Query: “color by number for adults” · paperback · Amazon.com · about 20,000 competing books
The best-ranked book on this page is self-published, from January 2025: rank 1,286, 1,882 reviews, $12.99, 209 pages. It is ahead of Brain Games and ahead of a Disney licence.
Two more indie titles from 2020 sit at ranks 6,221 and 9,653 with thousands of reviews each. Three of the seven live listings here are independent.
And the counter-example is right there: a book published this July carries a 2.2 star rating from 10 reviews. It got onto the page and is being destroyed in public. This shelf rewards work and punishes haste with equal speed.
| Title | Price | Rating | Reviews | BSR (Books) | Published | Pages | Who |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 Color by Number Mysteries: A Coloring Book for Adults | $12.99 | 4.6 | 1,882 | 1,286 | Jan 29 2025 | 209 | Indie |
| Brain Games - Color by Number: Stress-Free Coloring | $8.80 | 4.5 | 9,718 | 1,692 | Febr 1 2017 | 64 | Publisher |
| Disney Mystery Coloring: Pixar - A Color by Number Book | $17.58 | 4.8 | 224 | 1,945 | Febr 24 2026 | 128 | Publisher |
| Color By Number For Adults: 75 Beautiful Pictures | $14.49 | 4.3 | 746 | 3,875 | Dec 5 2022 | 154 | Publisher |
| Color by Number Patterns: An Adult Coloring Book | $9.99 | 4.5 | 3,094 | 6,221 | August 20 20 | 110 | Indie |
| New 2026 Autumn Color By Number: Large Print | $7.99 | 2.2 | 10 | 9,052 | July 13 2026 | 82 | Indie |
| Color by Number Flowers: An Adult Coloring Book | $9.99 | 4.6 | 1,466 | 9,653 | Nov 24 2020 | 110 | Indie |
The opportunity is real, but so is the 2.2-star example. Print a proof and colour it yourself before you upload.
The leader runs 209. Thin books on this shelf are visible in the rank column and in the reviews.
Hiding the image until it is coloured is what the top book sells. A plain numbered outline is the commodity version.
Three of the top four sit above $12. There is no evidence that undercutting buys rank here.
Every figure was read off Amazon.com on 18 September 2026: the organic results for that query with sponsored slots removed, then each listing's own page for rank, review count, publication date and length. Prices are US list prices at that moment and move constantly. Best Sellers Rank is a live position, not a sales figure — a rank read on a Tuesday can differ from the same rank on Sunday. “Indie” means the listing shows no traditional publisher, the closest public signal for a self-published title; it will occasionally mislabel a small press. Only paperbacks were counted. And know the width of the lens: this is the first page of one query — eight organic listings — not a census of the niche. A shelf that looks closed to newcomers here may be open on a neighbouring phrase, and seasonality is not accounted for: gift-driven categories rank differently in September than in November. One snapshot is not a trend.
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