Happy new year! We’re one and a half months in (mid-February 2024) as I’m writing this post. How time flies! Haven’t we just stepped into 2024? Anyway, it’s still a brand new year and here’s my first KDP income report of 2024.
After last month’s good report (my second biggest December to date since starting KDP), I’d expected this January’s income to drop significantly. It turned out I’m right and it’s much lesser than what I’ve earned last year as you’ll see below.
One thing to keep in mind before going into my January income report is that I did not do ANY work for the whole of 2023.
While I still made some money enough to help cover some of the household bills and expenses, I wasn’t actively growing my KDP business. This started to show in the second half of 2023 through decreased overall sales. Plus the increase in Amazon’s printing costs caused my income to slide even further.
I had really let things slide at this point, and my earnings really showed it. I have to admit I regretted not keeping up with my publishing schedule throughout 2023. While it’s true I could have earned more if I’d published more books consistently last year, I’m grateful that I could take time off and still generate passive income I’d created from KDP.
Read more below to find out what I’ll be doing to ramp up my KDP earnings this year.
January 2024 Income Report – With No Ads
Moving on to the numbers for January 2024..
Things dropped “back to normal” this month after a pretty good month in December 2023.
Highest day: $28.05
Lowest day: $18.94
90.8% comes from the US marketplace, which makes up the bulk of my earnings. 4.3% comes from the UK marketplace, 2.6% from Canada, 1% from Germany, 0.7% from Japan, and 0.6% from some other countries.
There were spikes on 2 days – Jan 16 and Jan 24, which I’ll talk about in a bit. Other than the spikes, sales were pretty consistent throughout the month.
My Top-Selling Books
45 books out of the 1,141 total books I have published contributed to this month’s earnings. That works out to be 3.94% of my total books sold this month!
My #1 best-selling book for this month is none other than the same book in the children’s niche. It has continued to top the chart and has been my top-selling book ever since I published it in April 2020. It brought in 18.4% of my total KDP income this month.
This book brought in only a fraction of my KDP revenue this month, given that the % of my total books sold remains almost the same as normal months. This would mean that more varieties of my books are being sold.
#2 best-selling book is a notebook in a certain niche, and it brought in 14.2% of my total KDP income. Thanks to the bulk order on January 16 – the highest earning day.
#3 best-seller goes to a specific type of tracker in the women’s niche. It brought in 12.4% 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?
My other top-selling book in a specific children’s niche, that has been #2 on the best-selling chart for a long time, has lost its steam.
There were 2 spikes (high days) this month. One book sold in bulk on January 16 and became my #2 best-seller because of that. It’s a notebook in a certain niche. It does sell for me every month, and occasionally in bulk like this month!
Many books were shipped out on January 24, hence the spike on that day. No particular book accounted for that spike.
What I Made in January 2023 – With No Ads (In Comparison)
Compared to last January’s KDP income, this month’s earnings is down by 51%. However, I’m happy with whatever extra money I can get from this passive income source to pay for little things in life.
I did not publish any books in 2023 and it is still generating me some money from the initial efforts I put in. I’ll be ramping up and publishing more books this year.
Tools I Used – Expenses
PicMonkey – $129.60 (annual subscription); Monthly: $129.60/12 = $10.80 (it has increased by 0.9%)
Canva – Free version
Creative Fabrica – $59.16 (annual subscription); Monthly: $59.16/12 = $4.93
Total expenses: $10.80 + $4.93 = $15.73/month
KDP profit in January 2024: $248.18 ($263.91 – $15.73)
What’s Next – My Goals for 2024?
I’ll be ramping up my efforts on KDP creating and publishing more books this year. That’s my goal.
Build a Brand
I’ll be building a brand for an author name in a specific children’s niche. A book I created in this niche has been my best-seller for a long time – ever since I published it in January 2021! I am working on the second version of this book and in the midst of building a website.
I might be building a brand for my all-time #1 best-seller. But it’s not a priority for this author name now. We shall see.
Amazon Advertising
I am finally going to experiment with Amazon ads to market my books and see where it takes me. It’s a whole new topic that I’ll be learning (*nervous*). I’ll be posting more in future blog posts. Stay tuned!
Ok, I’ll leave it here for today!
Let me know in the comments below how your January 2024 went.
