Transcription
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Sparrow's End of Business Diaries. I decided it was about time that I made this video. I finally got to the point where I've published 150 books onto KDP that I am relatively happy with. It's about time I took stock and asked myself the question: what have I actually got out of doing KDP and uploading those 150 books?
There are so many opinions online about KDP, about whether it's all a massive con and whether it's oversaturated, and what type of books it is that you have to make now in order to make money. Most of those opinions are based on personal experience, on people's successes and failures, and I just thought it was time for me to put my two pence worth in as well. I am going to start with a short little story time about my history with KDP, and then we will get onto the juicy stuff in terms of what have I actually got to show you for it.
So, when I first opened my Amazon KDP account back in 2021, I didn't really do anything with it for, I'd say, two or three months. It was just something that I had seen on YouTube and thought, "Oh, that sounds quite interesting," particularly the videos that were all about uploading notebooks because I love stationery, and I just thought, "Oh, okay, that looks like something I can do." I opened the account, did nothing, and then over the summer of 2021, I created my first notebook and I uploaded it and promptly just walked away from it and did nothing else. I assumed that if I made a sale I would get an email, I'd get notified in some way like you do when you make a sale on eBay or on Etsy, but nothing happened. And it wasn't until I got a payment, like a royalties payment email, come through that I realized that something was happening, that I had sold something. So I went back on onto the dashboard, and I could see that I had sold a couple of copies of—I sold one copy, and then I sold another copy I think like the following month—but I had sold a couple of copies of this notebook over that summer. So that made me think, "Okay, it's real; you actually do get paid the money that you make, and it is possible to make money."
So I created, in September, I created a small batch of notebooks. I cannot remember how many; you'll have to go back to my first KDP income report, um, because I think it tells you something about it there. And I think it was in October, so I uploaded these books at the end of September, and then I think in October I earned about 10 pounds from those notebooks, which again was just a lovely confirmation that actually you can make money and you do get paid the money. So over the course of quarter four in 2021, I made about 150 pounds, which is about 180 dollars, just from mainly those notebooks that I uploaded to begin with, and then I added some dated diaries I think and maybe a coloring book. I was really pleased with that.
So during the course of 2022 and also 2023, I have just chipped away at KDP very, very slowly, tiny little bit at a time. Some months go past and I don't touch it or do anything; other months, like May of this year, I set myself a little challenge, um, to upload a book a day in May. There is a playlist for that somewhere in my playlists if you want to watch it, where I did upload more books than I would do usually. Most of the time, KDP has been fitted in around all of the other things that I do online as well. My whole channel is me testing out loads of different online income streams; dreams of me kind of reporting back to you how I'm doing, how I'm finding things, and also how much money I'm making. And KDP just naturally became part of that group of things that I've been doing. So it has just been tiny little incremental steps over quite a long period of time, but now I've got my 150 books up, I really think that it's time for me to take stock and to evaluate what have I got to show for it, and what am I going to do moving forward.
So I think the first thing we need to look at then is how much money have I actually made from the 150 books? I have got it written down in front of me, so I'm going to read it out to you. Okay, so as it stands, I have made 1233 pounds and 97 pence; in dollars, that's 1547.95. That's what I've made in royalties over the lifetime of me being on Amazon KDP. I have just got to the point where I'm making approximately 100 pounds or 125 every single month from that catalog of 150 books. I've also looked at my year-on-year growth, and I am currently on track to have made about a thousand to twelve hundred pounds this year on KDP; in dollars, that's about 1200 to 1450. I have no idea how you would feel about that if they were your results; it's impossible for me to say exactly how much time I've spent on it over the last couple of years. I know that there have been big gaps, big periods of time where I've done nothing towards it, and other months where I've done a tiny little bit towards it. It has taken up a little bit of headspace at times where I've been trying to sort of learn things. Overall, it's definitely not one of my income streams that I have spent, you know, a lot of time on compared to others that I'm working on.
So what does that 100 pounds or 125 dollars a month actually mean to me? Well, a hundred pounds is my share of the grocery budget every single month in my household; so the overall budget is 200 pounds, while the half contributes 100, I contribute 100. That mostly covers all of our groceries and toiletries and and things like that for the month. That is now covered, and that is covered pretty much passively. The only things that I sometimes do with books that are uploaded, so with my catalog of books, is I sometimes go in and refresh and try out different keywords; I sometimes make adjustments to descriptions, but I mostly stick to a sort of minimal interference with them once they are up. And whilst I have started to experiment with ads a little bit, I probably haven't spent more than 10 or 12 on ads I don't think this year. I also—I'm just at the lottery ads stage of things—so I'm not having to put a lot of work into setting up the ad campaigns either. So I suppose what I'm saying is it is now making a significant contribution to my income; it is covering one of my bills and is doing so in a very low-maintenance way compared to my other income streams, such as running a vintage shop on Etsy. That income stream is very active; I have to source stock, I have to photograph things, I have to list each and every item; I then have to package things up, I have to deal with customer inquiries, and just so, so much more work goes into that than goes into maintaining my KDP income. So my judgment is that financially it has been worth it to establish this passive income stream and to be getting money from it consistently every single month of the year. I think also with the cost of living crisis that is affecting millions of people worldwide, having that extra 100 pounds a month is just—it's so, so helpful, and there aren't many people that would turn down an extra 125 dollars every single month.
