How to Design and Sell Coloring Pages on Etsy and Amazon KDP

Know the market before you draw

Adult coloring had an extraordinary run. Nielsen BookScan counted 12 million coloring books sold in the US in 2015, and CBS News reported that was 12 times the year before. A statistics site reports that more than 2,000 coloring books were published in the US in 2015, against about 300 in 2014. Creators piled in fast.

The boom also faded fast. Book Riot calls the 2015 holiday season both the peak and the start of the decline, and TIME reported December 2016 sales down 2 million books year over year. Coloring books still sell, though they are hard to track: they have no BISAC code of their own, so they turn up in different BookScan categories. The same statistics site, citing Publishers Weekly, reports that the four best-selling US young adult nonfiction books in the first half of 2025 were all adult coloring books, at about 200,000 copies combined.

Prepare your files for Etsy

A guide to selling coloring pages on Etsy gives a simple rule: PDF is the standard for printable coloring pages. It also suggests including PNG versions for buyers who want to color digitally in apps like Procreate. This site has no affiliation with Etsy, Amazon or Procreate.

• Make a print-ready PDF your main file.
• Add PNG versions for buyers who color digitally.
• Consider high-resolution image files as well. The mandala bundle in our price table ships as an A4 PDF with 300 DPI JPGs.
• Say which paper size the file is set up for, since A4 and Letter don't match exactly.
• Point buyers to printing tips, such as our printing guide, so pages come out well.

Prepare a coloring book for Amazon KDP

Amazon's KDP help page on low-content books says low-content books do not typically include activity books, such as puzzle books or coloring books, which generally do not feature repetitive content on each page. Plan for a full set of distinct designs, not repeated pages.

Then check your interior PDF carefully. A third-party KDP guide says KDP checks the PDF automatically for margin, resolution and bleed problems, and that pages drawn too close to the trim edge or at low resolution are the most common reason coloring books are flagged.

1. Keep art clear of the trim edgeLeave a generous margin so no important lines sit where the page is cut.
2. Export at high resolutionExport from your original artwork rather than enlarging small images.
3. Decide on bleed before layoutChoose whether any art runs to the edge, then set up the file to match.
4. Check KDP's own specificationsConfirm current margin, bleed and resolution requirements in KDP's help pages before you upload.
5. Test-print a few pagesPrint samples at home to check line weights and spacing on paper, not just on screen.

Royalties and realistic prices

The Etsy figures show how low printable prices go. At that level, a single sale matters less than what it leads to: repeat buyers, an email list or a path to a printed book.

Who buys, and when

A Nielsen survey from December 2015 found that 71% of genre buyers were female, with the largest group aged 18 to 29, and that millennials were 29% more likely to buy an adult coloring book than buyers overall. The data dates from the boom, so treat it as a starting point.

Timing matters more. Between mid-November and mid-December 2015, more than 3 million adult coloring books sold, and a 2017 Google Trends comparison shows search interest in coloring books peaking in December. Have listings live, and your KDP book through review, well before the holidays.

Niches matter too. Large-print pages for seniors, marketed as dementia activities, are an established category on Etsy. If you serve that market, read the next section first.

Describe your pages honestly

Wellness language sells, but buyers deserve accurate claims. Our research guide explains the evidence. In short:

• Fine: coloring as a relaxing, enjoyable activity or a way to spend time together.
• Careful: anxiety relief. Studies show small, short-term effects, not treatment.
• Avoid: claims that coloring prevents dementia. Even a home-care provider that promotes coloring says those claims are not well supported.
• Avoid: claims that mandalas are uniquely calming. A meta-analysis found mandala coloring no better than free drawing for state anxiety.