I published 150 (low content) books on Amazon KDP and what have I got to show for it...?

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 in 2021 I didn't really do anything with it for I'd say two or three months

and 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 open 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 the 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 the October so I uploaded these books at the end of September and then I think in the 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 a hundred and eighty 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 1 547.95 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 was 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 then

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 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 to 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 wrapper 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 button 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