The invention relates to a production method of abietic maleic anhydride resin, comprising the following two reaction steps of: 1, carrying out addition reaction on abietyl and maleic anhydride to generate an abietic maleic anhydride addition product; and 2, carrying out esterification reaction on the abietic maleic anhydride addition product and pentaerythritol to generate the abietic maleic anhydride resin. The production method is easy and convenient to operate, has the advantages of large temperature control range, high operability, small investment and stable product quality and is a method suitable for industrialized production; in the production method, appropriate process conditions including raw material proportion, reaction temperature, reaction time, catalysts, and the like, are adopted, thereby the acid value and the molecular weight range of a resin product can be effectively controlled; in addition, the resin product obtained with the production method has higher acid value of 150-170 mg KOH/g, reasonable softening point at 140-155 DEG C and good water solubility and is suitable for producing water-based ink, and a formed coating film has toughness and better after-tackiness resistance, water resistance and alkali resistance.