More Bold Than Cozy: Drama In The Coloring Book Community—What It Is and Why It Matters

As is frequently the case, influencers—and consumerism—have turned this cozy hobby into something else entirely. We can thank a visually-driven social media platform for taking a visually-driven activity to a whole other level. A robust TikTok subculture of creators showcases, for example, how to get the perfect shadows while coloring in one of these books. Some creators compare and contrast their coloring skills when they took up the hobby versus where they are now, talking at length about how the tools they used to color have improved the game for them so much. More often than not, those tools are the Ohuhu Alcohol Markers, which come with a high price tag—the influencers in this world have at their disposal the deluxe 320 color double-tipped set at the cost of nearly $250 on Amazon. Smaller and less pricey sets have been difficult to track down and purchase, as another subset of popular TikTok videos features people hearing that there might be a single set at a local big box craft store and making it a mission to acquire them.

A hobby intended for relaxation has also become a space to compare your work against that of others and constantly run the self-betterment treadmill. Our culture of always working, always improving does not disappear when we are constantly connected and able to attempt to keep up with the Jonses. It used to be the homes you bought and cars you drove, but in an era where those are no longer financially in reach of too many, our hobbies become what we identify with success.

These videos do not represent the whole of the coloring community, of course. Anyone who spends a few minutes in just the r/coloring forum and/or thinking about the quantities of coloring books these creators are selling will understand that while these “bold and easy” coloring books are a trend right now, that trend was borne from a need to have more accessible, relaxing coloring books for the adult hobbyist. As comment after comment on Subreddit and similar Facebook pages suggest, this new style of coloring book has taken some of the stress and anxiety out of an activity intended to be low stakes and low stress.

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Coco Wyo, the current bestselling creator of “bold and easy” coloring books isn’t a single person named Coco Wyo. It’s a team of independent Vietnamese creators who have self-published over 25 coloring books marketed as “bold and easy,” “bold-easy,” or “cute & comfy.” Some of these are digital-only publications, while others are available in print.

Despite hundreds of thousands of followers on social media—555K on a public Instagram account, 80K on a private Facebook page, 375K on YouTube, 332K on TikTok, 12.5K on Pinterest, and 46K on Threads—Coco Wyo share virtually nothing about who comprises their team.

From their website:

Little team with a cozy dream

That’s where our journey begins. We’re a blend of joyful souls: artists, colorists, editors, and marketers.

Different? Yes.

But we all share one belief in the healing power of art.

The collective group has taken a big leap at the end of 2024, though, and after self-publishing all of their coloring books, they signed with mega publisher Penguin Random House for a six-figure sum. Their first publisher-backed coloring book, Cozy Christmas, hit shelves early in December.

The six-figure deal includes two more Coco Wyo books that will be coming from Random House Children’s Books in the spring. The budding partnership between the creative collective and the publisher was noted as “exclusive,” suggesting that perhaps Wyo would no longer be self-publishing their work at the same pace as before, if at all.

Even in reporting on the major deal—a lead focus title for Penguin Random House Children’s UK at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair—the identity of the Coco Wyo collective was hinted at only by a single spokesperson by the name of Chloe Tran. No information about Tran as it relates to Coco Wyo exists beyond the announcement of this deal in The Bookseller. The landing page for Coco Wyo’s books on the children’s imprint website also tiptoes around the question of who the group is.

Coco Wyo is the home of many creatively independent artists. Together, their mission is to foster a universal passion for expressing emotions through colors by creating a variety of coloring books that inform, entertain, and inspire, and connect people everywhere. While coloring these books, you will immerse in a magical fantasy world where you can relax, unwind, and express yourself creatively.

Coco Wyo isn’t new to the world of coloring books, though, even amid the boom in “bold and easy” style offerings. The group formed four years ago, publishing direct to consumers on Amazon. They found success early because they tailored their offerings to what it was consumers wanted. This isn’t unusual and is exactly how other mega-stars on the self-publishing circuit have made a name for themselves (see, for example, Colleen Hoover).

But it is this last point which began much of the controversy surrounding Coco Wyo. Colorers began to question where and how Coco Wyo was simply trend chasing and pouring funds into advertising to push their titles to the top of algorithms and bestseller lists. They also began to question where and how one group could so quickly produce as much as they did, often on similar themes or with similar titles or styles as other coloring book creators.

