Creating a Coloring Book for Amazon KDP: The Process

Do you want to try something new thats fun? I’m lovin’ making and selling coloring books on Amazon!

Have you got an eye for design or art? Or, even if you don’t, do you want to exercise your creative muscles? Well, creating a coloring book for Amazon might just be your next big thing! Here’s a quick guide to get you started.

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In this blog post, I’m going to show you how to turn your ideas into a tangible, sellable products.

Idea / Keyword Research

Before you even sketch a line, you need a theme. I will create more content about keyword research in the future to help you with this important step.

Try to find out what themes are popular and resonating with people in the coloring book niche. But niche down! Combine themes: abstract patterns, serene landscapes, majestic animals, fantasy, mandalas, rude words, treehouses, portraits, cars, trucks, shoes, kawaii, cute, candies, kid’s themes – the world’s your oyster. See if you can combine any of these themes together or try something new!

But how do you translate that idea into a tangible product? Enter Midjourney.

Midjourney prompts for the coloring pages

I have blogged about Midjourney already. Midjourney is the AI image generator I’ve been using the most. Here are the best Midjourney prompts for Print on Demand. Something like this:

/imagine: a printable black and white coloring page featuring [subject], clean line art --ar 17:22

“Abstract dreamy landscape with a big sun” or “psychedelic pattern” are just a couple of examples. It’s a bit hit and miss, but when you hit – it’s gold. You just have to keep going. Remember you have to purchase one of the paid plans in order to use Midjourney images commercially.

There are alternatives to Midjourney, of course: Leonardo, DALL-E, Bing Image Creator, Adobe Firefly, or Stable Diffusion.

Editing the perfect coloring pages

With your Midjourney designs in hand, now you have to refine them. First of all, I edit the images and then upscale. You could choose to upscale first and edit second, it’s up to you.

For me, the real magic happens in Adobe Photoshop (expensive) or Affinity Photo (mid-range, $70). You can also use free tools such as GIMP or even Canva. Remember, in coloring, clarity is key! These tools allow you to enhance the contrast, ensuring the designs are crisp, clear, and easy to color in.

Contrast is the most important editing factor. Sometimes the images from Midjourney are wishy-washy with a lot of grays. Sometimes they even have color in them. It’s best to brighten up the whites and to darken down the blacks – this is increasing contrast, basically – and this will make your coloring page easier for the customer to color in.

This stage is important because you can get rid of some of the tell-tale signs that you’ve made these images with AI – six or seven fingers on a hand, anyone?

It’s all about making your designs look great and ensuring they’re print-perfect.

Upscaling with Upscayl

The designs you get from most platforms aren’t always print-ready for a letter-sized book. For example, the images from Midjourney are only, typically, about 1000 pixels wide at 72 dpi. They need to be upscaled to be printed.

At the moment, I’m using Upscayl. It’s a nifty, AI tool that enlarges your designs while adding detail. The result? High-resolution images that are perfect for printing. There are other online AI image upscalers you can use. Upscayl is free for now. Alternatives are Vance AI, Gigapixel Ai’s Topaz is $100 one-off payment, Upscale, or LetsEnhance.ai.

Formatting for KDP

Now, onto the technical bit. Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) wants your covers and interiors saved as PDFs. And the size? Aim for 8.5 x 11 inches, upright. Or you could try 8.5 x 8.5 inches square. Put the coloring page on the right-hand page. And keep the opposite page blank. This ensures colors don’t bleed onto the next page.

It might sound tedious, but getting the format right is crucial for a seamless publishing experience.

Again there’s a choice of applications you can use. The expensive, the cheap and the free. I used Adobe InDesign (expensive), but Affinity Publisher ($70) is another great option. You can also use Microsoft Word, Google Slides, Mac Pages, or, again, Canva. Anything that will let you create a multiple page high resolution PDF.

The all-important cover design

First impressions matter. Your cover is the first thing potential buyers see, so make it count. Again, I will create more content about creating covers in the future because covers are so important. I get the cover images at Midjourney.

Uploading to KDP and setting the price

With everything in place, it’s time to upload to KDP. The process is straightforward, but always double-check. As for pricing, do some market research. See what similar books are priced at and find your sweet spot. I typically go for around $8 which gives me about $2 profit per sale.

Marketing / Spreading the Word

Your book is live! Share it far and wide. Social media, friends, family, that barista who always spells your name wrong – tell everyone.

Final thoughts

My coloring book journey is a blend of creativity and technical know-how and I love it! It’s challenging, rewarding, and oh-so-fun. With the right tools and a sprinkle of patience, you’ll have your own coloring book gracing Amazon’s virtual shelves. And you may discover a new hobby!

But, hold that thought! You can also sell them on Etsy and Gumroad as well!

Also, I have to recommend this awesome and FREE Facebook Group that discusses AI, Midjourney, especially connected to making books on Amazon. It’s called Midjourney, ChatGPT, AI and Beyond – AI Adventure with Katharyne & Isaac. The group is the brainchild of Katharyne Shelton and Isaac Gonzalez who are OGs of the Amazon publishing game.

I could go on and on, if you’re interested, here’s the link to the course: Imagine with Katharyne. This is an affiliate link, so I’ll get a cut of the proceeds if you decide to buy through this link. However, I wouldn’t recommend this course if I hadn’t already gone through it and also have 100% trust in the course creators, as I do. If you don’t fancy shelling out for the course, remember to join the free Facebook group which is excellent.

They also have a course and software available which does all the above. I’ve gone through it and am very impressed. Not only do they have hours of video tutorials explaining how to use ChatGPT, Midjourney, et al, when making coloring books, they also have software that increases contrast of the coloring images, creates multiple page PDFs, and, as if that wasn’t enough, it’s also bundled with their previous product, Tangent Templates, which has hundreds of free templates of low content books you can sell on Amazon.

What are your thoughts on this? Have you tried creating coloring books before? Or have you colored in a coloring book? What do you think of this idea?