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She Made $13609.76 In One Month
Edition #43
Welcome to the 43rd edition of Royalties on Demand - your guide to generating consistent income online.
Table of Contents
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She Made $13609.76 In One Month
I’m thrilled to welcome back Kim George for a second insightful interview. Kim has achieved impressive success since beginning her journey in March 2021.
In this upcoming interview, Kim will delve deeper into her strategies, share new insights, and offer invaluable advice for both new and seasoned authors.
I explore the continued evolution of Kim's publishing career and discover what new lessons she has implemented to earn over $13,000 in one month.
What are your main targets for your Amazon book publishing business this year, and how are they different from your goals in the past?
Answer:
Hey there Danny! I want to first start off by saying thanks for giving me the opportunity to interview with you again.
My main targets for my Amazon book publishing business this year are to:
Stabilize the income that I make from KDP every month (as much as possible). As most publishers, I make the majority of my money from KDP in Q4. So I’m hoping that this year I will get to the point where things level off and I am making close to my Q4 earnings every month. It’s an aggressive goal but I believe I can do it.
Add more evergreen medium content books to my portfolio (coloring and activity books). There is a lot of opportunity out there to earn well with these types of books, and there are so many directions/niches that you can publish books in. I am excited about what’s to come.
Congrats on making $13,609.76 in December, reflecting on your journey so far, which books have sold best for you and what would you say have been your most valuable lessons learned?
Thanks so much Danny! So to be honest, the books that have sold the best for me are coloring books, prompted journals and children’s books (yes – there is a huge market for children’s books).
Some of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned with selling these types of books and going through two Q4’s now is that you can NEVER get too comfortable in this business.
With more people getting into the self-publishing game, even if you feel like you are making decent money and that it’s important to continue learning, making books and putting in the time and effort to grow your business.
In our previous discussion, you emphasized the importance of niche validation and research. Could you share more on how you conduct this research and any tools or resources you find invaluable?
Sure thing! So these days, one of the tools that I am lovingggg is Bookbeam. I have to give a shout out to Jenny Hansen Lane because she was one of the first people I’ve heard on YouTube mention this tool.
These days, Bookbeam is pretty much a one stop shop in my opinion for finding profitable niches to target, getting a quick list of keywords to use for projects, doing trademark searches and their optimization tools.
I still use free tools like AMZ suggestion expander and DS Amazon QuickView, but here again, Bookbeam has made the research process so much easier for me.
How much time does it take for you to complete a book? Do you hire others to help with any part of the process?
This is a great question and to be honest it kind of depends. For low content books like prompted journals or logbooks – it can take a few days to a week.
For books like coloring books and medium content books, it can take one to two weeks. Because I have quite a bit going on these days with running multiple businesses, I am definitely outsourcing book projects to Freelancers on Fiverr to free up a lot of my time.
Yes, outsourcing comes at a price (I pay around $200+ to outsource certain books) …but here again, If I have the budget and can free up some time to get projects completed, I will go for it.
If you do decide to outsource, start off slow with smaller test projects to build relationships with your freelancers, then give them bigger projects from there.
The role of a book’s cover in its success cannot be overstated. Can you provide details about your thought process of designing a cover that stands out?
So one of the things that I really…really stress to my students and YouTube subbies is the importance of designing EPIC covers for your books. This is one area of the design process that I give a lot of time and attention to.
For me, designing covers starts with the niche that I am publishing a book in. What I will usually do is use Bookbeam to find a list of the top selling designs in that specific niche to see if there is a theme or trend that sells best.
From there, I will take a screenshot of the top 3-5 best sellers then either DIY design a cover that I believe can compete with it or hire a freelancer to design a cover that's visually appealing.
Last time you mentioned that building a brand around your books was a game-changer for you. Could you explain the strategy behind choosing which books to include in your brand and how you ensure they resonate with your audience?
Absolutely! So whenever I am building a brand (aka a series of books to sell on Amazon), my strategy is pretty simple. I create brands aka (series of books) that are either the same type of book (coloring books) or around a specific audience/type of person (Christian mothers).
So as an example, Jade Summer is a well known brand on Amazon that is known for one thing: their coloring books. So that when people go and search for their products, they are looking specifically for the coloring books that they create.
How do you structure your book launch strategy to maximize visibility and sales from day one?
This is a great question. My book launch strategy is always changing but, in a nutshell here is what I do:
Get my A+ content created and ready to publish. A+ content is an excellent resource for showcasing your books, so I make sure to add it to all of the books that I publish.
Pull together a list of keywords to use for running ads. I run several different ad campaigns to new books (automatic and manual ads) – so having keywords set aside to use for my ads helps get things going quicker.
