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Amazon KDP Coloring Book Guide

Finding Inspiration, create your coloring book and sell it on Amazon KDP

Welcome! And thanks for joining How to Leverage AI!

The content in this page is everything you need to create and publish a coloring book on Amazon KDP and sell it with profit.

For any questions, feel free to contact me via the website chat.

What is a Coloring Book?

In simple terms, a coloring book is a book made of black and white pictures that people can buy on Amazon and manually color it.

How can I create a Coloring Book?

In order to create a coloring book you will need

1. An AI text-to image tech, such as Midjourney or Leonardo AI, to generate the images

2. An AI Language model, such as Chat GPT, to create title, description, blurb, and perform market analysis to study your customers and do marketing activities

3. Amazon scraping tools, such as Publisher Rocket, Amazon DS Quick View, Amazon Suggestion Expander, to understand what kind of books people buy on Amazon KDP

4. A graphic tool like Canva or Adobe, to create the book cover

4. A tool like Word or Canva to put everything together and create the final manuscript

6. A step by step process to simply upload your book on KDP

7. Amazon Ads and a community to show your creations

8. Knowledge (Chat GPT, Midjourney, Amazon Keyword Search, Amazon Ads, Marketing)

How much does it cost to produce a Coloring Book?

The approximate cost breakdown to produce a coloring book is the following

1. An AI text-to image tech: FREE or 30$/month for unlimited images

2. An AI Language model: FREE or 20$/month for unlimited generations

3. Amazon scraping tools: FREE or 97$/one time fee for Publisher Rocket

4. A graphic tool: FREE or 20$/month for unlimited edits

5. A step by step process: FREE 

6. Amazon Ads: 10$/day which can potentially lead to profitability from day 1

7. Knowledge: Variable. Here at 19,99$/one time fee with how to leverage AI 

Total CostFREE or approximately 30$ full price to produce a coloring book from start to finish

Earning Potential: Unlimited

Coloring Book Style Guide

Before diving into the technical aspects and before using the Coloring Book Prompt Generator PLUS, here is a list of illustrators, styles and keywords that are perfect for Coloring Books. You can either

  1. Find them in the Coloring Book Prompt Generator

  2. Create new personalized prompts using them alone or in combinations of 2+

Always make sure your coloring pages are not exactly copies of someone's styles, otherwise you may be flagged for plagiarism and your coloring books may be blocked and your account banned or suspended.

You can create "style-inspired books", but you can't publish coloring books with trade-marked characters, such as Mickey Mouse, Angry Bird...

So always make sure you use AI to create something original and plagiarism-free.

Questions to answer before starting

Here are some Q&A before getting started, to get you familiar with the process.

More details in the following sections.

Q: How many pages does a coloring book have?
A: You need to check the best selling coloring books in a chosen niche and see how many pages they have. Your book page count will be in line with them.

Q: How many images do I need?
A: The total number of pages excluding introduction, table of content and conclusion is the number of images you need to create with Midjourney or Leonardo.AI.
 

Q: How do I find styles for the coloring pages?

A: You can use the Coloring Book Prompt Generator PLUS, get inspired by the style gallery, combine styles, find your own styles and experiment. You can generate your prompts with the generator, with Excel or with Chat GPT automations.

Q: How do I know if people will buy my coloring book?
A: While success is a matter of trials and learnings, there are 5 key components of your success. The first one is studying the demand via Amazon Keyword Search and what is trending online. The second one is a great cover and title, the third one is a compelling description that talks directly to your customer archetype, the fourth one is social proof, and the fifth, most important, is a high-quality coloring book. With AI and manual work, you can achieve all of it in a way that has never been possible before, at a ridiculous cost, in a fraction of the time, with a higher quality than ever.

Q: How do I research the keywords?

A: To research the keywords on Amazon KDP you will have to use free tools such as Amazon DS Quick View, Amazon Suggestion Expander and Publisher Rocket. There are also alternative tools but I will show you why these are my favorite.

Q: How do I price the book?

A: The price​ of the coloring book (and other books) is a combination of number of pages and competitors' price. Checkout how competitors are pricing their books and price your accordingly. Make sure you have the right number of pages, because this will impact the royalty per copy, which is the amount of money you make for each sale.
 

