Who didn’t love coloring as a kid? It’s a fun and creative activity that we all looked forward to as preschoolers, kindergarteners, and even in higher grades in school. Now, adult coloring has become a trend, too! Wayne Ball is the CEO of Really Big Coloring Books. This is a company based in St. Louis, Missouri. He has explained how trying economic times will lead to a rise in the sales of coloring books as people have less money for electronic means of entertainment and opt for a lower-priced option.
While adult coloring books were on an upward trend in 2015, they soon leveled off and were not as popular in the coming years until the global pandemic hit in 2020. You can still profit off of adult coloring books present day, but be sure to vary up your inventory and not rely solely on this product to advance your business.
What happened in 2015 that caused the breakout trend of rising popularity in adult coloring books? Why did it suddenly end in 2016, and how did sales fare in the coming years until the global pandemic?
The Upward Trend of Adult Coloring Books Sales in 2015
A few reasons can be used to explain the almost unexplainable rise in adult coloring book sales in 2015.
- The rise in the lower-income population meant a rise in adult coloring book sales.
- More Millennial women in 2015 America led to the rising popularity in the industry.
- There was an increase in adult coloring pages on Pinterest that sparked more sales of adult coloring books put out by various publishers.
More Lower-Income People Means More Sales
The Pew Research Center found that there were lower-income individuals in the United States than middle-class in 2015. America used to have a majority of middle-class people, but that trend ended when it was found that there were only 121.3 million lower-class and upper-class individuals versus the 120.3 million middle-class members in that specific year.
Why is this trend significant to the adult coloring book industry? Lower-income people have less access to a variety of electronics at home and some may have to limit their electronic usage of, say, a computer on public library visits or a visit to a family member or friend’s home. To find low-cost entertainment at home, some low-income people may opt for an adult coloring book to harvest creativity and pass the time.
Millennials Surpass Baby Boomers, Who Helped Sales Increase
Pew Research found that the millennial group surpassed the number of Baby Boomers in the United States in 2015. There were about 75.3 million Millennials who are aged 18-34 versus the Baby Boomers group of 74.9 million individuals who are aged 51-69.
Nielsen reported that 71% of women were the main buyers of adult coloring book sales in 2015. Younger Millennial women ages 18-29 were more likely to purchase an adult coloring book than any other age group amongst women.
Pinterest’s Rise in Adult Coloring Pages
According to CNN, there was a rise in the availability of adult coloring pages on Pinterest in 2015. Adults were also posting their completed coloring pages out of pride and for feedback from their followers who love art.
Hence, social media trends affected rising adult coloring book sales. While you can use PhotoShop and other professional paint software to create your art, there is nothing like using a crayon, marker, or colored pencil to create art traditionally inside your very own coloring book.
How the Adult Coloring Book Trend Ended in 2016
Book Riot states that the height of the adult coloring book sales trend in 2015 arrived during that year’s holiday season. People were purchasing adult coloring books as gifts for family members and friends who had the artsy calling. Even into the summer of 2016, the trend continued strong but then started to fizzle.
While there could be a variety of reasons as to why the trend slowed down, one main reason that Book Riot touches on is the release of Pokemon Go on July 6, 2016. More people became interested in this interactive “real-world” Pokemon game that tied them to their phones even more ready for when the next Pokemon would spawn at their local park.
Statista stated that there were 21 to 45 million daily active users in the United States on the platform from July 6 to July 19, 2016. Statista projected that there were roughly 209 smartphone users in 2016 in the United States. This means that when Pokemon Go hit the peak of 45 million daily active users within the first two weeks of its launch about 21% of the smartphone user population was trying out the game.
How Did the Adult Coloring Book Trend Reappear in 2020?
The main reason the adult coloring book trend’s return in 2020 was the global pandemic where people were staying home more and socially distancing themselves to remain healthy. With all this extra time at home, it was becoming monotonous to sit in front of the television all day as a form of entertainment. Television was even becoming taxing as more stressful events of the global pandemic would be forecasted in daily news updates.
