After a brief break from my blog and YouTube channel, I’m happy to be back and excited to share with you my KDP income report for December, as well as the key factors that contributed to my success.
This past December marked a significant milestone, as it turned out to be the most profitable month I’ve ever had on KDP. In this post, I’ll delve into what set this December apart and the strategies that played a pivotal role in achieving these results.
December 2023 – My Best Month On KDP:
Many KDP publishers suggest that focusing on book publishing during Q4 is counterproductive, but my experience tells a different story.
Several of my all-time bestsellers were published in October & November, and this trend continued in 2023. Towards the end of the year, I published a series of books that had been in the works for a few months. I decided to release them all at the end of October, and to my surprise, one of these books emerged as a top-seller in December.
So, what contributed to this success? I feel that a few factors are important.
- Amazon will temporarily give your new book a higher ranking than it would naturally within the first month of being published. Therefore, what better time to have this perk, than during Q4 when there are a lot more people on Amazon searching for gifts.
- Because there is this higher traffic, you will have a higher chance of people buying your book in the first place – especially during that crucial first month.
- Q4 also tends to be the season when I receive the majority of my book reviews. More sales and reviews not only boost book rankings but also lead to a snowball effect, further increasing visibility and sales. While it may seem to make sense to launch and rank books before Q4, my experience demonstrates that this may not always be the case.
Do I think you should only publish during Q4? No. I think you should experiment with different publishing times and of course to take advantage of publishing before certain holidays during the year. But don’t hold off from publishing a book just because it’s Q4… Some books may perform better during this time.
How Many Books Did I Publish In 2023?
In 2023, I published a total of 15 books, with some months seeing no new releases at all.
During the early part of the year, my focus briefly shifted to platforms like Etsy and Creative Fabrica. However, I found myself gradually losing interest and procrastinating on these opportunities.
While I plan to delve into this topic further in future posts, I must say that the success of one of my new Q4 books has reignited my passion for book publishing.
How Much Did I Make On KDP In December 2023?
In December I made $19,759 before expenses. This was a considerable leap up from the previous year. I included a screenshot of that below, where you can see I made $10,834.
I certainly spent more on Ads this year and that was part of it. I also had a new book take off and that really boosted sales as well.
This result was completely unexpected. Not least because in previous years, my December and November didn’t tend to be as different as some people.
Often I’d see people make twice as much in December than in November, but that just hadn’t been my experience. Yet, I have also seen other people this year have record months and there is one reason why I think this could be the case this year….. This is due to how Amazon now promotes your books.
For example; notice how Amazon continuously shows you products you have been browsing but haven’t bought yet? I feel Amazon have increased this internal promotion during 2023.
They have gotten exceptionally good at promoting products to people and reminding them what they have been looking at.
So, my guess is it’s the Amazon platform itself that has led to some of these sales increases. Especially considering that royalties were actually lowered this year. I don’t think having the best December ever was something many publishers were expecting… Yet, it seemed to be the experience publishers actually got.
Highest Day: $1,153
Second Highest Day: $1,108
As you can see above, I did have some days which went to over $1000! This just blew my mind and was really exciting to see.
As usual, during December, sales start to reduce once Amazon can no longer deliver in time for Christmas. This tends to be around the 22nd/23rd December. Then you will have a lot lower once more, until January.
You can see a screenshot of my previous December below.
What Can I Expect In January?
In past years, January has proven to be a strong month, often coming close to December’s earnings.
However, given the massive increase in royalties in December 2023, I anticipate January may exhibit a different pattern this year. I see it potentially being more similar to November.
As it’s only January 8th at the time of writing, I can only wait and see how the month unfolds – however, so far I can predict so far that January 2024 looks similar to January 2023.
December 2023 AD Spend:
I did spend considerably more in 2023 on Ads. I believe in 2022 I spent around $650 and that was including VAT.
Spending was highest in the UK, because that is also where I ended up advertising my new book primarily.
I also tried in the US/Canada and Australia – but didn’t have the same results. I may try again there now that I have more reviews.
Nevertheless, the ACOS was really good for December across all platforms and only higher in the UK due to that one new book being Advertised.
The new book had an ACOS of 45% in December, (it was much higher than that initially!) and if I was only making sales via Ads, that of course would be bad. But I wasn’t worried about this ACOS, because I was making a lot of organic sales as well. Therefore, the profit overall was high and my overall priority was to keep this book ranking and gaining sales.
Now that we are in the new year, this ACOS has reduced and I will work on bringing it down somewhat again.
Overall on Ads I spent:
$1273 approx.
In the UK, you also pay 20% of VAT on that, unless you are registered for VAT.
Other Expenses:
If you’re interested in the tools I use – not just for KDP – but for everything online, then you can find that info in my tools section of this blog.
My expenses have gone up somewhat, as I renewed my Placeit subscription for create mockups for A+ content.
But overall, the tools I use specifically for KDP come to around $134.
