I just recently self-published 2 low-content coloring/RPG map books (Doodle Maps Vol 1 and Doodle Maps Vol 2) using some recent sketchbook drawings. I published them on Amazon via their KDP service, and have plans to publish digital versions on Gumroad shortly. Can I blow a moon-sized hole through the “Open Canva, grab a template and some stock line art, make a coloring book, design a cover, go to KDP, publish your book and magic, you’re gonna make thousands of dollars in passive income from selling them!” notion?
Here are some real numbers based on my experience putting my 2 books together. Caveats:
- I didn’t use stock images (all maps were hand-drawn by me in my sketchbook)
- I didn’t use Canva (Affinity Designer and Publisher for production, and Procreate for coloring the covers)
- I did the work. Every mistake and cringy typo you find is mine—I’m pretty sure I got ‘em all…
There’s not a lot said about the time you invest in creating something. It sounds like it’s easy peasy and just rolls right out of you. It doesn’t. It takes time and effort. So I made a rough itemized breakdown of how long it took me to get 2 58-page low-content books illustrated, written, designed, and published. With this, I’ll show the type of work that was done and how long each task took me. I’ll conclude with a rough cost estimate based on an example hourly rate, what it will take to break even for my time investment, and some parting thoughts.
Drawing the maps and making the books
Creating the content (maps)
I drew the maps over time in my sketchbook for fun. Each one takes me on average a couple of hours to draw. I only put the books together after my kids and brother encouraged me to do so.
- (Illustration) Drawing the maps: ~2 hours per map x 50 = 100 hours
Some of the design efforts that went into this initial production effort will pay off long-term as it will reduce the amount of time spent doing the layout for the interior and cover of the books unless I change the form factor (which I might do to reach more markets on Amazon.)
Time tracking for tasks
These are rough estimates, as I didn’t closely track my time. This was a fun exercise for me and I only thought of writing this up as I neared the end of producing the book and was readying them for publication on KDP.
- (Design) Scanning the maps: ~3 minutes per map x 50 = ~2.5 hours
- (Design) Designing the internal layout: ~2.5 hours to create the template
- (Design) Laying out the interior of the first book: ~1 hour
- (Design) Laying out the interior of the second book: ~30 minutes
- (Design) Designing the cover: ~3 hours to create the template
- (Illustration) Digitally coloring the first cover: ~3 hours
- (Illustration) Digitally coloring the second cover: ~3 hours
- (Writing) Writing and editing content for interior and back cover: ~2 hours
- (Design) Layout for cover for first book: 30 minutes
- (Design) Layout for cover for second book: 30 minutes
- (Marketing) KDP setup for the first book: ~4 hours (Fine-tuning the content and layout)
- (Marketing) KDP setup for the second book: ~2.5 hours (It went faster as I’d just finished the first book.)
Time invested and cost estimates
Assuming I was an hourly worker and was paid an hourly rate of $25/hr (way below market rate for experienced illustrators, designers, writers, and marketers)
Time invested (in hours):
- Illustration: 100 + 3 + 3 = 106 hours
- Writing and Editing: 2 hours
- Design: 2.5 + 2.5 + 1 + .5 + 3 + 1 = 10.5 hours
- Marketing: 4 + 2.5 = 6.5 hours
Total hours invested: ~125 hours
Estimated Costs
Now that we have the hours, let’s apply the example hourly rate to the hours per task to see what we get.
Illustration
- Map illustrations: $2,500
- Many illustrators charge per illustration—called piece rate. Let’s use $100/map for 50 maps for our purposes (which is below a fair market price): $5,000
- Coloring cover illustrations: $150
Total illustration costs (hourly): $2,650
Total illustration costs (piece rate): $5,150
Writing and Editing
Total writing and editing costs: $50
Design
- Scanning maps: $62.50
- Design and layout: $200
Total design costs: $262.50
Marketing
Total marketing costs: $162.50
Total costs
Adding all of that up we get the total costs associated with producing my books.
Total production costs (hourly): $3,125
Total production costs (Maps at piece rate): $5,625
Breaking even
Let’s review the selling price on Amazon, my royalty, and how many copies I need to sell to have my side project become profitable, based on the time I have invested in it.
Pricing the book
This was done as part of the KDP publishing process and is being noted to help identify my break-even number. I’m taking this directly from what I was presented on KDP’s site.
- Retail price: $8.99
- Amazon’s production costs: $2.84
- My anticipated royalty per book: $2.55 (~40% of retail – production costs)
At $2.55/copy I’ll break even around 1,250 copies sold using my hourly estimates. That’s a rather big lift for an unknown like me. Biggest thing I have going for me now? They are done and available for purchase. Plus, I’ll be able to leverage the time invested in creating my templates for future Doodle Maps books.
Parting thoughts
As you can see, the creation of the maps was the biggest time investment, by far. It’s not surprising when you look at how things break down. Designing a reusable template takes a bit of time, but then you have the benefit of reusing it. You can’t reuse an individual image in the same book on every page…
I don’t expect this to be some break-out hit and I don’t have huge marketing plans, because that’s not how I roll. (Full disclosure: I’m a terrible marketer because I don’t like talking about myself and I—maybe foolishly—believe that if it’s good enough for me, at least a few other people will discover it and try it out. Plus, I’m not a marketing professional.)
Next up is making these available in a digital format via Gumroad. I’ll do a better job tracking my time and effort getting that setup and will do a follow-up and share my take on that experience. It’ll be interesting to see how the numbers stack up.
Thank you for reading! If you’d like to purchase one or both of my Doodle Maps books, here are the links:
