Welcome back to another KDP income report for August & September 2023.
In this report, I will also share how much I spent on Amazon Ads during these months, what I spent on tools and my overall profit when it comes to KDP.
I predicted previously that August & September were likely to be the lowest months of the year for me personally – purely based on previous years, that’s been the case.
This is also the case for many low-content publishers on KDP. During August, schools are largely out and many people are busy and travelling so many low-content niches do get quiet.
Then September can be a busy time with many kids returning to school and it being a bit of an in-between time before some big holidays kick off, (such as Halloween and Christmas).
If you have a lot of books based around going back to school, (such as teacher planners or composition notebooks) then you may find August and September are really good months. But if you aren’t really in those niches, you may find they’re a lot quieter.
If you’ve focussed a lot on Halloween, then that’s likely the time your sales are going to start increasing again. I still don’t have many Halloween-related books, so it tends to be November for me when things start picking up in Q4.
Where Have I Been?
If you’re used to watching my income reports on YouTube, then you may be wondering where I have been. I haven’t posted a video, (so far) in over a month.
It was an unintended break that happened due to some health issues I was experiencing. I actually had suspected Lyme disease and I’m still unsure whether that’s what it was.
in any case, I ended up being on antibiotics for a month and have only recently stopped those in the last couple of days.
I’m just happy to be feeling a lot better at this point. I also went away to Florida during this time for two and a half weeks.
Because I hadn’t been well, all my intentions to create videos ready for going away went out of the window.
But while I was away, the thought of having a more extended break away from YouTube started to feel quite appealing.
Mainly because I feel that without the distraction of trying to upload videos, I will be more likely to be able to focus on KDP & other projects, (which ultimately bring in the bulk of my income at this point!).
When am I going to upload another video?
I’m not sure at this point! I roughly have November in mind, but I may wait longer.
I’ve personally found that I cannot stick to uploading weekly and it was stressing me out a fair amount to try and stick to an uploading schedule. Especially because I didn’t manage to stick to it.
The reality is though, that you really DO need to stick to a YouTube schedule to grow and make it work!
So, unless I can stick to a fairly solid schedule, it’s probably not going to be the best use of my time.
That’s just something I need to figure out during this break.
However, I am going to continue to post content on my blog so, make sure you’re on my email list if you want to keep in touch.
You will automatically join my email list when you download anything from my gumroad store, including my free course.
What’s NEW in August/September?
Nothing particularly new or surprising happened to me from a book perspective. I noticed a few books in the education niche starting to sell more than others again – and another one that was more travel-based, starting to slow down.
Something I really enjoyed this August was doing an interview for Danny on Demand. It was a written interview which was published in his newsletter Royalties On Demand.
His weekly newsletter is full of useful tips and interviews with other online entrepreneurs and self-publishers – for example, there is an interview with Kim from yourchicgeek and Corvin from Self-Publishing-Titans.
You can check out that interview here.
In September, I did very little online. That is note only because I went away to Florida, but prior to that I also started to get unwell.
While I was away, I barely checked in on anything….. Including my Ads! I was nervous to get back and check them but it turned out to be totally fine.
Luckily, I mostly have long-term running Ads that are relatively predictable right now. I’d already paused some of the more temperamental Ads, prior to going to Florida.
August 2023 KDP Royalties:
In August I made $5,591.
highest day :$310
lowest: $96
2nd highest: $255
August 2022 KDP Royalties:
In the previous year, I made $4615.
So, around $1000 more in 2023. The highest day in 2022 was $320, but most other days were a lot less. Whereas, the 2023 days were just higher overall.
September KDP Royalties 2023:
In September 2023, I made $6213.
Highest day: $294
Lowest: $104
Second lowest: $261
September KDP Royalties 2022:
In September 2022, I made $5184. Which again, is a difference of around $1000.
I had a couple of much higher days in 2022 with the highest being $487. However, there were many other days that were much lower and so overall, 2023 was higher on average day-by-day.
Last year, October was very similar to September for me. It was very marginally higher. At the moment, it looks close to September as again, so we will have to see.
It would be nice if I had lots of Halloween books to give October a bit of a boost, but I only have a couple of those at this point.
Amazon Advertising Costs:
Considering the fact I barely checked my Ads in September, they went pretty well.
I did have some Ads increasing in August, which had seemed to be a trend in the summer months this year but that appeared to level out again in September.
I’m just going to do a basic breakdown of the Ads here today.
August Ads:
Uk £146 ACOS 33%
USA $152 ACOS 34%
Canada $69 ACOS 7%
Australia $53 ACOS 13%
Total Ad spend: $413.87
Ad spend plus 20% VAT: $496.64
September Ads:
Uk £174 ACOS 19%
USA $139 ACOS: 32%
Canada $47.99 ACOS 27%
Australia $35 ACOS 15%
Total Ad spend: $408.15
Ad spend plus 20% VAT: $489.78
As you can see, the UK and USA are a little bit high in August, with an ACOS over 30%. In September, that came right down in the UK to only 19%, but the USA Ads remained a little bit high.
These are largely on established Ads that I want to keep running and do go up and down. Therefore, I’m just waiting it out at the moment and seeing how things go in October.
My expenses have gone up because I recently opted into get the premium version of CHATGBT. ChatGBT hasn’t just helped me with KDP at all, in fact – I’ve rarely used it for that so far. But I’ve just found it so useful for directly asking questions.
Most recently, I asked it a TAX question because I wanted to be sure of all my figures and how much Tax I was likely due to pay when I submitted my Tax return. ChatGBT did an amazing job of clearing up all the queries that I had and confirming what I already thought to be true basically.
While you cannot rely solely on ChatGBT, (it will sometimes still give out incorrect info), I have found the paid version of ChatGBT to be incredibly accurate so far. It is also very fast and the detailed responses it can provide, (within a matter of seconds) is very impressive.
The premium version costs $20.
Therefore, my monthly tools currently cost around $135.
You can find a full list of my tools & course recommendations here.
Total Profit On KDP For August/September:
August 2023:
$5,591.
– minus $496.64 Ads. Minus $135 tools.
= $4959.36
September 2023:
$6213
– minus $489.78 Ads. Minus $135 tools.
= $5588.22
If you’re brand new to KDP, it is worth bearing in mind that you don’t get paid until 60 days after the month that the sale was initially reported in.
So, for example, for any books you sell in August, you get these royalties at the end of October. Mine tends to also go into the start of the next month too…. (So, the end of October/start of November in this case).
You can see an explanation of that here.
It’s worth being aware of, because this can cause cash flow issues. For example; I may have a much higher month advertising in December, but I won’t get those higher royalties actually sent to my account until the end of February.
So, be sure to have the cash available to pay for extra advertising an so on, or at least a credit card with enough cash on there to cover you until you’re able to pay it off again.
How was your August & September? Let me know in the comments below!
Save Me For Later!
Leave a Reply