# ColorCraft

Aiolum story: https://aiolum.com/story/colorcraft/ · added 2026-11-06 · updated 2026-11-06

**In short.** ColorCraft (AI book maker for self-publishers: coloring books, storybooks, comics and puzzle books exported as KDP-ready PDFs, United States): US$1.77K a month in recurring revenue, November 2026. Evidence grade A: disclosed by a company or a filing, or verified by a payment processor. Team: 1 founder, building it on the side (TrustMRR team size: 1 person). Launched 5 May 2025; still running, revenue growing.

AI book maker for self-publishers: coloring books, storybooks, comics and puzzle books exported as KDP-ready PDFs · United States · AI-native · solo founder · still running, revenue growing · group: Companions and publishing

- Outcome: US$1.77K a month in recurring revenue, November 2026 (evidence grade of the headline number: A; headline in US dollars: 21240)
- Launch: 5 May 2025; months from launch to the outcome: 18
- Team: 1 founder, building it on the side (TrustMRR team size: 1 person)
- Outside funding: None (bootstrapped)
- Main factor: Niche
- Meters, 1 to 4: evidence strength 3, copyable pattern 3, capital needed 1
- Tags: AI-native, Solo founder, Bootstrapped, Running, B2C, Self-publishing

Links:

- Visit colorcraft.ai: https://colorcraft.ai/
- Verified revenue on TrustMRR: https://trustmrr.com/startup/colorcraft

**The product.** A user describes a book idea in one line. ColorCraft draws the pages of a coloring book, an illustrated children's storybook, a comic book or a puzzle book, puts them in an editor, and exports a print-ready interior PDF and a full cover wrap (front, spine and back) sized to the book's trim size and page count. The user then uploads the files to Amazon KDP, or orders printed copies from ColorCraft, or sells them in ColorCraft's own bookstore.

**Why it worked.** It serves one narrow group of buyers, people who publish low-content paperbacks on Amazon KDP, and does every step they otherwise do with four to seven separate tools. Revenue stayed at a few hundred US dollars a month for a year, then grew after the founder replaced the free tier with a card-gated trial long enough to finish a whole book.

Evidence grades: A = disclosed by a public company, a filing or a payment processor, or verified by one; B = two or more independent reports agree, or a journalist confirmed it; C = a founder claim that no one else verified; D = reported, not verified: one founder claim or a third-party estimate with no second source; E = no revenue figure found, so the headline is a non-money fact and the other facts carry their own grades; calc = computed on this page from graded facts.

## Summary

ColorCraft is a web app for Amazon KDP self-publishers. KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) is Amazon's service where anyone can upload a book file and a cover file; Amazon prints each paperback when a customer orders it. ColorCraft makes both files with AI: it generates coloring pages, storybook illustrations with the same characters on every page, comic pages and algorithmic puzzles, and it builds the cover wrap, one PDF that holds the back cover, the spine and the front cover, with a spine width that depends on the page count.

John Kirby, an independent developer in North Carolina, started it on 5 May 2025 and released the first version on 19 June 2025. He said in June 2025 that he wrote almost no code himself and built the app with Cursor on Supabase, Vercel and Stripe. Revenue stayed between US$163 and US$411 a month from December 2025 to July 2026, then rose to US$638 in August, US$1,130 in September and US$1,845 in October 2026. On 5 November 2026 TrustMRR, which reads the revenue from Stripe, showed US$1,770 in monthly recurring revenue (MRR, the subscription revenue that repeats each month) from 92 active subscriptions.

The revenue figures on this page come from Stripe through TrustMRR, so they are grade A. The founder runs the business alone and has listed it for sale on TrustMRR since April 2026 with an asking price of US$65,000. The page also shows four failed startups that tried to change book publishing for small authors before AI could draw the books.

## Pricing

ColorCraft plans in November 2026, read from the company's pricing page

| Plan | Per month, billed yearly (US$) | Per month, billed monthly (US$) | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mini | 7.50 | 9 | 40 pages a month, first AI cover of each book |
| Starter | 11.67 | 14 | 100 pages a month |
| Creator | 26.67 (calculated) | 32 | 320 pages a month, more covers, mockups, KDP listing generator |
| Professional | 49.17 (calculated) | 59 | 700 pages a month |
| Studio | 99.17 (calculated) | 119 | 1,500 pages a month, for teams |
| Book unlock | 24 one-time | 24 one-time | Print-ready file of one book without a plan |

A page is one coloring page, one storybook page or one puzzle. Unused pages roll over up to twice the monthly amount. Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial that needs a card; trial downloads are watermarked. One book can be unlocked without a plan for US$24 one-time. The pricing page states the yearly prices of Mini (US$90) and Starter (US$140) only; the yearly figures for Creator, Professional and Studio are calculated from the changelog rule that annual billing gets two months free (10 times the monthly price, divided by 12).

