RMRB 1308 – Building an Amazon KDP Business Making $10K per Month in the News & Education Niche

In this episode, Lauren talks to the seller of an Amazon KDP business created in November 2023 in the news & education niche. Listen in to find out how the business makes an average of $10,306.00 per month in net profit, why the seller has decided to sell, the lessons learned from running the business, and much more.

Visit https://empireflippers.com/listing/94174 to learn more about this business.

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Transcript

Forget gurus. Forget anyone claiming to be an online business expert without going through the challenges of entrepreneurship themselves. The Real Money Real Business Podcast is here to prove the best insights in online business come from your fellow online business builders.

We dig into stories of entrepreneurs selling their businesses on the Empire Flippers Marketplace so that you can learn how they made their businesses profitable, how they overcame obstacles, and what lessons they learned in their online journeys. If you want to take your business and your knowledge to the next level, you've come to the right podcast. Let's get started.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Real Money, Real Business Podcast. We record these interviews so that potential buyers can learn more about the business and the seller to help them make an informed buying decision.

If you would like to learn more about this business, including details like what type of business it is, how much revenue and profit it makes, and all of the assets included with the business, simply visit empireflippers.com/marketplace and search for this business's listing number, which you can find in the video thumbnail and in the description. Or, if you're watching this on YouTube, you can click the link in the description to go straight to the listing.

So, without further ado, let's get into this interview.

First up, let's learn a little bit about you. Can you tell us about your background in building and running online businesses?

This is kind of what I do. I've built and sold a Kindle publishing and audiobook publishing business and sold it on Empire Flippers before, so I have the know-how and I enjoy it: building something from the ground up and then selling it after a few years. So, this is my second time doing that.

I also started and sold, before that, an Amazon FBA business in the office products niche. I enjoyed that, and I pivoted to Kindle because I enjoy it more. You know, if you get a payment for $10,000 from Amazon FBA, you immediately might have to buy a shipping container of products, so the payments don't always feel like they're really your money because you always have to reinvest.

With audiobooks, and especially with the very low ad spend in my business—virtually nonexistent—you know that money can actually go right into your pocket, which is what I love and what I'm really proud of. Of course, some reinvestment is good. You can reinvest as much as you want, but it's not required like it is with physical inventory. That's why I've pivoted to digital products.

But I still think Amazon FBA is a great business as well. That's kind of why I pivoted this way. And I'm particularly proud of this iteration of a business because I've got some really strong evergreen titles. That's all I can think of to add. It's a really good business, and I'm proud of it.

Why are you selling the business now instead of keeping it and growing it further?

It's performing well. I'm selling, adding back some expenses. I'm just at a point in my life where I need mental bandwidth and time. I have some really heavy other commitments—volunteer work. I'm a minister, and those commitments even require travel.

So, like I said, this will be the third time that I've done this, and I think I can really retire. So, that's what's on the other side of the sale for me. But, yeah, it's honestly a great business.

Can you describe the amount and the type of work that you do on this business to maintain it?

I'd say, on average, five to 10 hours. And that is totally an average because I had really heavy commitments last year. For a couple of months, I went like two months without doing any work—zero. And the revenue was the same and even grew. So, that's about as passive as it gets.

Other times, especially in the beginning, I've done 30 hours a week. If I had the time, I just went heavy. But where it's at now, you could do five or 10 hours a week, and you could do that yourself or have a virtual assistant do it. I've had virtual assistants in the past. Right now, my wife is not working, so she does a lot of it.

As far as what you do, you're basically a manager, kind of like a construction contractor, but for books. But it's light management. It's not heavy-duty, where you want to pull your hair out.

Are you coming up with the ideas for the books?

If you're new to publishing, I can teach you how to find niches. That's not that hard. Then, if you have a VA, you manage the VA. If you do it yourself, you write a book with AI, then you hire a human narrator on ACX, kind of manage their deadlines, quality-control their work, and that kind of thing.

So, you're basically just assembly-lining the book from idea to finished product, live on Amazon and Audible. That's what you're doing, essentially.

So, if you were to keep this business, what are some of the ways you would try to grow it?

