Guides
How to price a coloring book
Pricing a printed coloring book is not a matter of taste. Amazon prints a copy for every sale and takes that printing cost out of your money, so the page count you chose has already set a floor under your price. Above that floor the question is what the book is worth to the buyer. The two are separate decisions and sellers lose money by confusing them.
The mechanism, in the order the money moves
You set a list price. Amazon applies a royalty rate to it, subtracts the cost of printing that copy, and pays you what is left. The rate and the printing cost both change over time and by marketplace, so the only numbers worth using are the ones KDP shows you.
| Line | What it is | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|
| List price | What the buyer pays, per marketplace | You set it. KDP enforces a minimum based on printing cost. |
| Royalty rate | A percentage of the list price | KDP’s printing cost and royalty page, for your marketplace and distribution channel. |
| Printing cost | Deducted from every copy sold | KDP’s printing cost calculator: trim size, page count, ink, paper, marketplace. |
| Your royalty | Rate applied to the list price, minus the printing cost | Shown live in the KDP pricing form as you type the price. |
| Minimum list price | The price below which the book cannot be published | Calculated by KDP from the printing cost. A thick single sided book has a high one. |
The consequence for coloring books specifically: single sided printing doubles your page count, which raises the printing cost, which raises the minimum list price. A 100 page book cannot be sold at the price of a 30 page one, and trying to means you earn almost nothing per copy.
Working out your own number
- Finalise the interior and note the exact page count.
- Put trim size, page count, black and white ink and white paper into KDP’s printing cost calculator for your main marketplace.
- Open the pricing form and type prices until the royalty it shows is one you would be happy to earn 500 times.
- Check the same book in the other marketplaces. Amazon can fill them automatically from a conversion, and that sometimes produces a price that is wrong for that country. Adjust the ones that matter to you.
- Look at what the top ten books in your exact niche charge. If your floor is above their prices, your book is too thick for the niche: cut drawings or reconsider single sided.
Etsy printables are a different business
On Etsy you sell the PDF itself. There is no printing cost, no minimum price and no per-copy deduction, so almost the whole price is yours minus the listing and transaction fees. In exchange the buyer prints at home, which changes the product: fewer pages per file, a note about paper weight, and often a bundle of themed files rather than one book.
- Prices are much lower than a paperback, and volume plus repeat buyers is where it works.
- The same artwork can carry both: a printable file on Etsy and a bound paperback on KDP, each priced for its own market.
- Etsy buyers search differently. The listing title, the tags and the first photo do the work, and the first photo should show the pages printed and colored.
When a low price is a bad idea
- When it leaves you nothing. A price a few cents above the minimum earns a few cents. Selling 200 copies for nothing is worse than selling 80 for something.
- When it contradicts the book. A 60 drawing adult book priced like a thin kids’ book reads as low quality, not as a bargain. Buyers in this category use price as a proxy for how much is inside.
- When you plan to discount later. You cannot run a sale from a floor. Price with headroom so a promotion is possible.
- When it invites the wrong reviews. Cheap books attract buyers who expected something else and say so in public. That review stays on the listing long after you raise the price.
Changing the price later
List price is editable at any time from the bookshelf and takes a few hours to propagate. That makes it the cheapest thing to test: run one price for a month, another for the next month, and compare royalty earned, not copies sold. A book that sells half as many copies at twice the margin is the better book. Leave the cover and the description alone during the test, or you will not know which change did what.
Frequently asked questions
What royalty does KDP pay on paperbacks?
A percentage of the list price with the printing cost deducted. The percentage depends on the sales channel and changes over time, so read it on KDP’s own royalty page rather than trusting a number from elsewhere.
Why is my minimum price so high?
Because of your page count. Single sided coloring books have twice the pages, so the printing cost, and therefore the floor, is higher than for a text book of the same length.
Should my Etsy and Amazon prices match?
No. They are different products: a file the buyer prints versus a bound book delivered to the door. Price each for its own market.
Does a higher price hurt ranking?
Only through sales. Amazon ranks on sales and revenue, so the price that maximises total royalty usually also ranks well enough. Test rather than guess.
What does it cost to make the book itself?
On create-ebook you pay per book, no subscription, with full commercial rights to the drawings. That cost is one-off; the printing cost is per copy and comes out of every sale.