How Many Books You Need to Make 6 Figures with Amazon KDP

About this video

The creator says the frequent question of how many books are needed for $10,000 a month, or six figures, cannot be answered precisely because results for the same keyword vary with cover, title, description, content quality, reviews, launch and marketing. For non-fiction, he offers his own conservative average as a planning figure: about $500 a month per book across KDP e-book and paperback, audiobooks, IngramSpark and other platforms, as he claims from his experience and conversations with other publishers. At that average, the implied math is about 20 such books for $10,000 a month. He claims a typical outsourced non-fiction book costs $1,000 to $2,000 to produce depending on how much you do yourself, which writer and cover route you choose — mentioning services and direct freelancers as cost options — giving, in his framing, a two-to-four-month return if the $500 average held. He contrasts that, as he claims, with a $200,000 rental property producing about $1,000 a month profit after expenses and with index funds at 7–10% a year. As an example, he claims a student had about 20 books making about $1,500 a month, then added four books following his strategies and rose to $8,000–$9,000 a month as he claims. He stresses there is no guaranteed formula and even weaker books may sell slowly over a long life on Amazon.

Key takeaways

• There is no predictable books-to-income formula: execution on cover, title, content, reviews and launch makes results vary widely for the same keyword
• The creator’s claimed conservative planning average for non-fiction is $500 per book per month across all platforms, implying about 20 books for $10,000 a month
• He claims outsourced non-fiction production typically costs $1,000–$2,000 per book, lower if you write, format or design more yourself
• He frames books as long-lived digital assets that can keep selling on Amazon even if they do not recoup costs in the first few months
• Averages hide outliers: he claims a student’s four strategically made books earned far more per book than his earlier 20 books combined had suggested

Episode details: published June 13, 2022 · 10:01 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Sean Dollwet’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

← Previous: THIS is Why Your Books Don’t Sell on Amazon KDP (Crucial Mistake) · Next: What I Learned from Losing Six Figures at Age 23 →

All Sean Dollwet videos · Sean Dollwet profile · Sean Dollwet on YouTube