This is a question I’ve both been asked and seen be asked since before I even started on KDP. I’ve also heard many different responses to this question so, I just thought I’d share my opinion on it.
At the time of writing this post, I have made over $326,000 on KDP since late 2019 and have published nearly 600 books on Amazon, most of them being low-content books.
My highest month so far was in December 2023 and you can see that in the image above. That month, I made over $19,000 in royalties before expenses and it was above and beyond anything I’d expected.
Someone recently left a comment for me on YouTube the other day and the gist of the comment was:
It appears that successful publishers have over 500 books. Do I think that’s the case?
There are a few reasons why you can’t really make that assumption.
First of all…. This just comes from people who actually share their results online. Whether that be on YouTube or some other social media platform.
But there are thousands of people on KDP… Some have created thousands of books and not made much at all.
Some have made a handful of books and still make a large amount.
So, there is more that comes into play when it comes to making money with KDP and it isn’t just about “quality…” (whatever that really means).
Certainly there are some people that quickly jumped into coloring books when Ai started that made a very large amount with a small number of books initially.
But then a lot of those originals ended up with bad reviews because the quality wasn’t good. That said, some of those books still got good reviews and are doing well.
So, when I talk about book volume in this post, I can only really speak for myself and my experience and why I think having a volume of books helped me.
I Actually Created 500 Or So Books Within The First 18 months/ Two Years.
Which I still cannot quite comprehend. I don’t remember working relentlessly exactly, but I know I had been putting a lot of time into KDP at the beginning.
I really enjoyed the creative process so, it didn’t really feel like “work.”
At first, I created all sorts of books. I experimented with various things.
Some I researched quite thoroughly. Some with almost zero research at all.
I also created a lot of notebooks, because they were quick. But only a a fraction of those notebooks ended up selling consistently, or in the long term.
Basically I was just chucking a lot of ideas out there and seeing what stuck. After a while, you start to learn what niches might work for you but also, what styles seem to take off the most too.
Over time I got better at figuring out what was more likely to sell.
That still doesn’t mean it always will always work at all and I still create some books purely out of choice and not as a direct result of research.
But with the books I do research more intensely, I would say there is a fairly high likelihood that I will generate some sales.
If I had somehow had all this knowledge to begin with, I could have potentially made money with far fewer books.
But for me, it was the experience of creating these books in the first place that led to me being able to do well.
It also just makes sense from the perspective that — the more fish there are in the pond, the more likely you are to catch a fish.
There are a couple of other things that came into play for me personally. These were:
1. Timing….
I found some niches that were relatively untapped when I went into them. Even though people were still moaning about over-saturation on 2019, KDP was nothing like it is today.
When I started in 2019, I did not run any Ads and didn’t even start learning them for a year. So, all those initial sales I had were purely organic.
I’m not sure how easy or hard it is now to get organic sales, because I pretty much run Ads to all new books.
2. Previous Experience….
I had already developed a good knowledge of niche and keyword research and I’d had experience on Canva for several years before I started on KDP. I joined CANVA back in 2015 – when it had only been running for two years.
I think this really did give me an advantage when I decided to get started on KDP.
Is It Just LUCK?!
While no doubt luck comes into this on some level, it’s is not *just* luck – but also perseverance.
For example; I did get into some niches early and you could call that luck or just being in the right place at the right time.
But I also published a book in one of these niches WAY later once lots of other people had published in the space and it still became one of my best sellers.
I had another comment recently on an income report. They said they had not experienced the same luck as me, although they had been publishing for a year.
When I asked how many books they had. They said 7.
So, while I don’t think it’s impossible to make reasonable money with 7 books, (it completely depends) I don’t think you say that one person has been “lucky,” to make money with nearly 600 books published…. Vs “unlucky,” with 7 books published.
Both these scenarios are not comparable.
Even if the quality of the 7 books outweighed the quality of the 600 books in general… The publisher with 600 books has way more, “fish in the pond.”
I’ve frequently heard people with maybe 10 or so books get very unhappy about not making money, despite the fact that they claim to be graphic designers and have years of experience.
But again, there is more to publishing than just being a good designer. Maybe you’re a good designer but you have chosen a highly competitive niche to join, or you don’t understand keyword research.
Another thing is, you may have created a very good…. But still very generic…. Cover design! You need to stand out. Not just replicate the best cover that is already a best seller on Amazon.
There are still ways you could make money from your books in this case but you’d need to know ways you could market your book successfully – whether on social media or via Amazon Ads.
So, what I’m trying to say is that really is a combination of different things that is ultimately going to determine whether you make sales on KDP and not one thing in particular.
So, it’s not JUST going to be that you have hundreds of books, or that you have a handful. It’s not just going to be that you’re a fantastic designer or that you are an excellent marketer.
It’s not just going to be that you’re already an Amazon Ads expert, or that you’ve had 5 years of experience learning about keyword & niche research online already.
It’s not just going to be that you come up with something brand new that had never been done before, or that you publish a book in JUST the right niche, at JUST the right time.
It’s not just going to be that you create a social media campaign that goes viral and leads to thousands of sales.
The reality is that it will end up being a combination of various things and that combination is going to be different for everybody.
There is no one formula to follow and there is no magic number of books you require. But having a lot of books gives you a couple of big advantages.
More fish in the pond, more books simply ON Amazon.
Plus, creating more books gives you MORE experience publishing and therefore a better understanding of the process over time, potentially leading to more success in the long run.
So, I hope you found this post useful!
Please let me know in the comments if you have any questions and let me know how many books YOU have on KDP.
If you’d like to check out the tools I use for KDP – please check out my TOOLS page.
Pin Me For Later!
Leave a Reply