One of the biggest mistakes new authors make is focusing only on getting their book published and never taking the time to understand how royalties actually work. When you publish a paperback on Amazon KDP, your royalty isn't just based on the price of your book. Amazon first deducts the printing cost, and then calculates your royalty based on what's left. This means that the way your book is designed can directly impact how much money you earn. A few things that affect your printing costs: ✅ Total page count ✅ Trim size (book dimensions) ✅ Black & white vs. color interior ✅ Premium color vs. standard color ✅ Paper type and ink usage ✅ Formatting choices such as font size, spacing, margins, and image placement Many authors don't realize that adding extra pages can significantly increase printing costs over time. Even small formatting decisions can make a difference. A friend of mine who is also an author decided to completely reformat her book to reduce the page count. The change only increased her royalty by about $0.20 per sale. At first, that doesn't sound like much. But let's do the math: - 100 sales = $20 extra - 500 sales = $100 extra - 1,000 sales = $200 extra - 5,000 sales = $1,000 extra That's the exact same book, with the exact same content, simply formatted more efficiently. The same concept applies to ebooks. While you don't have printing costs to worry about, pricing, file delivery fees (for certain royalty options), and royalty percentages all impact how much you earn per sale. PLAY WITH THE ROYALTY CALCULATOR HERE 🔢 The takeaway? Don't just publish your book. Understand the business behind your book. A successful author doesn't only know how to write a book—they know their numbers. 📊 Have you ever calculated your royalty per sale, or do you usually just wait to see what shows up in your KDP dashboard? I'd love to hear your answer below. 👇

We have officially hit 1200 members so I wanted to take a moment to recognize some new people in the community. Feel free to connect with other members - and share what you're working on in the comments! @Teresa Burns - Woman of faith, Christian author, and grandmother inspiring others to embrace God's promises and new beginnings. ✝️❤️ @Felipe Avila - Count your blessings not your problems @Janelle Young - Look back and embrace the good things of life 😇☺️ @Mary M - Greek Entrepreneur AI Explorer Looking to Create a SAAS & Provide Value Focused on automating processes with AI Solutions & Agents @Monica Neira - Mother of 2 beautiful girls, self-employed photographer @Christi Feldewerth - I love gardening and building our homestead in the desert. (Referred by @Des Dreckett 🎉) @Janine Magnusson - I am loving my retired life! I am living the life I love! I am travelling a lot home and abroad, and continally learning all the time! (Referred by @Linda Blythe 🎉) @Matt Hallock - I lead Christian men to step into their God-given masculinity so that they can rebuild their minds, their marriages, and their Kingdom mission. (Referred by @Des Dreckett 🎉) @Carla Brown - Mentoring women to turn ideas into income, sell with confidence, and scale using advanced Digital Marketing and AI strategies for lasting success. (Referred by @Des Dreckett 🎉) @Lindsey Elliott - Helping women 45+ stop the self-help cycle via a different understanding of anxiety, overthinking & self-doubt. From self-improvement to self-trust. (Referred by @Des Dreckett 🎉)

One of the biggest mistakes I made early in my Amazon KDP journey was jumping from niche to niche instead of building authority around a specific audience. I published books on all kinds of topics because they sounded interesting, but that approach made it much harder to gain momentum. Once I started focusing on related topics and creating multiple books for the same audience, sales became much more consistent. A few key takeaways: ✅ Don't just publish books—build a strategy. ✅ Focus on an audience, not just a single book idea. ✅ Think about how one book can lead to your next book. ✅ Consider how your books can support a business, community, coaching program, or personal brand. 🔍 Research First with Publisher Rocket 🏫 Create Your own Skool Community The authors who build the strongest publishing businesses often aren't chasing random opportunities—they're creating an ecosystem of books that work together. 🤔 Question: If you could become known for ONE topic or niche as an author, what would it be, and why did you choose that niche?

Share whatever you’re working on or proud of right now. This community is full of creators, authors, and entrepreneurs, and sometimes the best thing we can do is help each other get a little more visibility. 💡 IDEAS ON WHAT YOU COULD SHARE: • Yourself and what you do • Your Skool community • A book you're writing or recently published • A project you're building • A shoutout to another member • A video, post, or resource • Affiliate links (yes, those are allowed) The goal is simple: help our members get seen. Just one request so this stays valuable for everyone. 👉 1 RULE: If you share something, please also leave a thoughtful or helpful comment on someone else’s post. Support goes both ways, and when we all participate, the whole community benefits. Now let’s see what everyone is building 👇

As some of you know, I've been traveling internationally and am currently visiting Italy. What you might not know is how I've been leveraging my business to help support my travel. One of my favorite strategies is making sure my business expenses are working for me instead of just being expenses. For example, I use an American Express Business Gold Card. (I realize this may be more beneficial for those in the U.S.) The reason I love this card is because it allows me to earn Membership Rewards points on business spending, which I can then use toward flights and travel. Check this out... Last month alone, I spent about $1,000 on Amazon ads. That spending earned me 4x points. But that's not the only category that earns bonus points. Many of the Skool communities I've joined also code as business services, which means those expenses have earned me 4x points as well. Think about that for a minute. Sure, it may not look like much right now but over the course of a year just amazon and skool alone might be pulling in 65k annual points. I was already planning to spend that money to grow my business. By using the right credit card, I'm earning rewards that help fund future travel experiences. This is why I always encourage business owners to look at their entire business ecosystem. Don't just focus on generating revenue. Also look at how you're spending money and whether those expenses can create additional value. 👉 Advertising. 👉 Software subscriptions. 👉 Communities. 👉 Business tools. If you're already spending money in these categories, you might as well earn rewards while doing it. If you're spending a lot on Amazon ads, software, or Skool memberships and you're not using a card that rewards those purchases, it may be worth taking a closer look at the Amex Business Gold and seeing if it makes sense for your situation. Check out the benefits of the American Express Business Gold Card