Do simple Amazon KDP books really make $1,557 a month?
The money in low-content books is real – but it goes to brands with dozens of titles. A typical coloring book from a beginner makes about $161 a month in our data, roughly 10 % of the claim. In smaller long-tail niches it's about $71, and a typical self-published Kindle non-fiction book makes $16.
The claim
"$1557 PER MONTH KDP Side Hustle I Wish I Knew Sooner"
Similar claims:
- "This Is How I Made $20k A Month On Amazon (Without Prior Experience)" – 361,554 views
- "How to Create & Sell Kids' Coloring Books with AI | Earn Passive Income on Amazon" – 1,013,143 views
The numbers
Claimed
$1,557/mo
A beginner's book
$161/mo
How we checked
- Top 16 search results for 10 low-content searches (5 big, 5 long-tail) and 73 Kindle non-fiction niches on Amazon US.
- Monthly royalties estimated from best-seller rank (sales model per format, paperback royalty after printing cost).
- Brands separated from beginners: an author with 2 or more books across the searches counts as a brand.
- 97 comments from people who published books, read and sorted by hand.
- Test plan and thresholds were written before the data; the beginner measure was added as a documented addendum before the long-tail data was collected.
The data
| Group | Typical book per month |
|---|---|
| Big coloring brands (40 books) | $5,202 |
| Beginner value (self-published, no brands) | $161 |
| Long-tail searches only (58 books) | $71 |
| Kindle non-fiction, median of 73 niches | $16 |
| Kindle niches where the typical book reaches $778 (50 % of the claim) | 0 of 73 |
What people who tried it report
| Category | Share | Example |
|---|---|---|
| No sales | 34 % | "I published +40 books and still i got no sales" |
| Small results | 34 % | "my royalties for last month was $8.89" |
| Meaningful results | 3 % | "sold 63 books this month, 110 since starting" |
| Account or book blocked | 29 % | Books blocked, accounts suspended, rejections for Canva elements |
Who it might still work for
Publishers who build a brand with many titles in proven niches. Our best Kindle niches were stoicism ($321 for a typical book), air fryer ($272) and slow cooker ($246). One book from a beginner is not that.
Verdict
The $1,557 exists – for brands with many titles. A beginner's book makes about a tenth of it.
Limits of this check
- Royalties are estimated from best-seller ranks, not reported sales.
- A snapshot in October 2026; ranks change daily.
- Only Amazon US.
- Comments are self-selected: people with problems comment more often.
Sources
- Amazon US search results and best-seller ranks, collected 22–25 Oct 2026
- Comments under the claim videos, YouTube Data API, read and sorted by hand
Changelog
- Test plan created; 73 Kindle niches and 97 experience reports analysed. Preliminary verdict BUSTED.
- Addendum to the test plan: beginner measure (brands separated), added before the long-tail data was collected.
- 10 low-content searches analysed; verdict changed from BUSTED (preliminary) to CAVEAT – not for beginners.
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