Take, for example, Food Drink and Sweets, published by Coco Wyo on April 2, 2024. The book, as the title suggests, showcases an array of foods and drinks to color. The book was published just three months following the publication of Meg Publishing’s Food & Snacks coloring book on January 19.

Not only are the titles similar—that happens in any arena of publishing—but the layouts of the covers themselves are nearly identical. Three large items on top and three items on the bottom. Pay attention, though, to how Megan’s title includes the description “bold & easy” and how Coco Wyo’s reads “Bold-Easy.” Looking through other coloring books showcase similar copycatting of Meg Publishing’s January release, with additional food/snack coloring books by Noah Goleman (Food and Snacks Coloring Book: Bold and Easy Designs for Both Adults and Kids, April 15), Food & Snacks: Bold & Easy Coloring book by Pixie and Yvonne Drabner (July 31), and Food and Snacks: Coloring Book for Adults and Teens Featuring Relaxing Bold and Easy Coloring Pages of Yummy Food and Snacks by Talia J (September 28).

It wasn’t solely the content that raised concerns about Coco Wyo. It was the sudden change in the trim size of their coloring books, too. Prior to spring 2024, the print editions of Coco Wyo coloring books were traditional printer paper size at 8.5″x11″. The company marketed this as a selling feature—these were large and easy for framing. Cozy Spaces, published in March 2024, was at this trim size, as was Fairy Beauties, published April 19, 2024. The trim size change appears to have started with Cute & Groovy, on April 1, just a single day before its next coloring book with the brand new trim size: the above-mentioned Food Drink & Sweets.

You cannot copyright a trim size, of course, especially if you’re a team from Vietnam self-publishing your titles. But this change happened after the widespread success of coloring books by Meg Publishing and Bobbie Goods, who had been using that size for their work early on.

It raised many an eyebrow.

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In the coloring book world—including on TikTok, where the popularity of Coco Wyo coloring books rose through the algorithm—conversations around whether or not Coco Wyo has profited from Artificial Intelligence (AI) creations have been constant. Part of this is because of their ability to produce so many books so quickly. Cute & Groovy and Food Drink & Sweet were published one day apart, with several more titles publishing in the weeks before and following.

Coloring fans also talked about similarities between Coco Wyo’s work and that of other creatures. Sure, the art on the back cover of Spooky Cutie (July 9, 2024) isn’t exactly the same as Leriza May’s Creepy Kawaii (originally published in May 2021 and updated to the new popular trim size in June 2024). But it is not hard to see where inspiration may have been borrowed or input into AI.

It’s hard to deny that there’s something going on when yet another coloring book showcases a grim reaper on a unicorn on August 9, 2024’s Creepy Cutie Kawaii Pastel Goth Coloring Book by Nota Creativa.

Under one of the videos discussing the similarities between May’s cover and the new Coco Wyo book, a user wrote “The Bobbie Goods books are outrageous in price. I like that. Coco has a cheaper alternative. [sic]”

Whether or not Coco Wyo is taking clear inspiration from others doesn’t matter. Coco Wyo can undercut those prices and profit.

Inspiration is a fluid concept when it comes to something like images in a coloring book. Can you trademark an idea? Again, depends on where and how something is being published. Often laws are applicable only in certain jurisdictions, rather than across international borders.

Because Coco Wyo operates as a group, without any individuals named, credited, or identified, the concept of inspiration gets trickier, and so, too, does attribution of creativity. Who designs each book is a big question mark. What sort of agreements are in place between the Coco Wyo ownership and the illustrators, the colorists, and so forth is anyone’s guess. It could be every book is by committee, and that payment is uniform across the board, just as well as it could be one person constantly pumping out ideas for another to be the one profiting from the whole gamble.

This is precisely what happened at Lisa Frank, Inc., a company being scrutinized in the modern era for how owners Lisa Frank and James Green treated its creative team—the bread and butter of the operation. They took all of the credit and most of the income through the company’s rainbow-colored cute animal product heydays while the artists worked tirelessly behind the scenes, under harsh criticism, exacting deadlines, and the constant fear of being fired by the intimidating human resources manager. Indeed, many of the issues Coco Wyo has seen mirror those at Lisa Frank, Inc., in that as the popularity of a certain style or product rose, so, too, did their own output of materials that could better flood the market through being cheaper, more accessible, better publicized, and so forth.

