The supply of coloring books for adults on Amazon has exploded. And for good reason. They provide an excellent outlet for stressed and anxious adults to wind down and regroup, all while creating something unique to their personality.
A quick search for coloring books for adults on Book Bolt shows that multiple sellers are raking in hundreds of sales. This paints a niche that’s both prolific and lucrative.
So, if you feel like entering a challenging market, and learn about its intricacies, keep reading below.
How big is the market for adult coloring books?
In order to determine the scope of the market for coloring books for adults, we used Book Bolt’s “Products” module. We simply typed in the keyword “adult” in the search box and selected “coloring books” as the category.
The results were impressive.
The average best-sellers rank (BSR) for these products is a low 673,508. However, the BSR goes even lower than the average for some of the products. We’ll discuss these further on in greater detail.
Keywords, BSR and search volume
Related keywords, along with their BSR and search volume, give us an indication of how supply and demand are positioned on the Amazon KDP marketplace.
Using Book Bolt, we determined the following related keywords had high search volumes and appropriately low BSR rates with a consistent rank of 712,698 across all related keywords.
Here’s the breakdown in terms of search volume:
- “Adult coloring book adults”: search volume – 310,275
- “Adult coloring book adult”: search volume – 309,453
- “Adults”: search volume – 182,907
- “Adult”: search volume 151,898
- “For adults”: search volume – 11,316
- “For adult”: search volume – 9,801
- “Adult coloring books for adults”: search volume – 6,515
- “Adult coloring book for adults”: search volume – 6,395
- “Adult,”: search volume – 1,880
We can conclude that there is not much variety in terms of describing a coloring book product for adults. The variations only show a differentiation when it comes to the plural form of the words “adult” vs “adults” and “coloring book” vs “coloring books. The BSR is also consistent across all of these queries.
When put together, the search volume for the main keyword goes over 500,000 per month. This is a strong indication that coloring books for adults are in high demand.
Listings saturation
We also explored the listing saturation on Amazon.com to determine how many related listings have made it onto the platform for customers to choose from.
Our findings reveal the following keywords and their related listings count:
- “Adult coloring book”: over 60,000 listings
- “Adult coloring book for women”: over 30,000 listings
- “Adult coloring book for men”: over 10,000 listings
- “Adult coloring book animals”: over 10,000 listings
- “Adult coloring book mandala”: over 10,000 listings
- “Adult coloring book flowers”: over 10,000 listings
- “Adult coloring book large print”: over 10,000 listings
- “Adult coloring book spiral bound”: over 3,000 listings
- “Adult coloring book for women Christian”: over 2,000 listings
The number of listings related to coloring books on Amazon is well over 200,000. And with a monthly search volume of more than half a million, it’s safe to say that the niche is doing quite well. In addition, the ratio of listings to search volume is in the negative, which means that the market is fairly unsaturated.
This serves as confirmation of its viability for new sellers.
Pricing
Finally, we explore the prices for these high-demand products. Because of the steep competition on the marketplace, sellers are opting to go as low as $3.96. The highest price for adult coloring books is $17.97, while the average price stands at $7.90.
What are some of the best-selling merchants doing right?
To explore what some of the best-selling merchants are doing right, we looked at the top listings with the highest number of sales and comparatively low BSR levels.
The author that comes in second place has created the following best-selling product: “Halloween Adult Coloring Book: For Hours Of Fun, An Halloween Coloring Book Stress Relief Adult Relaxation | Spooky witch coloring books for adults, … Customs And More | Gift For all Adults, Women”. The item is created by Bran Coloring book Press and it has a low BSR of 28,525. It has generated 70 ratings since August 2021, going for $6.79 per piece.
Meanwhile, the top seller in this category is Melissa Joy Benkert. The seller has created the “Holiday Coloring Adult Coloring Book: A Christmas and Wintery Coloring Book For Adults”. This item has an exceptionally low BSR of 16,736, having generated 108 ratings and also selling in the region of the average at $6.99. This seller has made 353 estimated sales over the past one-year period since July 2021.
