KDP Income Report December 2021

Ok, so it’s now January and time for another KDP income report for December 2021, (the money I made with low content publishing).

I’m not sure what I expected in December – but I suppose I was expecting a similar pattern to last year. That was, that November actually wasn’t THAT much higher than December.

Well, this time it was a fairly similar story. But this still did mean that December turned into my best month EVER on KDP.

The fact that I don’t have quite the same MASSIVE jump in sales that some people do in December; I think comes down to a couple of things….

1. My best sellers aren’t typically gift-related books. I’m sure they still are given as gifts as well; but maybe not as much as some other books.
2. I don’t have a gigantic catalogue of books. I have 520 that are currently live on Amazon. If I had a larger amount of books, with a bunch more that are specifically gift related, I’m sure sales would have a bigger jump in December.

I noticed that a few books I’d published in 2021 that were purely gift related, suddenly started selling in December. These were books that had either not sold at all, or had only sold the odd copy, the entire time previously.

This was great, as a couple of these books got reviews and this may boost them up and hopefully generate more sales in 2022.

It made me think seriously about creating a bunch of books specifically geared to be given as gifts in time for Q4 2022.

So, How Much Did I Make?

In total I made $8753.

By comparison I made $7359 in November and my best ever month aside from December, was in May 2021 – when I made $7773.

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Things really dropped off after the 23rd – in line for when deliveries will no longer get there before Christmas.

I’ve always had zero sales on the 25th – as there are no deliveries on this day.

I have sometimes seen people see the odd sale registered.

I think this is usually do when time zones cross – so some other marketplaces would be on December 26th, (for example) or the previous day and it still registers for you on Xmas day.

Basically sales will register according to what day it is in the Country in question and naturally, that’s going to vary. At 5am my time, it’s still midnight some areas in the US etc….

In any case, as there is no shipping on Xmas day, you will probably not see any sales registered. You will also usually see a very small amount on Xmas eve.

For me, Boxing day is when it starts to pick up again.

Highs Vs Lows:

My highest day fell on December 15th – I made $540 on this day.

My lowest day of course was Xmas day. Xmas eve I made $40.

Boxing day was next – I made $77 and this was closely followed by new Years Eve, where I made $88.

My Highest Sellers?

My best selling book was still the main book sold, as it pretty much is every month of the year and there was no difference here. (This made around $2000)

The second best seller was also the same pretty much. (This made around $1100).

Any Surprises?

One book in my top 10 in December, I hadn’t had published all that long.

I had published it in August.

It was a slight twist in an already HIGHLY SATURATED niche.

I decided to give it a go and run Ads to the book immediately.

It sold some copies when I first released it and also got a few good reviews.

So, by the time December came, I concentrated on Ads with that book and it started to sell pretty well.

I just ran Ads for the book in the US and overall, the ACOS for the campaign was 20%. So, it was profitable for me.

Also, there was another book I was really proud of in 2021, but hadn’t really taken off.

Suddenly in December – I started to get more sales to this book in Canada, the UK and the US.

It now has a couple of five star reviews, so I’m hoping this will continue to increase in sales in 2022.

That wasn’t the only one either. I had several books I wasn’t sure would ever get sales and these started to generate sales in Q4.

Q4 Can Be A Great Boost To New Books!

December can be great for new books you have published during the year.

Even better if those books already have a couple of reviews – but if not, December can be a great time for you to get extra sales and these will hopefully these will turn into reviews…. which will then lead to more visibility on Amazon!

As well as giving a big boost to books that are already doing well for you, it is a great time for new books to get exposure as well.

How Much Did I Spend On Ads?

Ads were going well in December, until they went a bit crazy at the end. My UK spend then went to high. The others were OK though…

Also bear in mind, I need to pay 20% VAT tax on all of these totals!!!

USA ADS – spend $171.15.. When you Ad the 20%, this is about break even for me.

Canada Ads – $85.58…. This was still profitable. (Around $67 US Dollars)

The UK spend was slightly unprofitable, with an ACOS of 33.25%. (Around $135 US dollars).

So, in total I spent around $373 US dollars on Ads. Plus an additional 20%. This brings the total to around $447.

I’ve stuck to the same tools as usual – you can find my list of tools here. Each month, they come to around $100 at present.