To temporarily escape the stressors during this time of uncertainty, many people turned back to adult coloring books as a saving grace. Art is a type of creativity that is only in which the artist has control. In a world where everything was getting out of control, people felt they could be in control whenever they were making art.
Even the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) stated that adult coloring trends were becoming a stress reducer for people during these trying times.
Check out our guide to turning you’re coloring pages into art HERE.
Sales & Cost Breakdown of Adult Coloring Books
As more adult coloring books become released onto the market, it’s important to note that you can still profit from these products just as long as you vary your inventory. Whether the country is in trying economic times or not, you will still have those people who prefer to do art over surfing the Internet on their phone or watching television.
Most Amazon sellers offer their adult coloring books for $10 or less. The price of your adult coloring book will depend on the theme of it, the popularity of the theme amongst the market, and how many pages are in the book. Keep in mind your target market’s discretionary budget as well to find out how much they would be willing to pay for one of your adult coloring books.
Is It More Cost-Effective To Hire a Freelance Designer or Do It Yourself?
Hiring a freelancer offering coloring book designing services may cost you about $10 to $40 an hour or more based on his or her experience with the craft. This will be an option if you are not comfortable with the design end of the product. Depending on how fast the designer works, he or she can finish a whole coloring book in just a few hours. If you hire a high-quality designer at $40 per hour, that’s $120 invested into just completing one adult coloring book.
If you do not mind doing the design yourself, you can purchase Adobe Illustrator for $19.99 per month if you commit to paying upfront annually. Otherwise, it would be $20.99 per month on a month-to-month payment plan. If you want to save more money in the long run, you can have a trusted design mentor help you with the design for free and just opt for the $240 payment per year to Adobe for using the app. This way, you can create as many coloring books as you want on your own and keep more of the profits to put back into your business rather than using it for more labor to hire other freelance designers.
Hence, you will only be paying about 65 cents per day for access to the Adobe Photoshop software subscription. Hence, if it takes you a day to design a coloring book, you are only “spending” 65 cents and any electric services you are using to get it done. If it takes you two days to get it done, you are paying $1.30 to get that adult coloring book done, and so on.
Cost Breakdown & Sales Potential
The cost breakdown of creating an adult coloring book is as follows if you choose to design the adult coloring books yourself. If you can get done designing an adult coloring book in one day, the cost breakdown will be:
- Adobe Photoshop subscription: $0.65
- Amazon Unit Selling Fee: $0.99
- Electric: $0.50
- Internet: $2.16
- Total: $4.30
As an Amazon seller, you do not have to pay anything monthly to sell your inventory, but you do have the option of a Professional Plan for $39.99 per month. This is a flat rate you would pay per month no matter how many units you sell to avoid the per-item selling fee. However, it is not recommended to do this plan when first starting. Opt for the 99 cents selling fee per item when you first begin your Amazon selling business.
Electric usage will vary depending on whether you are using a desktop or if you are charging a laptop off and on; 50 cents of electric usage is just an estimate used for the means of easier calculation in this example. Say that your Internet bill is about $65 per month, and you take a day to create an adult coloring book, you will be using $2.16 worth of your Internet to finalize the publishing portion of it on Amazon.
Hence, it may cost as little as $4.30 or less to publish and distribute an adult coloring book. You can make a $5 or so profit depending on the price you charge for the adult coloring book. If you sell your coloring book for $10, that would be a $5.70 profit per book sold. If you can sell 100 in a month, even on your first launch, that would be $1,000 in sales and $570 in profit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the cost so low for publishing adult coloring books?
As long as you have the means for design and access to the Internet at home, the possibilities of creating an adult coloring book are endless. The design capabilities of Adobe Illustrator make it easy to design coloring books with just a small investment in the subscription cost.
Where else can I sell my coloring book besides Amazon?
You can link your Amazon selling pages on Pinterest so that your followers there can be notified of your latest inventory. Promote your coloring books on YouTube and link to your Amazon selling pages to increase your sales as well.
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