How Much I Made In My First Year of Amazon KDP Publishing Mid-Content Puzzle Books (Income Report)

Hey people! What up. Hope this gives you an idea of what to expect in your first year of Amazon KDP. Is it worth it? How much can you make? What is realistic? I can't say for sure, but I can share my story to help you out. But enough talking, enjoy the video!

Toby.

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🌟 The Tools & Courses I Actively Use for KDP 🌟

CURRENTLY NONE OF THESE ARE AFFILIATE LINKS! I JUST WANT TO HELP YOU :)

Basically this tool helps you find the keywords your competitors are ranking STRONGEST for so you can use them in your titles, subtitles, and in your ads (Steal sales! Woohoo!)

To buy JUST Cerebro (cheaper than buying a full subscription), try this:

Create a free Helium 10 account, click your Helium 10 profile icon in the top right of your desktop screen, click "Plans & Billing", scroll down until you see the a la carte options, buy Cerebro! (It's way harder than it has to be, they want you to pay full price for the whole suite of tools, but this is the only one I can in good conscience recommend at this time!)

This is the only paid course I've ever taken. It helped me learn a bajillion things about business, and most specifically, how to win a sustainable income as a KDP publisher. I owe so much to the people in this group, and I actively talk with them in our mastermind Facebook group. Very highly recommend (but before buying, read my note below!)

Note About Sean's Course: it is pricey - almost $2k - so only go for it when you're ready to commit. I recommend you don't make the purchase as a spur of the moment thing - make up your mind first. There is also a 1 on 1 coaching track in the program that took me wayyyyy further than the course did on its own, and I highly recommend getting coached. But again, be aware that this is all pricey, so I recommend only do it if you are a) super rich and don't care about throwing money, or b) realize the pain of not starting is greater than the pain of trading time for money forever. If want to build sustainable income, and if you feel ready to give publishing a solid run, then pull the trigger and don't look back. Cheers

📌 Follow Me Elsewhere (I do more than just KDP!):

🔔 Don't Forget to Like, Comment, and Subscribe for More KDP community! Let's grow together.

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Hiring VAs Advice (per request of the homie @danielm5386)

Second, these are my notes from the video:
1. Invite freelancers to your job - find the best looking freelancers and invite them to join. They may not, but at least you can make them aware of the work and hopefully hire them.
2. Create a Minimum Viable Assignment - a task with the least amount of work necessary to test somebody’s skill. It is a really cheap way to vet the field and to save oodles of time, money, and headaches. Do fixed cost assignments in order to do this.
3. If your project is more complicated, hire 2 or 3 people at once. For the 1st week, give them all similar tasks and see how they do. Then cut people who are not bringing in the bread.

Third, just try it.
I highly recommend just hiring SOMEONE. Even for a stupid test, like writing an email to the president or researching bowling alleys near you and putting them in a spreadsheet with pros and cons from google reviews. Whatever - the main thing is to get experience at a low financial cost. Make it a $5-10 job to start. So get on Fiverr or UpWork and try it. Fail fast - there's always more to learn than we think. Have fun with it!

[wantchangestartnow]

This is probably one of THE BEST and most helpful videos I've seen. Thank you for sharing, you're doing a great service for those who are just starting out!

[MerchMetrics]

Totally would have watched part 2 if it existed!! 😂 great video I’m very familiar with that cycle of optimism and starting over!

[parkersnedeker]

I love how real you are in your tone, vulnerability, and desire for others to learn.

[digicat]

I really like your teaching style, you come across as really honest and sincere. I think this is why the cliffhanger ending had me literally laughing out loud instead of getting annoyed XD Good luck with the channel, I'm looking forward to your future videos!

[selfpublishingempire]

Hey Toby, just stumbled across your channel and so much of what you're saying rings true from about 6 months ago for me. Keep at it! I went from pretty much 0 profit for the whole of last year, to $6k in December alone this year! Your books look like good quality from the covers, so it's all about plugging away and launching sucessfully with ads, rather than on-going ad spend. Subbed to keep up to date with your journey :)

[inspireme]

Toby, thanks for being transparent & authentic! Can't wait for part 2! I've been researching KDP for months; however, I want to finally go for it in 2024! I too deal w/ several chronic illnesses & I wish you continued blessings & success!! Thx for your time & efforts!

[albervanzyl]

This was lovely to watch and informative. Looking forward to part 2.

[TheArtChick]

Very honest and helped me not give up. I am the creative with out the rest too but learning. I am waiting on that Part 2!

[YourChicGeek]

Hey there Toby! First off... I've seen your books on AMZ and you did a great job with them so kudos to you on those. Secondly, I think now you just need to learn how to optimize your ads (which takes a bit of time) and launching strategies when you are getting books out of the gate and you will be good. I am still learning things to this day and have a long ways to go....but its great to see what you've done here. Keep up the great work!

[billr]

Really informative and interesting video. You could easily do a series of videos on the steps you follow to make KDP work. It’s helpful to learn about the impediments you’ve encountered and what you’ll be doing to overcome them. I’m looking forward to the next part of this video. Thanks for doing this.

[michybinkley]

'The dark night of the soul' = brilliant comment! Can't wait for Part 2 - I appreciate your honesty and will check back to your channel.

[aprild]

This was a great video.. I would watch more if you had them. I subbed so I hope to see more of you in the future…

[danielm]

Great video, i appreciate the honesty, I'm preparing to launch my first book. Very helpful and detailed, looking forward to part 2! BTW I'd like a peek at the SOP's👀

[SethJamesDeMoor]

the Dark Night of the Soul…. I get the reference: )
You got this Toby!

[ciriloreyes]

love the video thank you so much for sharing your experiences so many channels just show people making money like crazy but there gotta be a lot of people who don't

[TXanders]

Congratulations, you're onto it! Best of luck moving forward

[SelfPublishingTitans]

Great video and transparency. Need more like this in the KDP space. Keep going. 😊

[SIMPLIFIEDFILMING]

Thanks for your candid honesty. Looking forward to part two.

[EJKelly]

Now you must know what you are doing. Came up in my feed for KDP strategies. Your comments about creativity and learning struck a cord, and that's why I continued to watch. Continuing to learn and being informed, as you say is vital. I'm here but need help with implementing an advertising strategy. Hope you share your experience with this side of KDP. Later. Nicely done.

[ShanteK.]

This was great! I’m gonna need that part 2 ASAP 👀