How to Sell Coloring Books Without Amazon KDP — Keep 100% of Your Profits
A YouTube creator's workflow for selling coloring book bundles without Amazon KDP — and how to do it faster with one platform instead of three.
A popular YouTube creator just walked through her entire workflow for selling coloring books without Amazon KDP — no 50% royalty split, no printing costs, no shipping headaches. Her method? Sell digital printables on your own website and keep every dollar.
Her workflow uses Canva + ChatGPT to create bundles. It works. But there's a faster way to do the same thing — and we'll show you exactly where BookCreatorStudio fits in.
📺 Source: How to Create Coloring Books to Sell Without Amazon KDP by Godlywood Girl (Steph Rodnez)
The KDP Problem She's Solving
Her core argument is one every KDP publisher has felt:
When you sell through Amazon KDP, Amazon takes about 50% of your book royalties — and that's after they deduct printing and shipping costs.
For a $14.99 coloring book, you might see $3-4 in royalties on KDP. Sell that same book as a digital PDF on your own site? You keep the full $14.99.
That math is hard to argue with. And she's not wrong — for digital products, selling direct is dramatically more profitable per sale.
Amazon brings you traffic. Your website doesn't — at least not automatically. Selling direct means higher margins but you own the marketing. For most sellers, the smart play is both: KDP for discovery, your own site for your highest-value bundles. We'll cover that below.
Her 3-Step Workflow (And How to Do It Faster)
Step 1: Find a Trending Niche
Her method: search your topic on Amazon, sort by Bestsellers, and study what's selling. She focused on faith-based coloring books — Psalms, devotionals, Bible verse coloring pages — and found books with 777 to 1,600+ reviews.
The key insight she emphasizes:
You're not just creating a coloring book. You're creating a solution to a problem that includes coloring book pages.
She found that standalone "random flowers" coloring books get lost in competition. But a "Psalms 23 Coloring Book + Devotional + Journal" solves a real problem for a specific audience.
With BookCreatorStudio: You can research niches the same way (Amazon bestsellers, Etsy trends), then generate the entire book in one platform. No need to bounce between ChatGPT for prompts and Canva for images.
Step 2: Create a Bundle (Not Just a Book)
This is her biggest strategic insight — and it's a good one. She doesn't sell just coloring pages. She creates bundles that include:
- 🎨 Coloring book pages — the visual draw
- 📖 Daily devotionals — original text content
- 📝 Journal prompts — lined pages for reflection
- 📚 Cover page — professional design
She uses ChatGPT to generate Canva prompts, then Canva's Magic Media AI to create the coloring page illustrations. Each page combines the coloring image, a devotional text block, and journal lines.
With BookCreatorStudio: This entire bundle happens in one place:
| Her Workflow | BCS Workflow |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT → generate Canva prompt | ✅ Built-in AI generation |
| Canva → create coloring page image | ✅ 8 art styles, instant creation |
| Canva → add devotional text | ✅ Story/text generation |
| Canva → add journal lines | ✅ Activity page templates |
| Canva → design cover | ✅ Cover generation |
| Canva → export PDF | ✅ Print-ready PDF export |
That's two tools replaced by one. And BookCreatorStudio generates the images directly — no prompt engineering for Canva's AI, no waiting for Magic Media to render, no manual layout assembly.
Her bundle concept (coloring + devotional + journal) is exactly why BookCreatorStudio supports multiple content types. You can generate a coloring book, add puzzle pages, include activity sheets, and export it all as a single cohesive PDF — ready to sell as a premium bundle.
Step 3: Sell on Your Own Website
She uses a website builder to set up a shop, upload the PDF, and let the platform handle digital delivery. When someone buys, they get instant access to download — no printing, no shipping, no returns.
The workflow:
- Export your coloring book as a PDF (high quality, print-ready)
- Upload to your website's store
- Set your price (she uses $14 for a Psalms 23 bundle)
- Customer buys → instant download → pure profit
Why This Works Better Than KDP (For Bundles)
KDP is optimized for physical books — it handles printing, shipping, and marketplace discovery. That's powerful, but it comes at a cost:
| Factor | KDP | Your Own Website |
|---|---|---|
| Royalty per $14 book | $3-4 | $14 |
| Printing costs | Deducted from royalty | $0 (digital) |
| Shipping | Amazon handles it | $0 (digital) |
| Returns | Deducted from royalty | $0 (digital) |
| Traffic source | Amazon marketplace | You bring the traffic |
| Best for | Discovery, physical books | Premium bundles, digital products |
The smartest sellers do both:
- Use KDP for your standard coloring books (discovery, marketplace traffic)
- Use your own site for premium bundles (coloring + devotional + journal + puzzles) at a higher price point with 100% margin
BookCreatorStudio works for both paths. Generate the book, export as PDF, then either upload to KDP for print-on-demand or sell the digital PDF on your site.
Publish your standard coloring books on KDP for marketplace discovery. Then create premium bundles — combining coloring pages with devotionals, puzzles, journal prompts, and activity sheets — and sell those on your own website at $12-20 each. You get the best of both worlds: Amazon's traffic AND your own margins.
The Faith-Based Coloring Book Niche
Her video focuses on faith-based coloring books, and the numbers back it up:
- "Be Still and Know Devotional Adult Coloring Book" — 777 reviews
- "365 Promises from God's Word" — 1,600+ reviews
- "Bible Verse Coloring Book for Girls" — strong seller in the kids/teens segment
Faith-based content has a built-in advantage: community. Churches, Bible study groups, women's ministries, and Christian homeschool families are tight-knit communities that share resources actively. A great coloring book bundle can spread through a single Facebook group overnight.
BookCreatorStudio's advantage here: Generate coloring pages with Bible verses, add devotional content, include prayer journal templates, and create themed puzzle books (Bible word searches, scripture mazes) — all in one platform. Bundle it all into a single premium PDF.
Getting Started: The Complete Workflow
Here's how to do what she describes — but faster, with fewer tools:
- 1
Research your niche
Search Amazon bestsellers in your category. Look for books with 500+ reviews — that's proof of demand. Study their titles, descriptions, and what buyers complain about in reviews.
- 2
Plan your bundle
Don't just make coloring pages. Plan a bundle: coloring images + text content (devotionals, prompts, tips) + activity pages (journal lines, puzzles). Premium bundles sell for $12-20 vs $3-5 for standalone coloring pages.
- 3
Generate your book in BookCreatorStudio
Use BCS to create coloring pages in your chosen style, add puzzle/activity pages, generate text content, and export as a print-ready PDF.
- 4
Set up your shop
Use any e-commerce platform (Shopify, Gumroad, Payhip, WooCommerce, or a website builder with a store). Upload your PDF. Set up instant digital delivery.
- 5
Price for value
Don't underprice. A 30-page coloring + devotional + journal bundle is worth $12-20. You're selling a complete experience, not just pages.
- 6
Market through community
Share in relevant Facebook groups, Pinterest boards, church communities, and niche forums. Your coloring pages ARE your marketing — show samples to attract buyers.
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