The reality of selling coloring books on Amazon KDP after publishing 30 books
Carlos shares the numbers that changed how he understands KDP: royalties, withholding, VAT, Ads, seasonality and why picking the right niche matters more than volume.
By Carlos Arbeláez
Short answer
Yes, you can sell coloring books created with artificial intelligence, but producing them fast does not guarantee they are profitable. The niche, the quality, seasonality and the cost of earning each sale matter far more than the number of books published.
30
books published
2 months
for the first book
10 min
for the process today
This article documents my real experience from Colombia. It includes data from my reports, decisions that cost me money and lessons I am still testing. It is not a promise of results or tax advice.
I started building my first coloring book in August 2025. I picked the Gaming Girl theme because I saw interest but few products speaking directly to that audience. The book took about two months. Today I have 30 published books with a confirmed ASIN and a tool that can prepare a book in roughly ten minutes.
That jump looks huge, and it is, but it also taught me something uncomfortable: production is no longer the main problem. The hard part is choosing a niche, earning attention and selling without spending more than each copy brings in.
The list price is not your income
Many KDP breakdowns start with the sale price. That is the first place you can fool yourself. If a book sells for 9.99 USD, that 9.99 USD does not reach the author. Amazon computes the paperback royalty by applying the relevant rate and subtracting the printing cost. The formula is documented on the officialpaperback royalty page.
On my 9.99 USD books, the figure I use as a reference is 3.15 USD of gross royalty per copy. As a Colombian tax resident, my account shows a 30% withholding on those royalties. Amazon also explains that payments from certain sales by non-U.S. persons can be subject to a30% U.S. withholding.
| List price | 9.99 USD |
|---|---|
| Observed gross royalty | 3.15 USD |
| Observed withholding, 30% | 0.95 USD |
| Approx. money received | 2.21 USD |
On top of that, my Amazon Ads receipts show a 19% VAT. In cash terms, every dollar shown as ad spend represents roughly 1.19 USD. That completely changes the break-even point. This is a description of my account and my experience in Colombia, not general tax advice. How taxes are credited depends on each person’s situation.
The video ad sold, but lost money
I tried a video ad on Amazon showing someone coloring Gaming Girl. The campaign was set up as Sponsored Display with manual targeting in the United States. The dashboard showed results that, at first glance, did not look terrible: 2 purchases on 22 clicks.
22
clicks
2
attributed purchases
10.55 USD
ad spend
52.8%
ACOS
The problem is that ACOS uses the attributed sale price as the denominator, not the author’s royalty. The two purchases added up to 19.98 USD in sales, but the estimated gross royalty was 6.30 USD. Ad spend was 10.55 USD before VAT. The ad was already losing 4.25 USD even before considering taxes.
Estimated cash result
After withholding, royalties would land near 4.41 USD. With VAT, the advertising would rise to 12.55 USD. The estimated cash loss would be 8.14 USD, assuming one unit per purchase and treating both charges as non-recoverable.
Going from two months to ten minutes
The first book was slow because every illustration demanded several decisions. We asked AI agents for scenes, reviewed proposals, tweaked prompts and picked results. Repeating that cycle until we had 40 pages took a long time.
We also learned that a book should not feel like 40 variations of the same image. Gaming Girl started with isolated objects and then moved into themed blocks, such as different gamer setups. That distribution ended up becoming part of the tool’s planner.
The cover needed even more care. The first AI-generated version looked generic, so we redrew and colored it. Then the technical issues showed up: square 8.5 by 8.5 inch pages, resolution, clean margins, safe zone and a cover PDF that combines back cover, spine and front cover. The spine width changes with the page count.
Today KDP Coloring Book Studio automates the planning, the illustrations, the cover composition and the PDF prep. The approximate cost to generate a book is 7 USD. With 3.15 USD of gross royalty, that investment is recovered in 3 sales. After my observed withholding, it takes 4 sales. None of those calculations include advertising.
Sales do not behave the same all year
Coloring books are gift products. In my results, sales climbed steadily through September, October, November and December. I also noticed searches for `coloring book` rising toward the end of the year.
That means the December peak should not become a monthly average. Gaming Girl recorded 54 units and 157 USD in royalties in December 2025, but during other months its baseline was much lower. If you project the whole year using December, you end up with a false expectation.