There are a few ways I would grow it if I were staying with it. With the niches I'm in, there are still a lot more opportunities, so I'd continue just to do what's already working—rinse and repeat. I'd venture into other niches as well that I haven't touched. There's a lot of opportunity with audio and Kindle, and a lot of underserved niches. So, I'd just keep doing more of what's already been working.

I'd go on to IngramSpark. I've neglected that just because of, like I mentioned, the other commitments I've had—not because it doesn't work. I utilized IngramSpark quite a bit in my last audiobook business that I sold. So, you can definitely get sales there from mom-and-pop bookshops that buy from IngramSpark, as well as Barnes & Noble online and Target.com. So, just getting on IngramSpark would be huge.

Also, almost none of my books are physical, so I'd make physical books on Kindle, build up some reviews, and run ads to those. That's a huge opportunity that I haven't taken advantage of just because of bandwidth. But there's definitely some easy, low-hanging fruit here.

Right. And what would you say are the biggest risks with this business that buyers should be aware of?

I think the biggest risks are just the normal risks of an Amazon business. Amazon can be finicky. They can pull a book down for no reason. That hasn't happened to me on this account. It happened four years ago, but one book out of a hundred isn't bad.

You know, they have, at times, banned people from their entire account. I think that's mostly when you're new or when you're doing something against their terms of service, which I don't do. My account is not new; it's established and solid. I deliberately have all these copyrights so that, if there was ever anything in question, I can provide them with a copyright.

I'd say Amazon is the greatest risk, but that's with any Kindle or Amazon FBA business. I've worked really hard to make this account stable in their eyes.

How much support are you willing to offer the buyer who acquires this business?

I forget what's normal regarding support, but I'm happy to offer whatever support is reasonable. Honestly, the standard Empire Flippers transition support includes a full handoff period, and everything's really organized and documented.

I'll document standard operating procedures, give you any contacts I have, and provide videos about what I do that I can hand over. I used to teach other people how to do this, so I've got all those videos.

Honestly, I'll do whatever is necessary. I want the next buyer to succeed. If this is a new business for you, then, yeah, I'll totally do whatever you need, basically.

Are you open to negotiating something like an earn-out agreement?

I prefer a clean cash deal. I think that's what's normal. That's what I had last time, so that's definitely my preference, and it's simplest.

That said, I'm not rigid about it. A small earn-out would be fine, or I'd be willing to consider it if that makes sense.

Okay, final question. If you had to put yourself in the shoes of a buyer, why is your business worth buying?

We can go on about this, and I guess I've touched on it. I got ahead of myself a little bit before, but I have a hundred-plus titles. The revenue and the net profit are very well distributed. If one book gets banned, you won't even feel it financially.

So, it's not like a lot of businesses in this space that are heavily dependent on one home run or something like that. This catalog is not like that at all.

I run almost no ads, which honestly is huge. So, it'll save you a lot of time. Optimizing ads can be a little advanced and difficult. With this business, you don't have to work on ads; it's not required. That's honestly a huge selling point. That puts you more at five hours a week than 10. Plus, it makes the cash flow just so easy.

My titles are in evergreen niches. They're not out of fashion, and the demand doesn't go away, so you're not buying a fad. And, like I said, I've gone months without even logging in and had the revenue be totally stable and even grow at times when life got overwhelming. So, that's about as passive as it can get.

It's a really good business to buy. You're buying a huge catalog with a lot of intellectual property. A lot of self-publishers don't copyright their work. All my work is copyrighted. In some cases, the entire manuscript; in some cases, the introduction, which can be standard practice in this industry.

So, it's a lot of intellectual property. If Amazon comes and says, “How do you have the rights?” you can just provide them with a copyright, which is huge—huge insurance for the Amazon risk.

I'll give you the contacts, the standard operating procedures, and the training. So, you've got no ads, growing profit and revenue, low hours required, as passive as it gets, and intellectual property copyrights for this catalog, which is just so huge. So, it's a really solid opportunity.

All right, everyone, thanks for listening. To learn more and see if this business is still for sale, head over to empireflippers.com/marketplace and search for this business's listing number, which you can find in the video thumbnail and description. Or, if you're watching this on YouTube, click the link in the description to go straight to the listing.

Once you've unlocked this listing, you'll find everything you need to know about this business. So, thanks for joining us. See you next time.