Guides / Money
Money
How much do self-published authors actually make?
A $4.99 ebook on the 70% KDP band, 1 MB file, is about $3.34 a copy after delivery. One hundred sales is $334 before ads and tax. That is the whole magic trick, and it is also the ceiling until you write the next book or get cheaper attention.
Unit economics first
Use the royalty calculator. If an Amazon click costs more than you earn per copy, you are donating. Series, email lists, and a book that looks like its category at postage-stamp size are how people escape that trap — not a course about “mindset.”
Kindle Unlimited
KU pays on pages read, not on a list price. Some months the KENP rate is kind; some months it is not. Debut novels in hungry tropes can do better in KU than they do as $4.99 purchases. A business book with a real off-Amazon audience often should not enroll. You can change your mind every 90 days.
The unsexy path that compounds
A book a year, a list of people who already said yes, a cover that isn’t a joke, and ads only after the listing converts. That is a small business. “Quit in 90 days” is a thumbnail.
About 1 minute.
Keep going
The next job is almost always smaller than the mood. Open a tool, or sit at the desk.