There is a second layer of seasonality by theme. Halloween, Christmas and Valentine’s concentrate demand into small windows. I do not recommend entering those niches generically because they are saturated. A seasonal book needs a distinct proposition and has to be published well in advance.
Niche choice matters more than publishing by volume
When the tool made it possible to create books in minutes, publishing more seemed logical. But production capacity stopped being the bottleneck. A large catalog does not create demand on its own.
Gaming Girl worked because I found an underserved sub-niche. Gaming World had more competition, but I judged the book’s quality to be comparable or better than several existing products. Entering a category dominated by specialized human artists, on the other hand, can be very hard. AI produces high-quality results, but it does not automatically turn a generic idea into a competitive offer.
My filter before publishing
- Is there a clear audience for this theme?
- Are the top Amazon results already saturated?
- Does the quality I can produce compete with the current covers and pages?
- Can I bring a style or combination that is not common yet?
- Is demand stable, or does it depend on a specific date?
The mistake I do not recommend repeating
To get Gaming Girl’s first reviews, I asked family members to buy the book and leave comments. At the time I did not understand that Amazon restricts reviews from people with a personal or financial relationship to the author or seller. It is a practice I do not recommend and it can end in removed reviews or penalties. The current rules are in theAmazon community guidelines.
Organic reviews are far scarcer than I imagined. I remember needing around 60 sales to get the first review from someone I did not know. The books now include a page that neutrally invites an honest opinion, with no incentives and no request for five stars.
What I recommend today
I do think creating coloring books with AI is viable. The technology solved much of the repetitive work and lets a creative person test styles and themes that would previously have been too expensive. But the tool should be used to explore better ideas, not to flood Amazon with generic variations.
- 1
Research before you generate
Look for a concrete audience, check the competitors' quality and understand whether demand is seasonal.
- 2
Do the math with net royalty
Do not treat the list price as your income. Include printing, withholding, taxes and advertising.
- 3
Publish with quality
Check interior variety, resolution, margins, the cover and thumbnail legibility.
- 4
Use Ads as an experiment
Control the bid, cap the loss and keep only terms that prove conversion within your margin.
- 5
Aim for differentiation
An original combination of audience, style and theme is worth more than another generic book in a saturated category.
The most important takeaway is simple: making the file is only part of the business. The opportunity appears when a good tool is paired with creative judgment, research and financial discipline.
Frequently asked questions
Is it profitable to sell coloring books on Amazon KDP?
It can be, but not just because you publish a lot of books. Profitability depends on the niche, quality, net royalty, seasonality and the cost of acquiring each sale.
How much does it cost to create a coloring book with AI?
In KDP Coloring Book Studio, Carlos estimates roughly 7 USD to generate a book. That figure excludes advertising, outside editing and other operating costs.
How many sales does it take to recover 7 USD?
With a gross royalty of 3.15 USD, 7 USD is recovered in 3 sales. In Carlos's experience from Colombia, after a 30% withholding it takes 4 sales. The calculation excludes Ads.
Do Amazon ads work for coloring books?
They can drive sales, but that does not make them profitable. A Gaming Girl video campaign was attributed 2 purchases, yet the ad spend exceeded the royalties it generated.
When do coloring book sales go up?
Carlos saw sales climb steadily through September, October, November and December. Halloween, Christmas and Valentine's themes have extra windows, though they tend to be saturated niches.
Can AI produce good-quality coloring books?
Yes. Current models can produce high-quality interiors and covers, but it is still hard to compete in mature niches where specialized human artists offer excellent products.
A note on payments
My account shows wire transfer and the money arrives directly into a Colombian account in pesos. KDP states that Amazon.com requires a 100 USD threshold after withholding for wire payments and that the payment is processed roughly 60 days after the end of the month in which the threshold is reached. The full terms are on the officialKDP payment thresholds page.
Try the process
Create a book and test the niche before you scale
KDP Coloring Book Studio prepares the pages, the cover and the KDP-ready PDFs. The free plan lets you test the flow before investing in a catalog.
Sources and scope
The figures for sales, Ads, timelines and costs come from Carlos Arbeláez’s own reports and personal experience. The general rules were checked against the official KDP and Amazon documentation linked in the article. One author’s results do not guarantee another’s.