  • The higher the page count, the higher the printing cost, the lower the royalty

  • Your royalty is calculated keeping into account the book price and the number of pages

  • High page count = higher printing cost = lower royalty

  • Low price = lower royalty

  • Low page count = lower printing cost = higher royalty

  • High price = higher royalty

The best scenario is a competitive price with a lower number of pages and a higher royalty. The royalty for coloring books is calculated with the following formula:

BOOK ROYALTY: Fix Cost + Number of Pages * 0.08

You can also calculate the royalty with this free Amazon Royalty Calculator

Keep in mind that you will run ads, so this will have to factor that in as a cost to calculate the Net Royalty earned for each copy sold.

NET ROYALTY: Book Royalty - Cost of Ads per 1 Copy sold

Q: What are the components of the book?

A: The components of the book are:

 

  1. Book Cover

  2. Title and Subtitle

  3. Introduction

  4. Copyright Page

  5. Table of content

  6. Pictures (Coloring Pages)

  7. Conclusion

  8. Book Blurb for the back of the book

  9. Book Description for Amazon product page

  10. 7 Keywords to add in the 7 Boxes when publishing on Amazon

  11. A+ Content (Images to add at the bottom of the page)

Q: How do I format the book?

A: To format the book, first checkout your competitors formatting (e.g. 5 x 8 ln), then you can use Canva, Word or other tools. I would not recommend you to outsource the process until you become proficient in creating high quality coloring books fast. This will allow you to save money and time, and it's also easy and fun!


Q: How do I publish the book?

A: To publish the book, you need to create an account on Amazon KDP. It only takes a few minutes and it's FREE. You will need a bank account 

Q: How do I run ads?

A: There is a dedicated section on Amazon Ads later.

Step by Step Process Checklist. We are about to start.

OK. Before getting started, get ready with the following:

WORKING TOOLS

  1. Open Chat GPT

  2. Create an account on Discord and access Midjourney

  3. Open the Coloring Book Prompt Generator PLUS

  4. Open Canva or Microsoft Word

  5. Open Google Bard and Perplexity AI (two AI language models similar to Chat GPT)

  6. Word to PDF converter

AMAZON TOOLS

  1. ​Install Amazon DS Quick View

  2. Install Amazon Suggestion Expander

  3. Download Publisher Rocket or Kindle Spy

Question Checklist to Answer

Here is a list of sequential questions you need to answer to create a coloring book

Q: What coloring books are selling the most?

A: The answer is in keyword search. The market demand and the competition will determine your sales. Find what people are searching for, assess the niche competitiveness and create your coloring books when you find opportunities (high demand, low competition, and a few books that are selling well under specific keywords)

You will always do keyword search. Manually, with Publisher Rocket and other tools. 

Q: What type of coloring book do I want to create?

A: Checkout what the market wants (keyword search) and model and improve. Create high quality images and a "unique twist" of something that is selling, so you will appeal to a subniche and you will be able to sell to them. Do not make poor quality books and covers and avoid copying other books.

Q: How do I choose the coloring book style?

A: After you found out the coloring books that are selling, you can generate ideas with the prompt generator or Chat GPT

Q: How do I make my book appealing for the audience?

A: Important concepts to understand are "Buyer persona" and "Persuasive Writing."

The key is finding out

  1. What books are selling the most

  2. Why people are buying them

  3. Who are those people that are buying these books

  4. How to talk to them in a persuasive way in the book cover, title and description

Q: How do I create a great book title and subtitle?

A: Your title will include profitable keywords and copywriting parts. It is a mix of Amazon KDP keywords and words to entice the customer to click. You can't change titles and subtitles once published.

Q: How do I create a great cover?

A: You need to create better covers than the best selling books. With Midjourney and Canva, you can create amazing covers in a short time (even though the goal is not to go fast when creating such an important piece of the puzzle like the cover). It works even if you don't have high skills. Also, nothing comes perfect at the first trial. Take your time to get familiar with Canva or other tools like Illustrator and try to do better every time.

Also, you can change the cover with an improved version later to improve sales, if needed. 

Q: How do I create a great book description?

A: A great book description talks exactly to your buyer persona (customer archetype), with the languages they talk, addressing their pain points, with persuasive words and a greatly visual formatting, with bullet points, bold, h4 and other formatting options that Amazon allows you to use.

I will show you how to use Chat GPT to achieve all of this.

Q: How do I create a great blurb?

A: The blurb is a simplified version of the book description that goes on the back of the book. It is part of the cover and the packaging of the final product. It's an informative and ornamental object, a further image you can show on your product page and it's simply nice to have. You can create it with Chat GPT

 

Q: What are the A+ Content?

