I've been sharing that I've been investing in myself lately ... and one of those investments is a cohort with @Matt Radkiewicz focused on Amazon ads. I've been learning how to tweak my campaigns for better results, but my biggest takeaway so far? Always keep experimenting.📊 Being part of this cohort has opened my eyes to things I never would have thought to try on my own. That's the real value of working with someone or investing in a program. And here's something I look for: it's a GOOD SIGN when the people teaching you are still out there learning themselves — because they pass those wins straight to you. One of my biggest realizations is that my niche is competitive. When you're running ads, you have to bid high just to get impressions. I know that sounds scary — but you need that data to find out what's actually working and what's NOT. Here's what clicked for me: I need to 💰PRICE my book higher so I have more room to bid competitively and still stay profitable. I started testing this with a book that hadn't seen much activity in a while, and then I thought... wait, what if I apply this to my books that are already performing well? So now I'm experimenting. I'm raising the price on one of my $16 books to $18. I'll monitor the sales data closely — but here's the math: if I'm moving 100 copies a month and the price goes up $2, that's an extra $200/month. Doesn't sound like much, but that's $2,400 💸 more per year from one small change. Small optimizations compound. Keep finding them. ➡️ What are YOU doing to keep improving your books? Drop it in the comments — I'd love to know.

I wanted to share a little update on something I’ve been working on behind the scenes… As some of you know, I joined an Amazon Ads cohort with @Matt Radkiewicz . Even though I’ve been running ads on my books for years, I’ve never really labeled myself as an “expert” in this area and honestly, I wanted to tighten things up and learn some new strategies. One of the biggest reasons I joined was because I have several older books that I’ve kind of neglected over time. With everything going on in the community, I haven’t had as much time to publish new books lately… so instead, I decided to shift my focus to optimizing what I already have. ➡️ Check out Matt's Amazon Ads Skool Publisher Sea And I’ll say this just putting attention back into those books and turning ads back on has already started bringing in some sales again 👀 Since setting up these ads, it has helped me get about 10 sales on old books that were previously doing nothing, which I would say is a win, but it still takes time to optimize and improve. It’s a really good reminder that you don’t always need something brand new… sometimes there’s opportunity sitting in assets you’ve already created. That said, one thing I’m definitely being reminded of (and @Sybil Hall has said this too) is that Amazon Ads are NOT a “set it and forget it” situation. You have to check in, monitor performance, and make adjustments consistently if you want to see results. Curious—have you started running Amazon Ads on your books yet?

I just want to give a huge shoutout to my friends who have really been helping me grow this community. Earlier today I asked in a few groups for a *Birthday Wish* for people to send over a few community members. Now we are just 5 members away from hitting the 800-member goal for Q1, and I am feeling like we are 100% going to hit the target. @Liisa Reimann Thanks for sending over @Chelena Peart who has been a real rockstar ✨ from the moment she came into the community today and brought over a bunch of her friends. 💖 Also big hugs to @Rasheed Hooda for also giving me a birthday shoutout and bringing over some of his connections too. Also appreciate @Sybil Hall for also featuring me today. 👉 AFFILIATE IS ON: Everyone is welcome to invite their friends. If you have someone who would love to learn self-publishing, send them over. 💖 Thanks to everyone else who has been supportive here. I'm grateful to have you all!

I spent most of this weekend in full hustle mode trying to gather all my tax documents together. Let’s just say my bookkeeping skills are… not exactly my strongest area. 😅 But I did something new that actually helped a lot. I used Notebook LM for the first time to upload all of my bank statements and credit card statements and turn everything into a master spreadsheet so I could start itemizing my expenses. Honestly, I feel like @Bradley Deacon and @Gemma Coles would be proud of my AI progress… working smarter, not harder. But the real reason I’m sharing this is an important reminder: If you’re publishing and selling books on Amazon, this is a business. Amazon will send you a 1099, so if you sold books last year you’ll want to make sure you’re looking out for that when doing your taxes. And if you’re just getting started this year, it’s something good to be mindful of early. The cool part of doing all this paperwork though was looking back at the numbers and seeing the growth. To be transparent, last year I earned roughly: • $28K from Audible • $25K from Amazon KDP • About $12K from TikTok Shop sales So the question is… Can you actually make money from self-publishing? I’ll let you be the judge. 👀📚

I ran into something odd with one of my KDP books and I’m curious if anyone has seen this. The book had been selling steadily. Then I looked closer at the numbers and realized the ads were eating almost half of the royalties, so I slightly increased the price to create some margin. Previously a price change was just a formality. This time Amazon made me go through the full publishing process again (including removing emojis from the description). The book was approved and went live again — but sales stopped. What’s confusing is that the existing reviews are still there, so it doesn’t look like a completely new listing. Has anyone seen something like this? Does the algorithm reset after this kind of update and the book has to rebuild momentum again?