Run ads on new books as soon as they are live. There are rumors in the KDP world that Amazon gives a boost to new books. So running ads to them right away – gives them even more visibility that hopefully leads to sales. Now – I want to say that Ads are not going to help poorly designed or spammy books. So if you don’t have a strong cover, great interior or well put together book, then it’s best that you practice on getting these things right first before running ads to your books.
Time management is a challenge for many. Could you share more detailed strategies or tools you've adopted since our last conversation to balance your diverse commitments more effectively?
I’ll be honest. This is an area of my business that I still struggle with sometimes. One tool that has helped me a ton is called Todoist (a free to do list app).
So I have this app installed on my Chrome browser and I use it every day. With the Todoist app, I make a list of the top 3 tasks I need to get done for the day, and just mark them off one by one as I complete them.
This has been a simple but powerful time management strategy for me as it forces me to focus on doing one task at a time before moving on to something else (because I get squirrely very easily).
What recent challenges have you faced with Amazon KDP, and how did you overcome them?
As I mentioned previously, one of the biggest challenges that I face after Q4 is over is a huge drop in income (boooo to that). So I am working hard right now to add more medium content books to my portfolio and scale my business with ads.
How do you handle negative feedback or reviews on your books?
I use it as an opportunity to improve the book. True story: A customer left a 1-star review on one of my best selling books. I was completely distraught at first as it started tanking the sales of this book a bit.
Instead of staying mad about the review, I decided to use the feed as constructive criticism, made changes to the book and now it's a best seller with over 300 reviews.
In this business, you need to have tough skin and be able to roll with the punches. Sure – bad reviews can be frustrating but they can also give you valuable insights that you can use to improve your books as well.
What advice do you have for new self-publishers in 2024?
Take the “Make 10,000 dollars a month publishing lined journals on Amazon” videos on YouTube with a grain of salt.
I despise these kinds of videos because they don’t show what it really takes to do this business. I will be the first to tell you, it is tough. But, if you can find a lane for yourself, get the basics down (cover design, make good interiors, niche research) then you can potentially build a great business.
Secondly (and this is a big one) - use data to guide your decisions – not your feelings. I hear so many aspiring publishers talk about how they “feel” that their idea will make them a lot of money.
This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Instead, if you have an idea for a book that you want to create, it's better to validate your idea first by doing research. This way you will have an idea if you have an actual market to serve before putting time, money and effort into creating the book.
You have been self-publishing for a few years, Can you share more about how you navigate the emotional highs and lows of this business?
By accepting that highs and lows are a part of the process and that there will be challenges along the way.
Another thing that I believe is helpful is being a part of a mastermind or accountability group. It helps to talk to other folks that are on the same path as you to talk through challenges, get support, give support and stay motivated.
Lastly, going for walks or doing some sort of activity to break up the monotony is something I like to do. Going for a long walk or stepping away from my desk really helps me clear my head and get things back on track from a mental perspective.
Reflecting on your journey, what is one thing you wish you had known when you started self-publishing on Amazon KDP?
That it's going to take months of solid hard work before you see any progress or sales. Like a lot of folks, I fell into the trap of thinking that I would start getting results fairly easily – because well notebooks are easy to make and publish.
But that is not the case. It took me around 6 months or so before I started seeing sales. I had lost a lot of money running ads incorrectly and things were just all bad.
Once I saw my first sale on the KDP dashboard, It was on like donkey kong. I knew this business was possible and kept working at it.
What future plans do you have for your self-publishing and online business, where do you see yourself in the next few years?
My future plans are to keep building my KDP business by adding more medium content books to my portfolio and scale it with ads. I am also continuing to build my membership– the Journal Creators Collective as well as make updates to my self-paced course - From Publish to Profit.
I want to personally thank you for inviting me to interview with you again. I am sooo super proud of you and always look forward to hearing updates from you with your KDP business and other biz ventures.
Kim’s Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@YourChicGeek
Need Help?
At Royalties on Demand, I offer various services tailored to aspiring authors and self-publishers looking to make a mark in the industry.
You can find free templates designed to simplify the design process and enhance your books' visual appeal.
My one-to-one coaching sessions provide personalized guidance and mentorship, allowing you to face the challenges of publishing with ease.
For those looking to delve deeper into the world of AI Coloring Books, my comprehensive eBook is packed with insider tips, strategies, and step-by-step instructions to guide you towards success.
Once again, thank you for joining me on this exciting journey. Have an awesome week ahead and I look forward to catching up with you next week.
Next week we will have a big interview to look forward to!
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