Why Coloring is Punk Rock (And How I Made This Book)
I am a collector of hobbies. Sculpting, knitting, painting, poetry, and decoupage, to list a few. These were all crafts I felt impassioned by, and compelled to practice to meet some kind of goal. Either to make a Thing, to communicate a specific message, or to reach some level of mastery. All of those hobbies have come and gone, and come again. The motivation to follow any given thread changes from day to day. But drawing and illustration have always felt different. They live in another part of my brain. The other hobbies live in the part that says “I want to try that”, while drawing and illustration lives in the “this is me” zone.
When I realized I could share my doodles with the world and embark on a path that detours around the intimidatingly gatekept world of established Artists and Galleries, and even make a little passive income along the way, I set out to publish my very first coloring book!
And, of course, I have to give my flowers to the #coloringtok community for the inspiration and motivation to turn my idea into reality. As someone who has always been more of an illustrator than someone who colors, I was surprised to feel more connected to this community the more I scrolled. Not only do the #coloringtok creators find a sense of meditation and zen while they’re coloring, but so does the community who follows them, in an ASMR-adjacent way.
I dove right in, and soon I was able to speak the language. I felt the drama of Big Coloring Book (IYKYK) and their copyright controversy. I started living for Kenya Christine’s post-“gardening” coloring sessions. I pined for Ohuhu markers. We ALL pined for Ohuhu markers.
Mostly, I loved the slow-pace of this activity, especially in the context of fast-moving/low-attention-span social media. Each page seemed to take forever, but the colorers didn’t mind, and neither did their followers. That wasn’t a deterrent, it was the point. Maybe I’m always looking at the world through a lens of acting in resistance to the status quo, but I found these colorers, and their embrace of a slow pace, to be pretty punk rock. So, naturally, I named my book “Each Page Takes Forever in a Good Way”.
My Creative Process
I knew right away that I wanted to make something that was indulgently human. Don’t get me wrong, I love typography, I love clean lines, and generative AI has its place in creative work. But I wanted to lean into the way colorers on #coloringtok were going against the grain, so I set out to make the coloring book design entirely with hand-drawn designs and hand-lettered type.
I should back up and make a confession about my history with perfectionism (have I mentioned I have two Virgo placements in my big 3?). I have had too many creative projects over the years that have stalled - or worse, never come to fruition - because I was waiting for them to be perfect. I never used that word: “perfect”. But I danced around it. Nothing was polished enough, the production wasn’t full enough, the colors were never right, there was always something off about the design. The list of excuses was endless. But the first step was acceptance lol.
Thus, my favorite mantra, and catalyst for so much creative work, was born:
“It doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be done.”
“It doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be done.”
“It doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be done.”
This was liberating because everything in my coloring book is gloriously imperfect. All of the text (yes, on the cover, the back cover, and even the pages inside) is in my own hand-writing, unedited and raw. All of the colorable pages and cover design are all hand-drawn. All of the colorable pages are on the left side, instead of where you’d expect, on the right (but also… here for you lefties!).
When I hit ‘publish’, it felt like the conclusion of a passion project, and I was satisfied enough to have broken through something, psychologically, philosophically, about what it means to be “done” with a creative project. I was stunned and overwhelmed by the positive response that came afterward, and couldn’t believe when I made 10x the amount of sales I was originally expecting.
How I Designed and Published a Coloring Book on Amazon KDP
Okay *wipes tears and blows nose into a tissue* let’s get into the nitty gritty.
If you’re interested in publishing your own coloring book, and have access to basic design and illustration software, it’s super easy to pull off. Don’t be intimidated. You’ll be an ~*author*~ soon!
The Tools
I used Procreate (a $12.99 illustration app from the App Store) to create the coloring pages, Adobe Acrobat to adjust all of the pages into one big PDF manuscript, and I used a combination of Procreate and Adobe Photoshop to design the cover. I went through Amazon KDP to publish this book. These are all of the tools I used, but you can get creative and use whatever software you have access to. You just need to be able to send in a high enough resolution manuscript at the correct dimensions for your project.
The Logistics
The first step was to decide on the logistics for this book. Namely, the size of it. You need this first piece of the puzzle before you can do any illustrating or designing of interior pages, unless you want to be resizing, tweaking, and dealing with potentially low resolution images down the line.
From this point, you can start designing interior pages, but keep in mind the edges of the pages and whether or not you’re going to have what’s called a “bleed”. In design speak, this is a term that refers to whether a design is going to extend to the very edges of the pages or not. Give it a google to learn more about what this means, or read more about it here.
Some important notes about setting up your book and planning:
Amazon KDP automatically prints on both sides of the page. So if you’re publishing your own coloring book, add blank pages between each design page so that each design has its own page.
To be able to sell your books in most book stores, you need to be able to print the name of the book and the author’s name on the spine. To be able to include text on the spine of your book, you need at least 79 pages for a paperback, or 75 for a hardcover. Otherwise, there won’t be enough room for spine text.
If you’re new to design and printed materials, a good rule of thumb for setting up any kind of print project is to set your document to a 300 DPI resolution and a CMYK color mode (as opposed to RGB). The color mode of your interior pages doesn’t matter as much if you’re publishing a coloring book, since the pages are in black and white anyway, but you’ll want to note this for the cover design!
Once you have your interior pages done, you’re ready to design the cover. The cover will not be the same dimensions/size as your interior pages! And the cover is something that is uploaded separately from the manuscript. Use this cover calculator when you’re ready to set up your cover for design. Amazon generates templates based on your specifications, so I recommend using those and designing within those templates.
If cover design (or interior page design) is something you may need support with, I’d love to help. Contact me for more info on illustration and design services!
Once you have your manuscript and your cover design ready to roll, then you can fill out the rest of the Amazon KDP form. Here, you’ll make decisions on things like paper type, description, price etc. The form is pretty self-explanatory, but if anything is confusing, ~*google it*~.
Once you’re ready to press publish, keep in mind that Amazon takes 3-10 business days to review the final product before it goes live on the site. I pressed publish on my coloring book on December 31st, 2024 and it went live on January 3rd, 2025.
But Wait, There’s More!
If you thought my journey with coloring books was over, you’d be sorely mistaken. This is just the beginning!
I’m already working on my next coloring book, which will be much more niche (spoiler alert- it’s for the sapphics). It’ll be (slightly) more polished, but will still be perfectly imperfect, as intended.
In the meantime, I hope that colorers who decide to pick up a copy of Each Page Takes Forever in a Good Way are able to feel the intention of peace and stillness behind every page.
If you are loving your copy of Each Page Takes Forever in a Good Way, please DM me photos of your creations!
And if you reeeeally love your copy, please consider leaving a five star review!
In Conclusion, I love you.
Ya’ll are SERIOUSLY THE BEST. Thank you so much for supporting me and my artwork by purchasing this coloring book. I’ve been overwhelmed by the positive feedback, and honestly shocked by the amount of folks from all corners of my life, and some folks who I’ve never even met before, who reached out to tell me how much they love this book. I love you guysssss!!!
Get your copy of Each Page Takes Forever in a Good Way here!
If you already have your copy and are loving it, DM me photos of your creations here!
If you want my undying love forever, leave a five star review here! :)
And as always, if you want to work with me, collaborate on a project, or just say hi, you know where to find me!
Love,
Jamie <3
