Target: the MRR ladder in WHAT-TO-DO-AND-AVOID.md. Realistic month-24 goals are $3.5k MRR at ~15 hrs/week and $6k MRR full-time, profitable, with ≥80% gross margin. Tier B ($20k+) is a stretch at ~1.5–3%.
Rule: nothing in a later phase starts until the current phase's gate is hit. Gates and pivot rules are in WHAT-TO-DO-AND-AVOID.md. The detail for days 1–90 is in 08-90-day-plan.md.
Standing rule for every phase: a breakage is fixed within 24 hours, before any feature work.
Phase 1: Prove the gap and the pain (Months 0–3) → Gates G1, G2
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Kill check | Confirm KDP has no bulk price, rights or scheduled-price option. Set up a test account with draft titles. |
| Customers | 15–20 publisher calls. 6–10 paid done-for-you reprices ($49–99 each). |
| Product | MV3 extension v1: free 35% finder, bulk price and royalty edits, preview, undo log, filters, spreadsheet import and export, human-pace execution, selector health check, ExtensionPay licensing. Then the promo scheduler and the monthly health email. |
| Distribution | Launch in author groups with live demos. 4 guides on the July 2026 royalty change and bulk pricing. Affiliate programme at 30% recurring. |
| Pricing | Author $15, Pro $29, Press $69 a month; annual at 10×. Founding accounts keep their price for 12 months. |
| Exit | 20 paying (~15 hrs/week) or 40 (full-time), ≥60% month-1 renewal |
Phase 2: Make it a monthly habit (Months 4–6) → Gate G3
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | Print price-floor check, marketplace price harmoniser, series price ladder. Status page. "What changed and what it earned" report from the user's own KDP report download. |
| Retention | Annual-plan push at checkout and at month 2. A one-month "event pass" at a higher price for one-time repricers, so they pay fairly without dragging down retention. |
| Distribution | 10 guides live. 5 active affiliates. Monthly live demo. Ask every happy account for a Chrome Web Store review at day 30. |
| Ops | Stripe-direct fallback ready in case ExtensionPay changes. Documented selectors and a breakage runbook. |
| Exit | $600 MRR (~15 hrs/week) or $1k (full-time), ≥25% of payers using the promo scheduler |
Phase 3: Raise value per account (Months 7–12) → Gate G4
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | Press plan features: several KDP accounts or pen names per licence, team seats for assistants, batch templates. Keyword and category audit (read-only). |
| Decision at month 9 | Cross-store pricing? Build it only if ≥30% of payers publish wide and ask for it. Start with Kobo Writing Life, then Apple Books and Google Play Books. |
| Distribution | Guest demos on 2–3 author YouTube channels or courses. Partner with a reporting tool (Book Report or Publisher Champ) for mutual referrals if they're open to it. |
| Ops | Help centre complete. Churn-reason survey on cancellation. Monthly check of the KDP terms page and Amazon policy news. |
| Exit | $1.5k MRR (~15 hrs/week) or $3k (full-time), monthly churn ≤5%, no breakage unfixed after 48 hours |
Phase 4: Scale what works, or prepare to sell (Months 13–24) → Gate G5
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | Cross-store pricing if Phase 3 approved it. Bulk keyword edits, once pricing has been stable for 6 months. Firefox only if ≥10% of requests ask for it. |
| Distribution | Double down on the single best channel from months 1–12. |
| Checkpoint | Month 18: $2.5k MRR (~15 hrs/week) or $4.5k (full-time). Missing it means concentrating on one channel and raising price per account. |
| Sale readiness | Clean books, documented code and selectors, a support playbook, 12 months of breakage history. A small profitable extension is a liquid asset. |
| Decision at month 24 | Above target with churn ≤5%: aim for $10k in year 3. At $1k to target: run it profitably, or list it for sale. Below $1k: stop. |
| Exit | $3.5k MRR (~15 hrs/week) or $6k (full-time), profitable |
Revenue path (illustrative, not a forecast)
| Month | Paying accounts (~15 hrs/week) | MRR (~15 hrs/week) | Paying accounts (full-time) | MRR (full-time) |
|---|
| 3 | 20 | ~$0.4k | 40 | ~$0.8k |
| 6 | 30 | ~$0.6k | 55 | ~$1.1k |
| 12 | 75 | ~$1.5k | 150 | ~$3.0k |
| 18 | 125 | ~$2.5k | 225 | ~$4.5k |
| 24 | 175 | ~$3.5k | 300 | ~$6.0k |
This assumes a blended ~$20 per account after annual discounts, monthly churn of 4–5% after month 6, and at least half of new accounts coming from communities and affiliates. It assumes no Amazon event. A native bulk-pricing feature or a policy change resets this table. If churn runs above 7%, the path doesn't work. Fix retention (the promo scheduler and annual plans) before chasing growth.
Budget guardrails (bootstrapped)
- Hosting, licensing and tools below 10% of revenue. Expect ~$50–100 a month plus payment fees (~8–9% at this price).
- Zero paid acquisition before month 6. After that, only affiliate commissions and sponsorships that pay back within 3 months.
- No server-side processing of anyone's KDP data, ever. It's a cost, a privacy burden and a terms-of-service risk.
- Keep a cash buffer of 6 months of tools and fees, so a breakage month with refunds doesn't force bad decisions.