## How much revenue does ColorCraft make? The numbers, graded

A one-person AI book maker for Amazon self-publishers at US$1,770 a month in Stripe-verified recurring revenue, 18 months after it started

| Fact | Value | Grade | Note | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly recurring revenue, 5 November 2026 | US$1,770 | A | TrustMRR metric snapshot; Stripe connected by API key, revenue last synced 5 November 2026. | [1] |
| Active subscriptions, 5 November 2026 | 92 | A | TrustMRR metric snapshot. | [1] |
| Monthly recurring revenue, 2 November 2026 | US$1,632 from 85 active subscriptions | B | Shipped & Paid read TrustMRR on 2 November 2026. It agrees with the grade A figure three days later. | [2] |
| Annual run rate | US$21,240 | calc | Calculated: 1,770 times 12. | [1] |
| Revenue, last 30 days to 5 November 2026 | US$1,935 | A | TrustMRR gives growth of 64.7% against the 30 days before. | [1] |
| Revenue, all time to 5 November 2026 | US$6,688 | A | Shipped & Paid read US$6,458 all-time on 2 November 2026. | [1, 2] |
| Monthly revenue, December 2025 to July 2026 | US$163 to US$411 | A | TrustMRR monthly timeline: lowest February 2026 (US$163), highest June 2026 (US$411). | [1] |
| Monthly revenue, August, September and October 2026 | US$638, US$1,130 and US$1,845 | A | TrustMRR monthly timeline. | [1] |
| Growth from August to October 2026 | 2.89 times | calc | Calculated: 1,845 divided by 638. | [1] |
| Average revenue per active subscription | about US$19 a month | calc | Calculated: 1,770 divided by 92 equals 19.24. | [1] |
| Founded | 5 May 2025 | C | TrustMRR founded date; the changelog calls 5 May the product's first birthday. The first public version is dated 19 June 2025. | [1, 3] |
| Team | 1 person | C | TrustMRR profile (founder-written). The about page names John as the founder, an independent developer in North Carolina. Shipped & Paid writes that he builds it on the side. | [1, 2, 5] |
| Outside funding | none | C | TrustMRR profile: bootstrapped. | [1] |
| Estimated users | 3,500 | C | Founder-written TrustMRR field. The home page shows 1,400+ creators and 40,000+ pages created. | [1, 6] |
| Listed for sale | since 22 April 2026, asking US$65,000 | C | TrustMRR acquisition section, with 6 offers received. The asking price is the seller's figure, not a sale. | [1] |
| Image model | OpenAI gpt-image-2 since 28 April 2026 | C | Changelog v3.0.0. TrustMRR's tech stack lists OpenAI and Anthropic. | [1, 3] |
| Google Search impressions, last 30 days | 2,257 | A | TrustMRR, Google Search Console connected by API. | [1] |

How to read this table: a grade A value is read from Stripe, the payment processor, through TrustMRR. A grade B value is a newsletter's reading of the same Stripe data on another date. A grade C value is the founder's or the company's own statement. A grade X value was calculated on this page from the rows above it.

## When did ColorCraft launch, and how did it grow? Timeline

From a coloring-page generator to a full book workflow in 18 months. Each entry carries its grade.

- **5 May 2025** (grade C [1, 3]): John Kirby starts ColorCraft.
- **19 June 2025** (grade C [2, 3]): Version 1.0: a text-to-image generator for coloring pages, a book assembly editor and a token system for generations. The same day he posts that the app was built with Cursor on Supabase, Vercel and Stripe.
- **12 October 2025** (grade C [3]): Version 2.0 adds Paige, an AI assistant that plans the prompts for a whole coloring book and generates the pages in bulk.
- **December 2025 to July 2026** (grade A [1]): Revenue stays between US$163 and US$411 a month.
- **22 April 2026** (grade C [1]): The founder lists ColorCraft for sale on TrustMRR.
- **28 April 2026** (grade C [3]): Version 3.0: the app is rebuilt and redesigned, and every page is generated with OpenAI's gpt-image-2.
- **23 May 2026** (grade C [2, 3]): Version 3.1 adds the KDP cover wrap generator, mockups, storybooks, puzzle books, a listing assistant and the 7-day free trial in place of the free tier.
- **August to October 2026** (grade A [1, 2]): Revenue rises from US$638 to US$1,845 a month. On 20 September 2026 the founder says he had not marketed the product in months while MRR kept rising.
- **15 October 2026** (grade C [3]): Version 3.5 adds printed copies shipped in the US and the ColorCraft Bookstore, where authors sell printed books for a royalty.
- **5 November 2026** (grade A [1]): TrustMRR shows US$1,770 MRR from 92 active subscriptions.

