Amazon KDP Income Report June 2023

June 2023 is my second best month yet! My best month was in December 2022, which I’ll talk about in a future blog post.

This year was not as productive as I had hoped for. I came up with a publishing schedule earlier this year, but unfortunately… have you guessed it yet? That’s right.. I DID NOT follow it!

I did not publish any new books AT ALL up till now, as I am writing this blog post. I’m STILL in the midst of creating a children’s book, which took me WAY longer than expected. And I am not even half-way through! 🙁

You see… I have a full-time job that I go to during the day (this – KDP publishing and blogging – is a side hustle for me by the way). By the time I come back from work, cook dinner, eat dinner, shower, settle down… I am just TOO dead tired to do anything else! And I just want to chill and relax to rest my body and my mind (ya… ya… excuses, I know).

Does this sound familiar to you?

Is KDP Passive Income?

BUT having said that, the KDP income for June 2023 you’re going to see below is TOTALLY passive. Remember I said earlier that I didn’t publish any new books at all this year? So, to those who ask, “Is KDP passive income?” Yes, it is!

I started self-publishing on KDP in July 2019 (just realized it’s been 4 years!), while having a day job. There was a period of time when I quit my previous day job and focused on low content publishing full-time to build up my library of books. That explains why I have 1100+ books as of this writing.

Nowadays (with my current day job), I get up 1 hour earlier (I’ll try to) before I prepare and go to work on weekdays. At least, I have that precious 1 hour to work on my side hustles. On weekends, I’ll try to work in 2 – 3 hours.

Amazon’s Printing Cost Increase

Before I get into this month’s income report, just want to mention the earnings you’re about to see is much higher than a normal June month (June has always been a good month for me).

I’ve started to increase the prices of some of my books from June 1 since Amazon announced their printing cost increase, that took effect on June 20, 2023. This accounts for the higher-than-usual royalties (with the price increase of my books) I get before the printing cost increase kicks in.

Things should be back to normal from next month (July) onwards, though I suspect my KDP income will be impacted (negatively) as my royalties get smaller with Amazon’s printing costs going up. I’ll report back with my KDP July 2023 income report.

We shall see what happens!

June 2023 Income Report – With No Ads

Did I mention that this June’s income was my second best month yet (since I started publishing on KDP)? It was more than last year’s June 2022, which you’ll see below. I did not run any Amazon ads on my books.

Now let’s get in on the numbers!

With the thousands of books I had published on Amazon KDP, you might be expecting I’m earning thousands of dollars, like some others. But I didn’t. However, I’m happy with what I get from this passive income source.

Highest day: $51.65

Lowest day: $8.41

My Top-Selling Books

My top-selling book brought in 45% of my KDP earnings. That’s almost half of my income! This is a children’s book and it has been my best-selling book, which brings in almost half of my income every single month since I published it in April 2020.

I’ve created a few books in this same niche, but none sells as well as this best seller. I’ve sold a copy or two (that has never sold before) in the series. I suspect it’s because of the A+ content (it helps promote other books in the series) I created under my best seller.

As this month is Father’s Day, needless to say, my second best-selling book on the list was a Father’s Day book that I published in April 2020. I have published a few Father’s Day related books that sell a decent number for me this time every year, as compared to other months.

My third best-selling book was a children’s book that I published in January 2021. I am working on a second book in this same niche, which took longer than expected to create. I hope to finish and publish it in September, in time for Q4. Fingers crossed.

Any surprises this month?

Yes!

One interesting observation is that a few of my books that have NEVER sold a single copy, HAVE SOLD since I adjusted my selling prices (upwards)! I’m not sure exactly why’s that; it might be that people are willing to pay higher prices?

Whatever the case may be, I’ll take it anyway. 🙂

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

June 2023 was over $230 more than June 2022, which I’m grateful for.

Overall, June has generally been a good month for me. This year’s June had more consistent high days, while June 2022 was more of a roller coaster ride. Nevertheless, last year’s June was still a good month as it was one of the best months in 2022, apart from Q4.

My KDP income has increased y-o-y (year-on-year) since I started in 2019. This business is not a get-rich-quick scheme, that you’d expect to earn money from immediately after publishing 1, 2 or even 100 books. Give your books time to be ‘seasoned’.