You saw the chart. Eight months, 22x royalty growth, 15x profit. Not magic – process. Now I'm setting the next target: $5,000/month by the end of 2026. And I'm doing it publicly, with full transparency on what works and what doesn't. Here's what changed in my thinking going into this year. Low-content got me to $50/month on autopilot. Switching to a quality-first mindset got me past $3,000. But scaling further requires something I spent the last few months building: a repeatable system that doesn't depend on my mood, my schedule, or lucky niche picks. I'm calling it the Guided Publishing System. It's not a course. It's not a prompt pack. It's a structured workflow — built around the idea that AI can do the heavy lifting in execution, while the decisions, creative direction, and judgment calls stay with us. That's what produces defensible, platform-compliant books that actually sell. And that's what separates publishers who plateau from publishers who compound. I'm not ready to open it up fully yet. But I'm looking for a group of serious publishers – people already making something on KDP, already past the "does this even work?" phase – who want to run this alongside me in 2026. What that looks like in practice: Real numbers shared. Real process documented. No cheerleading – just what's working, what broke, and how I'm adjusting. If you're plateaued somewhere between $50 and $1,000/month and you're done waiting to figure out what the next level actually requires, this is worth paying attention to. If $5,000/month is a thing of the past for you, it's amazing! Let's target 5x growth, for example. More details on the Premium tier upgrades will be available soon. Watch this space. --- The chart shows my trajectory from Jan-25 through Dec-25. Your numbers will be different. I hope you will crash it.

A minute of nostalgia. Everybody who has had a marketing course during their education will definitely recognize the BCG (Boston Consulting Group) Matrix. Although this concept emerged in the last century, it remains an extremely useful tool for portfolio development. The Momentum Matrix in KDP Sales Analyzer classifies each active book in your catalog into one of four quadrants based on market growth rate and relative market share — helping you decide where to invest, scale, or cut. Here's how each quadrant maps to a books portfolio: - Leaders (High Growth / High Volume) — bestselling titles in trending niches; double down with sequels, series, or companion workbooks - Cash Cows (Low Growth / High Volume) — evergreen titles with steady sales; milk them for revenue to fund new launches without heavy reinvestment - Breakouts (High Growth / Low Volume) — new books in fast-growing niches; test with ads and optimize listings to see if they can become Stars - Dogs (Low Growth / Low Volume) — underperforming titles in stale niches; stop promoting to free up resources The core strategic value is reallocation of effort: Cash Cows fund the promotion of Breakouts and Stars, while Dogs are deprioritized. For a KDP publisher, this means your back catalog essentially finances your next profitable niche launches — turning your portfolio into a self-sustaining growth engine. What tools are you using to make decisions on your book portfolio development?

If you do not use NotebookLM in your book production, just postpone everything and watch this video. This is the essential tool for nonfiction book creation. If you are already using NotebookLM, please share the tasks you are using it for.

The last two weeks were unusually slow and silent in the Guild. I am not sure, but it feels like there was less activity in most of the communities I am involved in. Is it just my perception, or have you experienced the same? Anyway, the Guided Publishing System is now built and fully operational. I am in the process of creating the new book with the system, and it works exactly as it was supposed to - "blank page syndrome" gone. Every time I come back to the book, I know exactly what the next step is. The same thing applies to the Review Catalyst tracker - it removed a lot of hustle and ambiguity from the process. I used the Paperback 3D Mockup for the A+ content for a few of my books, and it totally changed the experience of creating marketing materials. I am not sure if it's interesting to anybody except @Yannick Di Mondo, @Sven Georgiev and me. Anyway, it's OK for me to continue developing the tools, even if only three of us will use them. Slowly, without a rush, providing functionality that publishers are interested in. So, what is on your mind? What are you doing now? What are you aiming for? P. S. @Ana-Rita Piirainen It's so nice to see you back!