Total Ads: $1273
Total Expenses $134
Total Expenses: $1407.
Total Profit: $19,759 – $1407 = $18352.
Am I using Ai in Books?
In 2023, I ventured into using AI-generated images for clipart, coloring pages, and book covers for some of my KDP books. I’ve always disclosed this practice in the appropriate sections when publishing on Amazon.
So far, I’ve encountered no issues and all books have been published as normal. However I used Tangent Crystal to turn the images into clear black and white images when creating colouring pages and ordered copies of my books for quality checks. So far, I have only received positive feedback on the books I’ve published using AI.
It’s important to stress that AI should not be viewed as a shortcut but as a tool that, when used thoughtfully and with care, can yield amazing results. Taking the time to refine your images and ordering physical copies for review can make a substantial difference in the quality of your final product.
KDP Success In December 2023: Key Factors:
I believe my results in December 2023 can be attributed to several factors:
Amazon’s Enhanced Product Promotion: While I haven’t had any direct information about this, I believe Amazon considerably improved their product promotion algorithms in 2023 and that this in turn led to improved sales and conversions.
Incorporating A+ Content: I began incorporating A+ content into all of my best-selling books but also ANY books making sales and any new books. This meant potential customers could see exactly what they were buying into before purchasing and this without a doubt improved conversions.
Increased Advertising Investment: My decision to invest more heavily in advertising significantly contributed to higher sales figures overall.
Publishing during Q4: Publishing a new book geared towards the gift market, followed by immediate advertising, led to rapid sales and reviews, propelling it to a high organic ranking just in time for December.
Expanding to New Markets: Advertising efforts in Canada and Australia achieved better results compared to the previous year.
Amazon’s Product Bundling: Amazon’s inclusion of certain books in gift bundles during Q4 boosted sales for those specific titles. For instance, one of my notebooks, originally published in 2019, started randomly selling well in 2023 after being featured in a frequently bought-together bundle. This also happened with the new book I published in Q4, which ended up being bundled with a very high selling book.
You can see an example of a frequently bought together bundle below….
Is KDP Saturated In 2024? Definitely not.
Because I have some high-selling books that I’ve maintained for years, I was often worried about putting new stuff out there. Nervous that perhaps I just wouldn’t reach the same heights with new books, in the way that had worked in the past.
I had also stuck to the same niches that I know work for me, or ones very related. So, when I launched this new series of books, the one that really worked was something very different.
It was unlike any book I’d created before but it also wasn’t like any other book I had seen. I guess there is one of the tips…… Try and be original.
Don’t just see something that works and copy it. Try and seek out little potential gaps in the market.
Not everything will work, but sometimes you will hit on something that does. I have been the first to market in this way before and so, I know how well this can work.
That isn’t as hard as it sounds, as it could simply be mixing a couple of already-proven ideas together, or a couple of popular niches together in an original way.
For example; combining different types of low-content book into one in a way that you haven’t seen before on Amazon.
Most of all though, creating a cover that really stands out from the crowd is so important. This is what can get you those initial sales early on, even when you don’t have any reviews.
If someone likes your cover enough to click, they will then see your A+ content. This is where you can showcase your book and hopefully win that sale.
After your cover & keywords, A+ content is now one of the most important things you need now. Even more so for low-content books.
In any case, while KDP in undoubtedly very busy and full of publishers – I wouldn’t say it’s saturated because there are still many opportunities. I think the fact I had a brand new book outsell almost all of my established books proves that fact.
Some Things I Did In 2023:
The main things I aimed to do in 2023 and actually achieved was to create more A+ content and work more on improving my Ad skills for low-content books.
I also created some more books specifically geared for Q4.
However, I could have made a lot more books for Q4 if I’d focussed on that earlier in the year.
I opened Etsy & Creative Fabrica shops. But after initially focusing on that at the start of the year, it ended up being one of those things I didn’t remain consistent with.
I took an unintentional break from YouTube but it became intentional in the end. I found I was spending too much time editing videos and not enough time working on KDP or other projects.
I also had some health issues, went abroad and then moved house. So, there was a lot going on.
I hope I can achieve more of a balance with this in 2024 with Youtube and still create videos. I’ve yet to publish one yet, but I hope this report will be the first video this year.
Some Things I Did Not Do In 2023:
After last Q4, I said I wanted to create more hardcover books…. This is still something I haven’t done.
I also wanted to create some medium content or children’s books…. Again, this is still something I’d like to do but have not done.
Something I don’t think I did say I wanted to do in 2023 is build a brand. However, this is something I am already working on in 2024.
This will involve a website, a freebie download as an email list incentive and potentially a related shop on Etsy.
What Do You Want To Do In 2024?
What are your goals for 2024 and how did you do this Q4?
Let me know in the comments. I will do another post outlining how I did in Q4 in total, because I know I missed some of those income reports.
Happy New Year & Have An Inspirational 2024!!
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