## Why did ColorCraft work?

### One narrow buyer

ColorCraft does not sell to everyone who wants a picture. It sells to people who publish coloring, story and puzzle paperbacks on KDP. These buyers already pay for books as a product line, and they need exact files: margins, bleed (art that runs past the trim edge), a spine sized to the page count. The pricing page states the cost per page, from US$0.23 on Mini to US$0.08 on the larger plans, because a publisher counts in pages per book.

### The whole workflow in one app

The TrustMRR profile says self-publishers stitch together four to seven tools to ship one book: an image generator, a layout tool, a cover template, a spine calculator, a mockup app. ColorCraft adds each step in turn: pages in 2025, then in 2026 the cover wrap, mockups, a listing description, storybooks, puzzles, printed copies and a bookstore.

### A trial long enough to finish a book

Shipped & Paid reports the founder's finding: users who generated 10 or more pages paid, and the rest never paid. In May 2026 he replaced the free tier with a 7-day trial that needs a card and covers a full 24-page book, KDP's minimum for a paperback. The download stays watermarked until the plan starts or the book is unlocked for US$24. Monthly revenue rose in the months after the change.

### Search and free tools

Free calculators for spine width, royalties, cover size and printing cost, and 600+ free coloring pages, bring visitors without ads. The seller's message on TrustMRR describes an organic channel led by ChatGPT referrals. TrustMRR also lists Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Google Ads as channels.

## How it was built

These details come from the founder's June 2025 post as quoted by Shipped & Paid, the TrustMRR tech-stack list and the product's changelog. They are grade C.

- Built mostly by AI coding tools: the founder wrote in June 2025 that he barely wrote any code and that the app was vibe-coded with tools like Cursor.
- Next.js, React and TypeScript for the web app, hosted on Vercel; Supabase for the database and logins; Google Cloud and Docker in the backend.
- Stripe for subscriptions, the one-time book unlock and the royalty payouts of the bookstore; Resend for email.
- OpenAI's gpt-image-2 generates every page since April 2026. TrustMRR also lists Anthropic in the stack. Puzzles are made by an algorithm, not by AI.
- In April 2026 the app was rebuilt from scratch and redesigned; Shipped & Paid reports a design system from Claude Design and deploys cut from more than 30 minutes to under 2.
- No mobile app: the product runs in the browser only.

Sources: [1, 2, 3, 5]

## Who tried this before ColorCraft, and why did they fail?

Four companies in our database of failed startups tried to change how small authors make or sell books before AI could draw the pages. The values below are from that database and are not independently verified.

The failed startups come from our database of dead startups, retold here in our own words; Its entries are AI-assisted summaries of public sources, so they carry no evidence grade.

### Booktrope (2015 to 2018; funding US$1M; cause: Ran out of cash)

- Promise: A publishing platform where authors, editors, designers and marketers worked as a book team and shared the royalties instead of charging fees.
- Why it died: Each book needed a team of people, and the company could not reach enough successful books to pay for the coordination. Amazon KDP offered authors an easier path.
- Record: 

### Zuuka (2009 to 2017; funding US$3M; cause: Competition)

- Promise: A library of interactive children's books for tablets.
- Why it died: Content cost a lot to make, and Apple and Amazon added interactive children's books to their own stores.
- Record: 

### Vook (2009 to 2017; funding US$5M; cause: No market need)

- Promise: Ebooks with video and audio inside the text.
- Why it died: Every title was expensive to produce, readers stayed with Kindle and iBooks, and publishers were slow to adopt the format.
- Record: 

### Zola Books (2013 to 2019; funding US$7M; cause: Competition)

- Promise: An ebook store with author discussions, recommendations and social sharing.
- Why it died: Amazon owned the ebook sales channel, and social features were not enough to move readers away from it.
- Record: 

## What changed

The older companies paid people to make each book: Booktrope's book teams, Zuuka's and Vook's multimedia titles. That cost had to be paid back by sales that never came, and Amazon and Apple controlled the stores. None of them made the books themselves cheap to produce.

ColorCraft does not compete with Amazon; it makes files for Amazon's own print service. Image models now draw a coloring page or a consistent storybook character for cents, so the book itself costs the publisher little to make. One developer with AI coding tools could build the editor, the KDP file checks and the cover math that a team would have built before.

## Can one person copy ColorCraft now?

**Verdict: Yes, the pattern is open to one person.**

The parts are rented: the image model from OpenAI, hosting from Vercel, the database from Supabase, payments from Stripe. The work is in the details of one platform's file rules and in the steps around the model. Many AI coloring-page generators exist, and the about page itself lists several products with the same name, so a copy needs a narrower or better-served buyer, not only a generator.