A: Amazon allows to add a section below the description where you can insert images and text in multiple layouts. You can use this section to add extra visuals to your customers, showing them more of the inside, and add further elements.

A+ Content are not compulsory. You can add them later, change them or remove them. They are quick and easy to do and they can give your book that extra credibility and emotional appeal that will make people buy.

 

Let's Get Started: Keyword Search

OK. Let's get started with our coloring book

KEYWORD SEARCH

The Keyword Search phase will allow you to find what books are selling the most.

  1. Type in a keyword in the search bar

  2. Checkout the number of results (ideally < 5,000 searches/month)

  3. Find out how many books are selling (ideally more than 2 books with BSR <120,000)

  4. Make sure these coloring books have low number of reviews and ratings (Stars <150)

  5. Repeat the process with many keywords, take notes on an Excel file

Let's Get Started: Marketing

Once you found the topic, in the marketing phase you learn more about the customers types, their pain points, their trigger and why they buy what they buy.

You will use AI to build buyer personas to write title, blurb and book description.

MARKETING: BUYER PERSONA

  1. Go to Chat GPT, Google Bard and Perplexity AI

  2. Build Buyer Personas, Q&A and any relevant info

  3. Use AI to write title, blurb and book description

Prompts to create Buyer Persona and Book Angle

PROMPT 1: Act as a marketing expert with over 10 years of experience in coloring book publishing, marketing and customer profiling. I want to create a [DINOSAUR COLORING BOOK FOR KIDS 8-10]. Please suggest me 5 possible buyer personas that I can market to. For each of them, list the main reasons why they are buying this kind of book and what they are looking for, then list a possible book angle, so I can customize the book accordingly.

PROMPT 2: Act as a marketing expert with over 10 years of experience in coloring book publishing, marketing and customer profiling. Use the [BUYER PERSONA YOU CHOSE] and answer the following questions:

  1. Who is the Target Customer? Identify their age, gender, occupation, education level, and any other demographic information that helps define them.

  2. What are their Specific Needs and Interests? Determine the hobbies, interests in particular artistic styles or themes, or any other preferences that influence their attraction to coloring books.

  3. What are their Buying Habits? Assess how often they purchase, through which channels they prefer to buy, and what budget constraints they may have.

  4. How Do They Use Coloring Books? Explore whether they use them for relaxation, learning, spending quality time with children, or any other specific purposes.

  5. What are their Goals and Aspirations? Understand what they hope to achieve with coloring books, such as enhancing creativity, improving artistic skills, or other personal or professional goals.

  6. What are their Main Challenges or Obstacles? Identify the difficulties they face, like finding specific styles, the right price points, desired quality, or other challenges that affect their purchase decisions.

  7. What Influences their Purchase Decisions? Determine the factors that influence their choice, such as online reviews, brand reputation, recommendations from friends or family, or other influencers.

  8. How Do They Perceive Your Brand and Your Competitors? Analyze how they view the strengths and weaknesses of your brand compared to competitors, and how you can differentiate your coloring book offerings.

  9. What are the Customer’s Pain Points? Identify the specific challenges or problems that your customers are facing. This could include difficulties in finding coloring books that suit their preferences, dissatisfaction with the quality or price of available options, or struggles in accessing specific content or themes they desire.

  10. How Does Your Product or Service Solve Those Pain Points? Analyze how your coloring book offerings specifically address the pain points identified. Consider quality, variety, pricing, accessibility, and other factors that might alleviate customer frustrations.

  11. What are the Potential Obstacles to Purchasing from Your Brand? Understand what might prevent potential customers from buying your coloring books, such as lack of awareness of your products, unavailability in preferred purchasing channels, or any perceived shortcomings in comparison to competitors.

  12. What Emotional Triggers Influence Their Buying Decisions? Explore the emotional factors that may impact their purchase decisions, like trust in a brand, desire for relaxation or creativity, connections to particular themes or artistic styles, etc.

Organize the information in a word file or a Google Sheet.

MARKETING: BOOK STYLE

Now that you've determined the topic of your coloring book, it's time to focus on its artistic component and [STYLE]. With the availability of cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies for image generation, you have the capability to create stunning and unique images of exceptional quality. This stage requires careful attention and is not one that can be delegated to AI alone, such as GPT models, as it is more artistic and creative.

 

You'll need to identify the specific styles that resonate with your target audience.