Now, besides the money, what else have I got to show you for it? Well, I would say that I have the pleasure of doing it; like, I really enjoy the work. I enjoy the creativity of it, from like a sort of a design, an art and design perspective. I really enjoy making the front covers, making the interiors. I'm beginning to enjoy the research process and sort of figuring out some different types of book that I can try and make. I also think that it has built on existing skills that I have, and it's also given me some new ones as well. And I think all of the skills that I kind of develop with KDP, they all kind of feed into all of my other income streams in some way, shape, or form. So, for example, learning how to research what types of books are in demand on KDP has also helped me to research what type of vintage items are in demand on Etsy. So something that I've learned to do on KDP has now started to have an impact on my reselling business as well, and so everything kind of—I suppose all merges together in this big melting pot of the things that I am now able to do that I couldn't do before I started KDP or just wasn't very good at.
I think the other thing that it has given me is some confidence in my art and design work because the vast majority of my books make sales, particularly my scrapbook paper pads. My notebooks aren't doing too badly, and then one of the new niches that I have just released one book into that has made I think maybe about 20-odd sales already from that. So it has given me some confidence in my ability to do this and to earn money from it. However, I think the biggest takeaway from it, the biggest thing that I have got to show for it, is this huge amount of potential for the future. There are so many things that I am now looking at doing next year in order to sort of build and grow my KDP income and other incomes as well. So, for example, I have got at least two, possibly more, but at least two pen names that I am very, very tentatively at the moment taking steps towards growing into fully fledged holistic businesses that sell other products, that have mailing lists, that have a marketing plan, and I'm really, really excited to see where those things take me. I've also decided that I am definitely going to move forward with starting an online education business. It's something that I have been putting off so much because of the nature of the subject that I teach and also things to do with copyright, and also there would be a conflict of interest with one of my employers. With an example that I work for, you have to declare whether you are a publisher of any kind to them, and so there could be some problems there. And I have got to, when I start this business, make sure that absolutely every single element of it is completely original to me as far as possible. So I'm still a little bit wary of doing it, but I know that I'm ready to do it now as well. So huge potential with KDP, and I'm really, really looking forward to next year because what I'd like to do is to go from making a hundred pounds a month to making 250 pounds a month, which would be about a quarter to a third of my like survival expenses, the amount of money that absolutely kind of I have to have every single month to pay all of my bills. That would be amazing, and I do think it's possible. So there's just all of this huge potential that I'm really, really excited about for next year.
Now, on the topic of education and teaching, I also have another idea that I want to run past you to see if anyone would be interested. I am thinking of creating a mini-course for KDP, something like "Get Off the Ground with KDP" is what I'm thinking at the moment, um, and it would be geared towards absolute beginners, people who perhaps are feeling a little bit overwhelmed by all of the information that's out there that might appreciate a really kind of simplified syllabus to work through, and who would like to work with me on that. Is something where I can put into it everything that I have learned so far as a beginner at KDP and how I have managed to produce books that are good enough to get sales and how I have slowly and steadily built up this income stream for myself. Is definitely not something that would be suitable for anyone who is already doing KDP and is already making, you know, two, three hundred dollars a month from it. This is not for you; this is definitely not for you; click off now. However, if you're struggling to get that first sale or to just get going with it, then what I have in mind might be suitable for you. There is a link in the description box if you want to sign up and show that you are interested.
Now, before you sign up, I would suggest that you do two things: first of all, go back through and watch some of my KDP videos; there's ones on there about scrapbook paper, I've got some about using Canva, and some income reports. Go back through those and just kind of check out where I am and what I'm doing with KDP. And then the other thing I would suggest as well is you go and check out some of my work-from-home vlogs so that you get to know me a little bit better because I'm the person you would be working with. And the reason why that is so important is that there was a meta-analysis conducted on all the different things that make an impact on someone's learning, and in the top three was your relationship with your teacher. So it's really important that you choose the right person. And in the vlogs, you will get a much more natural sense—as far as anything on the Internet is natural—of who I am and how I am, how I talk about things, my attitude towards things, because what you really want to do is find yourself a really good match. And if your goals and your ideas and the things that you want to achieve with KDP are nothing like anything that I've spoken of, then anything I come up with is not going to be right for you; we will not be a good match. But if you are interested—oh, and also those of you that were interested in a scrapbook mini-series—if you sign up as well, because I'm thinking that would make a really nice little mini-course that is specific to scrapbook paper. So if either of those two things sound interesting to you, then sign up using the link in the description box, and I will use that to judge whether I think there is enough demand for me to put something together. And if there isn't, no offense will be taken; I have got plenty of other things to focus my time and energy on. But if it is something that people want, then it's something that I can very easily put together for you. Let me know in the comments below how your KDP journey is going and whether you think it is worth it or not, and I will see you again soon in the next video.