Your author home

Launchpad & Payouts

The Launchpad is your home base — every book you've written, your earnings, your payout setup, author copies, retail distribution, and your readers, all in one place.

Getting around

At the top you'll find three big cards — Studio (write), Direct (publish), and Author Services (find editors, cover artists, and beta readers). If your account also has a Reader or Publisher role, a switcher in the header lets you jump between them.

My Books

Each book shows a status badge — Draft, Submitted (under review), Published, Rejected, or Archived — and buttons that depend on that status:

Edit in Studio → — open the manuscript.
Manage Listing → — set price, sales, search text, and categories (see below).
Order Author Copies → — buy print copies for yourself (see below).
Download print proof → — the interior and cover files on record.
Request retail distribution → — ask to list on Amazon, Apple Books, etc. (see below).

Setting up payouts (Stripe)

You get paid your royalties through Stripe. In the Earnings section, the payout widget walks you through it:

Click Set up payouts →.
Confirm it's you with a quick two-factor check, then complete Stripe's secure onboarding (bank details, identity).
You return to a confirmation page. Once Stripe activates transfers, the widget shows Payouts connected with a Verified Identity badge and your bank's last four digits.

Verifying here unlocks publishing. The same identity check that enables payouts is what lets you publish and print books — so it's worth finishing even before your first sale. If Stripe still needs details, the widget lists exactly what's missing; click Continue → to finish.

Understanding your earnings

Four cards summarise your money: Pending (orders not yet delivered), Held (in the 14-day window), Paid (transferred to your bank), and Reversed (clawed back after a refund, shown only if any). The table below lists each sale with its book, order, status, and royalty.

Your royalty is the retail price minus print & shipping costs, the 5% platform fee, and the order's payment-processor fee. Earnings hold for 14 days after delivery, then transfer automatically to your Stripe account.

Ordering author copies

On a published book, click Order Author Copies → to print copies for yourself (events, gifts, your own shelf) at cost. These orders are separate from reader sales and appear under My copy orders, where you can follow each one's status and use the Track ↗ link.

Requesting retail distribution

To get a book onto outside retailers, click Request retail distribution → (an ISBN is required). The status pill then moves through Requested → Submitting → In review → Live in retail; once it's live, retailer links appear (e.g., View on Amazon ↗). This is handled by a person, so it isn't instant.

Manage Listing

Click Manage Listing → to control how a published book appears in the store — no Shopify account needed. There are three sections:

Pricing & Sales — set the price for each format. You'll see the print cost, the minimum price (so you never lose money), and what you earn per copy. Tick "Put this format on sale," set a sale price, and optionally schedule start/end dates.
Search & Discovery — write a search title (up to 70 characters) and search description (up to 320) — your pitch in Google and on-site search.
Categories — tap the category chips your book belongs to; these feed the storefront's genre shelves.

Click Save changes. A green confirmation appears, and your storefront updates right away.

Your readers & tools

Lower down, Your Community shows how many readers follow you and a few of their names. The Tools cards link to the print-cost calculator, book templates, and binding styles. If a publisher invites you to their imprint, you'll see Accept / Decline buttons under Publisher Invitations.