Why Now Is the Perfect Time to Publish Your First Coloring Book on Amazon KDP 🎨✨
Picture this: your artwork, published in a coloring book, being unwrapped as a Christmas gift, tucked into stockings, or bought by parents looking for cozy autumn activities for their kids.
Coloring books aren’t just fun side projects — they’re huge sellers in the lead-up to autumn, Halloween, and the holiday season. And as an artist or illustrator, you already have the creative skills to make it happen. The best part? With Amazon KDP, you can publish your own coloring book for free, with no upfront printing costs or piles of unsold stock. Amazon handles printing and shipping — you just create, upload, and let the sales roll in.
Here’s how you can turn your Procreate or Adobe Fresco drawings into a published coloring book just in time for peak gifting season.
Step 1: Pick a Seasonal (or Evergreen) Theme 🍂🎄🎃
Think about what sells this time of year:
Halloween: Spooky but cute illustrations, pumpkins, witches, haunted houses.
Autumn cozy vibes: Leaves, cozy sweaters, woodland animals.
Christmas & winter holidays: Festive patterns, ornaments, reindeer, snowflakes.
Evergreen gifts: Florals, affirmations, mandalas — designs that sell all year round.
💡 Pro tip: A themed holiday book can give you a sales spike, while an evergreen series keeps making money month after month.
Step 2: Create Coloring-Friendly Line Art ✏️
Open up Procreate and design with coloring in mind:
Stick to bold, clean black lines.
Keep designs open and not too detailed (people need space to actually color).
Work on white backgrounds to make formatting easier.
✨ Top Tip: If you already have a library of art you’ve created, just trace over your illustrations to create line art versions!
Step 3: Prep Your Files for KDP 📂
Standard coloring book size: 8.5 x 11 inches.
Export each page at 300 DPI (for print quality).
Save as JPEG or PNG.
Once you’ve got your stack of pages, drop them into a simple layout (Affinity, Canva, or InDesign if you’re fancy). Export the final manuscript as a PDF — this will be your interior pages file.
Step 4: Design a Festive Cover That Pops ✨
Your cover is what grabs attention on Amazon’s search results — so think about who will be buying.
For kids: make it fun and playful.
For adults: cozy, aesthetic, or stress-relief vibes.
For holiday gifting: lean into bold seasonal colors.
Keep your title searchable and clear (e.g., “Spooky Cute Halloween Coloring Book for Kids” or “Cozy Winter Coloring Book for Adults”), and think about adding some preview images to your back cover or a little blurb!
💡 Pro tip: Take a trip to a book store and look at the colour book section to get ideals on how to layout your own cover design.
Step 5: Upload to Amazon KDP 🚀
Once your files are ready, it’s as simple as:
Uploading your interior PDF
Uploading your cover file
Filling out your title, keywords, and description and clicking publish!
Amazon handles the rest — printing and shipping to buyers all over the world.
Why Peak Season Is the Perfect Time to Start 🌟
Here’s the thing: demand for coloring books skyrockets in the autumn and winter months. Parents, teachers, and gift-givers are all looking for creative, affordable presents — and coloring books are at the top of that list.
Publishing now gives your book the chance to:
Be live in time for Halloween 👻
Ride the wave of cozy autumn content 🍂
Build visibility before the Christmas shopping rush 🎄
Even one book uploaded today could bring in sales for years to come — but the sooner you start, the more you’ll catch this year’s seasonal demand.
Want Step-by-Step Guidance? 🎁
If this post has you buzzing with ideas but also feeling a little overwhelmed, I get it. That’s why I created Printed & Published: Creative Self-Publishing with Amazon KDP.
Inside, I walk you through everything you need to know — from formatting interiors and designing covers to uploading with confidence and avoiding those frustrating KDP rejections.
By the end, you’ll have your first book live on Amazon — just in time to turn your art into a product that sells during peak season and beyond.