To do this, you can analyze the best-selling books in your category to see what artistic approaches are successful. Then, you can start experimenting with Midjourney and find out a [STYLE] that describe your book. At this point. You can either create the book in full (I will cover it later) or you can simply decide the [STYLE] and start writing a description.

This strategic approach ensures not only the aesthetic appeal of your coloring book but also its alignment with market preferences, maximizing its potential success.

MARKETING: BOOK DESCRIPTION

Once you have the information you need and you have chosen [BUYER PERSONA], it's time for the book angle: the book angle includes the book style [STYLE] and the word you use to sell in the product description.

 

First of all: open the best selling book and checkout their description. Save it, if you want. If these books are selling, it means that this type of description works.

Secondly: drop the [BUYER PERSONA] in Chat GPT and ask for a book description.

Drop also the information about the [STYLE] so AI can mention it and use it as a unique selling point

Thirdly: analyze the keywords in the best selling books titles. Those keywords can be seen as "buzzwords", which are words that apparently trigger sales. Keep them in mind and model and improve your tutle and description without merely copying.

PROMPT 1: Act as an experienced marketer and copywriter with over 10 years of experience in selling coloring books on Amazon KDP. I need you to create a perfect KDP description for my product page. Here are the information about the [BUYER PERSONA - Add information]

With the right prompt, Chat GPT will create a perfect book description to talk to your target persona. You may need a few generations and prompt tweaks and put everything together.

Here is a list of powerful keywords and prompt tweaks you can use to get higher quality results

  • Use bullet points

  • List benefits and not features

  • Start with a hook

  • End with a strong call to action

  • Use the AIDA Model (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action)

  • Use the PAS Model (Problem, Agitate, Solution)

  • Use the 4P's Model (Picture, Promise, Prove, Push)

  • Use the 4 U's Model (Useful, Urgent, Unique, Ultra-specific)

  • Make sure you include the following keywords [Keyword 1, Keyword 2...]

  • Make sure you talk about the customer pain points and exagerate them as much as possible before presenting the book as the solution

  • The tone of voice I want you to use is (excited, happy, assertive, salesy, colloquial, informal, warm, friendly, catchy, witty, Joe Rogan,  Kevin Heart...)

Use the above instructions and feel free to copy-paste best selling descriptions or parts of them into Chat GPT and ask AI to create something using the same structure for your specific book.

This entire process can take a few minutes, but make sure you spend enough time on it, until you master it. Save your prompts on Word or Google Sheet so you can reuse them and improve every time

MARKETING: BLURB

Now that you have the description, you can simply drop it or drop the information about the [TARGET PERSONA] and ask for a book blurb.

PROMPT 2: Act as an experienced marketer and copywriter with over 10 years of experience in selling coloring books on Amazon KDP. I need you to create a blurb for my book. Here are the information [BUYER PERSONA - Add information or add book description].

With the right prompt, Chat GPT will create a perfect book blurb. You may need a few generations and prompt tweaks and put everything together.

MARKETING: TITLE & SUBTITLE

The title and subtitle include a keyword and copywriting words. It has a character limit of 200 characters including spaces. So stay around 197 characters max.

  • Take the best selling titles

  • Take the profitable keywords you found

  • Take the style name and information

  • Take the buyer persona information

  • Ask Chat GPT to create 10 possible titles and subtitles

  • Choose the one you like the most

PROMPT 1: Act as an experienced book title writer and copywriter with over 10 years of experience in selling coloring books on Amazon KDP. Create 10 possible titles for my book. These are context information (drop the information in the list above or some of them)

In a blink of an eye, you will have an amazing title!

 

Remember that, once you publish your book, you won't be able to change the title.

 

Choose a Pen Name. Whether it is your real name, a nick name or a publishing company nick name. Think with a long term vision and aim at building a brand.

 

Make sure you save Book Blurb, Description and Title in a Word Doc or Google Sheet, to work more efficiently.

Let's Get Started: Image Generation

It's time to generate the images.

COLORING BOOK CREATION PROCESS

There are several methods to generate images using artificial intelligence: you can leverage platforms like Leonardo AI or Midjourney.

You can create prompts manually, using chat GPT prompts to create Midjourney prompts or utilizing the Coloring Book Prompt Generator PLUS.

 

Additionally, you can consult a style library or search for new styles online (I've conducted extensive research to create the generator but feel free to experiment new ideas) 

 

You can create new styles by combining two or more existing ones. If you prefer, you can even quickly create your own prompt generator in Excel, and I'll demonstrate how to do that later.