Similar patterns emerged with LuLaRoe, a multilevel marketing company whose popular buttery soft leggings forced designers to come up with an unrealistic number of new, fresh designs under ever-tightening deadlines and without additional compensation.

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[B]ut language doesn’t exist in isolation. Rather, it exists in context of our cultural attitudes, which are constantly changing. Now that we’re giving creators more power for their work, we’re also treating words with greater scrutiny. — Adam Aleksic, “Can You Own a Word?“

The latest move by Coco Wyo, though, has sent even bigger waves throughout the coloring community. In early November, Coco Wyo filed a host of trademark applications through the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Many believed that this was an unabashed attempt to shut down any competitors in the “bold and cozy” coloring book category.

A spreadsheet of results for trademarks filed by Coco Wyo on the USPTO website. The blank space in the above spreadsheet of trademarks filed by Coco Wyo is a small image of a grim reaper holding a coffee pot with a heart on it.

You can’t copyright a word, but you can trademark one, and that’s precisely what Coco Wyo attempted to do. A trademark is brand protection, and among the protections sought by the company included “Ocean Scene,” “Comfy Days,” “Cozy Spaces,” “Fashion Vibes,” “Food Drink & Sweets,” and, of course, “Bold-Easy Coloring Book.” Recall that Meg Publishing’s phrasing was “Bold & Cozy,” whereas Coco Wyo attempted to trademark something just different enough to protect themselves.

Coco Wyo is not an American group. They do have a contract with a global publishing company through Penguin Random House and through that, a publishing agreement in the United States. But these trademarks are tied to an address in Regina, Saskatchewan, as well as a Limited Liability Corporation located in Sheridan, Wyoming. Neither of those addresses correspond to Penguin Random House. In fact, the Sheridan address, 30 N Gould St Suite R, has been mentioned by locals as one of the most notorious addresses for shell companies. It is an address that is easy to register as a virtual office and has been tied to numerous scam companies.

Just as it was TikTok coloring fans who helped lift Coco Wyo up the charts, so, too, is it the TikTok coloring community who brought up the issue of their attempted trademarking—and the lengths to which Coco Wyo will go to push back against accusations of taking inspiration from other creators on and beyond the app—to light. As of writing, every one of the language-focused trademarks that are not the name Coco Wyo itself has been dropped by the company. It turns out once you anger your biggest audience, you have to pivot or face losing everything you’ve spent several years building. This is especially true when your company prides itself on adapting to and listening to its consumers.

As Adam Aleksic discussed in “Can You Own a Word?,” the growth of the influencer space and the ability to capitalize on a moment of virality come together to muddy what it means to own a word or idea. This is especially true in our contemporary world, where we have an ability like never before to trace the origins of an idea or a social movement, or even creative output. Why shouldn’t those who have had their work seen by millions and millions and remixed by even millions more be able to capitalize on that moment, especially if they are creators who are from traditionally marginalized groups? Just this summer, Jools Lebron cashed in on her very demure, very mindful trend—and though the trademark process for her has been difficult, that recognition as the creator helped her raise the money she needed to get gender-affirming surgery. She succeeded under the creator economy and changed her life with her 15 minutes of fame.

Coco Wyo, however, appears to have been the opposite of demure and mindful, and in the process, they have alienated the very audience who helped make them a leader within the “bold and cozy” coloring book trend. It’s hard not to wonder if anyone knew who Coco Wyo was or anything about their practices, may have been given the same grace and applause. But in a world where corporations are continually understood as the problem and where people are far more conscious online of who is out to make a buck vs. who is out to make change, responding to your audience matters. But for Coco Wyo, the trademark cancelation may have been too little too late.

The “bold and cozy” coloring book trend won’t be gone anytime soon, especially as we enter into an unknown and further tumultuous political era. But one thing is: selling your audience on the “healing power of art” while simultaneously trying to trademark what it is to offer healing through art is certainly bold but pretty far from cozy.