve been waiting for!

My KDP income has continued its downward slide this month. However, I’m not complaining. This passive income source helps to pay for my gas and bills.

Highest day: $21.95

Lowest day: $1.27

My Top-Selling Books

My top-selling children’s book has remained in its no. 1 spot. It brought in 35% of my KDP income this month. It has performed well for me every single month since it was published in April 2020. Hope this keeps up!

The fourth best-seller last month has come back up to reclaim its second place this month! It brought in 14% of my earnings this month. It’s in the children’s niche and has sold well for me every month since it was published in January 2021.

I’m happy to say that I’m slowly making progress on the second version of the book in this niche. Fingers crossed that I can get it published in November. It’s early October as I am writing this post!

As this month is the back-to-school season, my third best-seller is a composition notebook. I’ve sold quite a few composition notebooks with different cover designs. During this season, this type of books performed well for me without fail every year.

Any surprises this month?

I’ve sold a number of composition notebooks this month, and one of them became my third best-seller. I wouldn’t say this is a complete surprise. Sales of this type of books will start to trickle in in July every year.

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

This month was $46.20 more than August 2022. Not much higher, but at least it has crossed $300 – the baseline that I set for myself. Summer months are generally one of the lowest months. I’ve set a goal to publish more high-quality books come next year.