Coloring Books for Everyone
Experiment: Could I make and sell something on Amazon?
Parameters: Using ideas from my brain, copious claude tokens, and my Gemini API key for nano banana endpoint calls (prepaid tier), I created a series of all-ages paperback coloring books called Coloring Books for Everyone. Each book in the series is based around a different theme. The first one, Fantastic Bakes, was published on 9/28. At time of writing, Gothic Halloween is in review. A further two - Kawaii Halloween and Greetings From… - are still in development, mainly because there is a limit to how many titles KDP lets you publish per week.
The Process: First, pick a theme and get prompting. Ask claude to create around 60 illustrations designed for a paperback coloring book using nano banana. Being very detailed helps as each image requires a separate API call, so do-overs are costly. This will generate jpg files. I chose to manually create the PDF manuscript and cover PDF - mostly because I wanted to feel as though I’d had a little more creative input, especially when it came to the cover art and arrangement. Some of the images will require more API calls to tweak while others can be manually edited and cleaned up in photoshop.
Once the manuscript is ready, creating a title with Kindle Direct Publishing is the next step. KDP will review the manuscript and, once they sign off, it’ll go live.
(I’m using a pseudonym for this project.)
The Appeal: I chose Halloween because it’s Halloween season, with gothic and kawaii variants to try to cover different aesthetic tastes, and I chose baked goods because the new season of Great British Bake Off just dropped and it felt simultaneously timely and timeless. The Greetings From… book is a series of postcard-like images of cities, which include recognizable landmarks and themes.
The audience is people who like to color. That’s it. The intention is that people who color for fun or relaxation may see these titles - and their low price - and scoop them up to add to their rainy day activity drawer. Similarly, grandparents looking to stock up for when the kids come over can put this in their cart with very little friction. These titles, and their context, are soothing and innocuous.
The tricky part: There are hundreds of coloring books available on Amazon. How will I get mine seen if I’m not planning on any promotional spend? While I don’t expect to spin this into a coloring book empire - I don’t even care about ROI on the API calls - it would be nice to sell a few! Questions to consider:
Have I made the right call with my themes?
Accurate categorization and keywords. This is imperative. It goes back to the earliest of early days of the internet when SEO could make or break you. I will iterate on my keywords and categorization to see what works best but at a minimum I’ve placed the books in the adult coloring book and kids coloring book categories, except for the Gothic Halloween book, which is only in the adult coloring book category due to its spookier themes.
Reviews. This is something of a chicken/egg, but if I can garner some favorable reviews from actual buyers this will be a huge unlock.
What does KDP offer self-publishers that I can tap into..? This needs further investigation.