1. Pick a buyer who already sells a product made of the output (here, KDP paperbacks) and learn that platform's file rules exactly.
2. Build every step from idea to upload-ready files, not only the image generation.
3. Price in the buyer's unit (pages per book) and show the cost per unit.
4. Look at which free users convert; give a trial long enough to reach the moment they pay, and gate the final download.
5. Add free calculators and free sample pages that rank in search.

**What is still open.** The same full-workflow approach is open for other print-on-demand formats that the about page says ColorCraft does not make: journals, planners, notebooks, hardcover cover wraps and Kindle ebook files, and books in languages other than English.

## What could go wrong for ColorCraft?

- **Competition.** AI coloring-page tools are many; on this site ColorBliss, an AI coloring page generator, reported US$2,000 MRR in May 2024, about the same size as ColorCraft's US$1,770 MRR in November 2026 (TrustMRR). ColorCraft's about page lists other unrelated products that use the ColorCraft name (cpgsite.com, colorcrafti.com, ColurCraft AI, two custom GPTs, two App Store apps), which can confuse buyers.
- **Dependence on model providers and on Amazon.** Since April 2026 every page is generated with OpenAI's gpt-image-2 (changelog); a price change or a change in that model's output changes ColorCraft's cost and quality. TrustMRR lists a 90.0% profit margin for the last 30 days, a figure that depends on these model costs. The main use is publishing on Amazon KDP, so KDP's rules decide the market: the pricing page says KDP allows AI-generated content when the publisher discloses it at upload.
- **Small absolute size and a sale listing.** All-time revenue was US$6,688 on 5 November 2026, and the growth is recent (August to October 2026). The founder has listed the business for sale since April 2026 at US$65,000 and builds it on the side, so the owner may change.
- **Copyright and photos of real people.** The pricing page says the terms do not allow generating trademarked or copyrighted characters (for example Disney or Nintendo characters) without the owner's permission. Users can save a person or a pet as a character from up to 3 photos; the changelog says character photos are private and screened and that the editor asks the user to confirm the person's consent.
- **Books for children, sold to adults.** Many generated books are coloring books and storybooks for children (the home page shows kids' categories), but the buyers named on TrustMRR are KDP self-publishers, parents and teachers. The app is a paid web app that needs a card for its trial; no source shows marketing aimed at children.
- **Counters on the home page.** The home page shows 40,000+ pages created, 1,400+ creators and 1,300+ books with 10+ pages. These counters are the company's own and are not verified; the founder-written TrustMRR field estimates 3,500 users, and Stripe shows 92 active subscriptions.

## Sources

1. TrustMRR profile of ColorCraft (markdown), revenue last synced 5 November 2026 — https://trustmrr.com/startup/colorcraft.md (grade A). Read the markdown profile in full on 6 November 2026. Revenue, MRR, subscriptions and Search Console figures come from connected APIs (grade A); the description, team size, funding, user estimate, tech stack and sale listing are founder-written (grade C).
2. Shipped & Paid, case page: ColorCraft, a vibe-coded AI coloring book maker for KDP at $1,632 MRR (Stripe-verified), built by a solo founder with Cursor — https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/colorcraft-ai-coloring-book-maker-kdp-1-6k-mrr-vibe-coded-cursor/ (grade B). Read in full. A newsletter that read TrustMRR on 2 November 2026 and quotes the founder's X posts of 19 June 2025 and 20 September 2026. Source for the second dated MRR figure, the trial change and the build tools.
3. ColorCraft changelog — https://colorcraft.ai/changelog (grade C). Read in full. Source for the release dates from v1.0 (19 June 2025) to v3.5.0 (15 October 2026) and the image model.
4. ColorCraft pricing page, read 6 November 2026 — https://colorcraft.ai/pricing (grade C). Read in full. Source for the plans, the trial terms, the book unlock and the commercial-use and copyright rules.
5. About ColorCraft — https://colorcraft.ai/about (grade C). Read in full. Source for the founder's location, what the product does not do, and the list of unrelated products with the same name.
6. ColorCraft home page, read 6 November 2026 — https://colorcraft.ai/ (grade C). Read in full. Source for the usage counters and the book categories.
7. ColorCraft, As Seen On page — https://colorcraft.ai/as-seen-on (grade C). Read in full. Lists the directories and launch sites that list the product; no press logos.
8. Database of failed startups, local export — /method/#dead (grade C). Local export. AI-written summaries, not independently verified. Source for the failed predecessors.

Contact: aiolum@livyden.com. Run ColorCraft? Send corrections or a verified figure to aiolum@livyden.com (subject: Correction: ColorCraft).