Woohoo! December did not disappoint!
I got this message from the Book Report a little more than halfway through the month. And I know I will get more than US$1,000 in December! If your estimated earnings goes above the US1,000 threshold for the month, then you’ll no longer have a FREE Book Report account. You’ll need to subscribe. This is good news!
But I did not subscribe. Because I know this only happens in December for my case. I switched to Amazon’s own reporting tool that’s forever free during this time. It has its limitations though. I’ll subscribe to Book Report once my KDP income is consistently above US$1,000 every month. I am working on it!
I have been using Book Report since I started self-publishing on KDP. It is an amazing reporting tool that lets you see and analyze your book sales statistics at a glance. It tells you what are your top-selling books for the month and you can customize the report the way you want it. I highly recommend it!
December 2023 – My Best Month Ever?
My KDP income has continued its upswing this month. It has jumped significantly – almost double last month’s income as you’ll see below! 2023 ended on a good note.
Q4 is getting real. This month is the holiday shopping plus giving season, and it turned out to be the third most profitable month on KDP. My most profitable month was December 2022 and second most profitable was in December 2021. All my profitable months happen in December – a month where I make more than $1,000 in DECEMBER ALONE every year.
Is KDP Truly Passive Income?
In 2023, I published a total of 0 books. So the KDP income I make thus far (at least for this year) is all passive income.
Having said that, it depends on what you see as passive income. Passive income does not mean you can literally do nothing and money will just fall from the sky and land into your lap. So, technically, no income is truly passive (sorry to burst your bubble).
However, if you see passive income as putting in the initial hard work, and the money will keep coming in even when you step away and do nothing, then yes, publishing low content books on KDP is truly an excellent source of passive income.
It’s even better than blogging, in my opinion.
Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy blogging as much as I enjoy working on my KDP business.
With KDP, you don’t have to wait for months to start making money. You can start earning as soon as immediate, if not a month or two, after your book goes live on Amazon, if you do it right. By doing it right, I mean niche research, keywords research, creating book covers that stand out, creating unique book interiors, marketing strategies that work, etc.
The KDP income I’ve made so far did not come overnight. I’ve put in the initial hard work when I started KDP back in 2019: learning about publishing on KDP, researching niches and keywords, creating book covers and interiors, etc.
Once my catalog of books grew and started to make sales, my KDP earnings grew in tandem. By this point, I can work flexibly and take time off and it will still continue to bring me income day in and day out. – even when I’m sleeping. How cool is that?
December 2023 Income Report – With No Ads
Now on to the numbers for December 2023!
Highest day: $67.39
Lowest day: $1.72
82.7% comes from the US marketplace, which makes up the bulk of my earnings. 10.9% comes from the UK marketplace, 3.9% from Canada, 1% from Spain, 0.7% from Australia, and 0.9% from some other countries.
Income was pretty consistent throughout the month. However, earnings began to dwindle towards the end as Christmas passed. There were no books being shipped out on December 25 as it was a holiday. Hence, the $0 record. Income is recorded only when a book is shipped out.
My Top-Selling Books
76 books out of the 1,141 total books I have published contributed to this month’s earnings. That works out to be 6.66% of my total books sold this month – almost double compared to other normal months! This means more variety types of books were being sold during the December period.
My top 3 best-selling books has continued their reign – same as last month’s. Let’s see what they are.
No. 1 best-seller this month is a book in the children’s niche. It has been my all-time best-selling book ever since I published it in April 2020. It brought in 38.92% of my KDP income for this month. I might be building a brand and branching out with this author name, in addition to the one I have been mentioning below.
#2 best-seller has remained in its place yet again, which is a book in a specific children’s niche. It brought in 7.5% of my earnings this month. It has been one of my top-selling books ever since I published it in January 2021. I’ll be building a brand around it and in the midst of building a website.
My #3 best-seller is a notebook in a certain niche. It brought in 5.6% of my KDP income this month. It was published in September 2020 and does sell occasionally every other month.
Any surprises this month?
It’s interesting to see what kinds of books sell in December. You’ll find that those books that have never sold or have sold a copy or two here and there, suddenly start selling this month.
What I Made in December 2022 – With No Ads (In Comparison)
My KDP earnings this December is significantly lower (-41.2%) than last year’s. Last year, I had two $100 days. I can only attribute the decrease in this month’s income to the increase in printing costs plus a decrease in buyers, which greatly affects my royalties.
However, I am grateful that my KDP income this month has crossed the $1,000 mark.
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 December 2023: $1,003.71 ($1,019.44 – $15.73)
How to Make $1,000 Passively with Amazon KDP: A Step-By-Step Guide
Making passive income is a dream. But how do you earn income passively, especially from KDP? Here’s a step-by-step guide how..
Step 1 – Register for a KDP Account
Of course, the first step is to register for an account on KDP to publish your books. It is impossible to make passive income without an account.
Step 2 – Research a Niche
The next step in the process is to research a niche. You will need to create books in a market your target audience wants to buy. You’ll need to find a market with high search volume, yet less competitive. This is the tricky part.
I recommend using Titans Quick View – Amazon Niche Finder for niche research. This neat little tool is a Chrome extension that you can download and install easily. It lets you see details such as the Best-sellers rank (BSR), no. of pages, book size, etc. of all the books at a glance without you having to click into the book listing one-by-one. This is a time-saver!
Step 3 – Create Your Book Interior
After finding your niche, you’ll need to create your book interior. You’ll want your interior to be high-quality and as unique as possible, different from the rest. It will be good if you can combine niches and create a unique interior out of it.
I use Powerpoint to create interiors for journals and trackers, and design programs like Canva and PicMonkey for coloring pages.
Step 4 – Create Your Book Cover
The next step after creating your book interior is to create a stunning book cover that stands out from the crowd. When shoppers search on Amazon, your book appears as a small thumbnail below:
To catch shoppers’ eyes and entice them to click on your listing instead of your competitor’s, it is imperative that you have an eye-catching thumbnail. This means that your book cover needs to stand out.
I use Canva and PicMonkey to create great-looking book covers.
Step 5 – List Your Book
Now that you’ve got your book interior and cover done, it is time to get your book listed on Amazon through the KDP platform. This is so exciting! You’ll need a list of keywords for the 7 keyword boxes at the backend.
If you have not done keyword research in step 2 during niche research, now is the time to do so. Simply go to the Amazon website and type in your keyword in the search bar. A drop-down with a list of Amazon search suggestions will appear. Those are the keywords you’ll need to take note of.
If you have the Titans Quick View chrome extension installed, there’ll be more search suggestions and keywords.
Once you’ve gathered your keywords, you can now proceed to list your book. This process is pretty straight forward.
Step 6 – Create A+ Content
If you want to make more money passively from Amazon KDP, you’re going to want to convert the shopper into a customer and score that sales after the shopper click into your listing. What better way to do it than A+ content?
Example of A+ content:
Amazon used to have a ‘Look Inside’ feature where customers can peek inside the book to let them see how it looks like before buying. But they have removed this feature.
This is where creating A+ content is important. It allows you to showcase your book(s), especially the interior, to potential customers. It helps sell your books. Create stunning A+ content and score those sales!
Ok, I’m going to leave it here for today!
Has this blog post helped you? Let me know in the comments below. I’ll go into more details about making money passively from KDP in future blog posts.
I’d also love to hear from you how your December 2023 went. Let me know in the comments below too!