The most crucial aspect now is that you've defined your book's theme, title, topic, and style. This knowledge allows you to craft a high-quality product specifically tailored to the audience you've researched.

I'll also guide you later on how to generate diverse ideas for all the images you need, all within the same theme. This stage is inherently creative, and while structure is necessary, it's also an opportunity to have fun and experiment with styles. Remember to jot down your findings, so you can continuously improve your efficiency and skill in creating coloring books.

Keep in mind that you'll need to

 

  1. Review the coloring page numbers of your competitors

  2. Consider their pricing when determining your own

  3. As you calculate the price, you can also determine the royalties

  4. Remember to deduct around 6 pages for the introduction, table of contents, and conclusion; this figure will define the number of images you need to create your coloring book.

  5. Next, you can use tools like Canva or Microsoft Word to compile all the images on separate pages, enabling you to create your coloring book from start to finish.

  6. Make sure you know the book formatting (e.g. 8.5x11) to set up the book properly

This comprehensive approach ensures that your book is not only artistically appealing but also competitive and aligned with market demands.

Let's Get Started: Book Cover

It's time to create the book cover.

COLORING BOOK COVER

To create the cover, head over Canva or another software like Adobe Illustrator.

Canva is FREE, beginner-friendly, and will allow you to create a high quality cover.

The cover is a crucial part of your book, so make sure you do an amazing job without cutting any corner. Take your time, until you are satisfied with the result.

  1. Find the best selling covers of your competitors

  2. Create a stunning image for your cover with Midjourney

  3. Download the Amazon Cover Template with your format and page count

  4. Open Canva, create a new document with the right dimension

  5. Paste the Amazon Cover Template

  6. Add the cover image

  7. Add the title. Make sure it's clear and big, so it stands out as a small preview on the Amazon search pages

  8. Add the Pen Name (below)

  9. Add the blurb in the back cover

  10. Add the title on the book spine

Refine the cover until you are satisfied and export in PDF.

Let's Get Started: Finalize the Book

It's time to put all the pieces together.

FINALIZE THE COLORING BOOK

To create the cover, head over Canva or another software like Adobe Illustrator.

Canva is FREE, beginner-friendly, and will allow you to create a high quality cover.

The cover is a crucial part of your book, so make sure you do an amazing job without cutting any corner. Take your time, until you are satisfied with the result.

Open Microsoft Word

  1. Page 1: Title, Subtitle and Pen Name

  2. Page 2: Copyright - Download Template - tweak it as needed

  3. Page 3: Table of Content (Model Competitors)

  4. Page 4: Introduction

  5. Page 5: Coloring Book Images

  6. Final Page: Conclusion

Consider creating a brand and a website and add your website URL at the end of the book to grow your audience.

Make sure you

  1. Add page number on each page

  2. Add clickable table of content

  3. Add Pen Name and or Title as headers

Introduction and Conclusion

Last 2 pages. Introducion and conclusion.

INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION

Head over to Chat GPT to generate the introduction page and the conclusion.

PROMPT 1: Act as an experienced book writer and copywriter with over 10 years of experience in selling coloring books on Amazon KDP. I need you to create a book introduction for my book. Here are context information. [Add information]

PROMPT 2: Act as an experienced book writer and copywriter with over 10 years of experience in selling coloring books on Amazon KDP. I need you to create a book conclusion for my book. Here are context information. [Add information]

Additional Prompt Tweaks

  • The tone of voice I want you to use is (excited, happy, assertive, salesy, colloquial, informal, warm, friendly, catchy, witty, Joe Rogan,  Kevin Heart...)

  • Make sure you include the following information [Add information]

Copy-paste the pages in your final document.

Additional Tips for Long Term Success

Last 2 pages. Introducion and conclusion.

INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION

The 7 Keywords

Last 2 pages. Introducion and conclusion.

INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION

Publish the Book

Last 2 pages. Introducion and conclusion.

INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION

Amazon Ads

Last 2 pages. Introducion and conclusion.

INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION

Coloring Book Prompt Generator PLUS

Last 2 pages. Introducion and conclusion.

INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION

Links

Chat GPT

Google Bard

Perplexity AI

Midjourney

Canva

Google Sheet

Amazon DS Expander

Publisher Rocket

Amazon Quick View

KDP Royalty Calculator

KDP Cover Calculator

KDP - Kindle Direct Publishing

Amazon Ads Dashboard

Our Clients

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