Combining popular keywords with seasonal markers
What becomes apparent from studying these two bestsellers is that they have capitalized on the main keywords used by customers when looking for adult coloring books. But perhaps more importantly, despite the fact that they’ve used words like “coloring book for adults”, they have also niched down deeper by linking to specific holidays such as “Halloween” and “holidays” in general.
Title and description catering to audience expectations
The two bestsellers have also emphasized the words “stress relief” and have specified that these books are for both men and women, or for women only. This is all apparent in their titles.
Whereas the bestseller mentioned here has not really optimized their description, the second bestseller has. Indeed, they have indicated exactly how many coloring pages come with the book, who it is ideal for, and which occasions it is most suitable for.
Pricing around the average
These two bestsellers have also approached their pricing strategy in quite a similar manner as both have priced near or around the average.
Classic, product-specific design
Finally, when it comes to the cover designs, the “holidays” bestseller has chosen to use a black and white cover, whereas the “Halloween” seller has chosen to go all out and create an appealing and quite intricate cover.
What is the profitability within this niche?
We now turn to the profitability within the adult coloring book niche. Let’s look at the bestseller in second place: “Halloween Adult Coloring Book: For Hours Of Fun, An Halloween Coloring Book Stress Relief Adult Relaxation | Spooky witch coloring books for adults, … Customs And More | Gift For all Adults, Women”.
This item has sold 317 times at a price of $6.79. With 82 pages in the interior, we can calculate the royalties and profits made by the seller. Royalties amount to $1.92 per item sold. This, multiplied by 317 sales gives us profitability of $608.64.
The top bestselling book in the category is the “Holiday Coloring Adult Coloring Book: A Christmas and Wintery Coloring Book For Adults”, going for $6.99. With 353 sales and 52 pages, royalties amount to $2.04. Profitability is therefore $720.12.
In conclusion, we can say that potential profitability in the coloring books for adults category is between $500.00 and $1,000 per book in the span of a year.
Our recommendations
It becomes apparent when looking at the bestsellers in this niche that they’ve utilized a consistent keyword strategy. They’ve done so by capitalizing on high search volume words like “coloring book” and “adult” or their plural forms.
What’s even clearer is that these sellers have really drilled down into the niche by offering bespoke products. This means not just plain coloring books for adults, but seasonal, Halloween- and holiday-themed products that evoke positive emotions. As a result, their titles and descriptions are well optimized, leading to high success rates.
It would be best to emulate this approach when entering the adult coloring book niche.
We can glean from both sellers that they have applied a similar pricing strategy, too, as they have neared the $7.00 average mark for book items in this category. This is a strategy you may wish to apply to your own offering.
It’s also worth considering that neither of these sellers has created a coloring book that’s over 90 pages. In fact, the range is between 52 and 82, which means that you can certainly up your price if you are offering higher volume interiors.
The cover design is also an important feature when it comes to generating sales. However, there are divergent approaches. Whereas the Halloween-themed coloring book for adults has a cover that’s highly intricate and colorful, the holiday-themed coloring book is rather plain and has utilized a black and white font. Either strategy appears to be successful, so the key defining characteristic when developing your cover design should be your target audience and their expectations.
Not necessarily a sales strategy but a way of generating social proof, we come to the books’ ratings and reviews. These are abundant for both sellers, and is also something you should strive for yourself. Positive reviews and ratings have the potential to extend the life of your product and generate significantly more sales over the long term.
Final thoughts
If you’ve always wanted to jump on the adult coloring book niche, but never really got around to doing so, now is the perfect opportunity. There are several reasons for this.
First and foremost, there is high demand for these products. Secondly, you have a lot of variety to choose from in terms of drilling down deep within the niche. And finally, you have the potential to make hundreds of dollars per product with a well optimized listing.
All of this can be achieved through Book Bolt’s various modules. If you haven’t tried the platform yet, you can always sign up for a free trial. It costs you nothing, and you have 3 full days to try out the features.
