The Publishing Playbook

Andrey Bernhart and Tim Gebhard

Tim Gebhard and Andrey Bernhart are experienced, unconventional self-publishers who share their strategies on self-publishing, Amazon KDP, book creation, AI, and more in their podcast “The Publishing Playbook.” 

Episodes

  1. APR 2

    #003 - KDP Q&A: Amazon Ads, AI Books & the $1M Month Goal with Amazon KDP

    In this episode of the Publishing Playbook, Andrey Bernhart ($500K+ on Amazon KDP) and Tim Gebhard ($250K in 9 months) sit down for a listener Q&A. We answer your most asked questions about self-publishing, Amazon KDP, AI-powered book creation, PublishFlow, and what it really takes to scale. Topics covered: - Why Andrey gives away his publishing workflow through PublishFlow instead of gatekeeping it - How public accountability on YouTube drives Tim's performance - The impact of being around other successful publishers - Andrey's top 5 books out of 50 (and why) - How design skills give you an unfair advantage in KDP - PublishFlow's biggest weakness right now (and the long-term vision) - Is AI ruining book publishing? Our honest take on fiction vs. non-fiction - Tim's aggressive Amazon Ads strategy explained - When KDP started feeling like a real business for Andrey About us: Andrey Bernhardt — Self-publisher for 2 years, $500K+ lifetime royalties on Amazon KDP, co-founder of PublishFlow (publishflow.ai) Tim Gebhardt — Publishing since May 2025, ~$200K lifetime royalties in 9 months, documenting the journey on Peter Holmquist's channel Try PublishFlow: https://publishflow.ai/?utm_source=PodEP3 --- ## Timestamps 0:00 — Cold open teaser 0:32 — Welcome & what's this episode about (Q&A format) 1:15 — Who are we? Introductions 2:02 — Why does Andrey give away his workflow through PublishFlow? 3:10 — The vision: raising the quality bar on Amazon KDP with AI 7:00 — Will the public perception of AI books change? 8:05 — Does documenting the journey on YouTube pressure Tim to perform? 9:27 — Tim's goal: $100K month by end of March, $1M month by Q4 10:46 — Has being around successful publishers changed how you think? 12:30 — Two brains are better than one — how collaboration sparks ideas 14:25 — Tim's SuperTIM AI agent origin story (brain dump in the car) 15:11 — If you could only keep 5 of your 50 books, which ones and why? 17:30 — The $19.40 royalty book & the $33K seasonal monster 18:57 — How did design & Photoshop skills help Tim start with KDP? 20:30 — Design skills > writing skills in the AI era? 22:31 — What's PublishFlow's biggest weakness right now? 24:00 — The long-term vision: InDesign-level quality inside PublishFlow 25:45 — Is AI ruining book publishing? Fiction vs. non-fiction debate 28:35 — Could AI write the next Game of Thrones? 30:00 — The future: custom AI-generated novel series made just for you 30:53 — Tim's aggressive Amazon Ads strategy — why spend so much? 33:00 — Andrey's defensive ad strategy vs. Tim's aggressive approach 35:47 — When did KDP start feeling like a main hustle? (Andrey's growth curve) 38:30 — Tim's insane growth curve: $150 → $55K months 40:15 — What's "normal" on KDP? We want to have that real conversation 41:06 — PublishFlow launch announcement 43:30 — Drop "SuperTim" in the comments if you watched until here! 44:24 — Outro

    44 min

About

Tim Gebhard and Andrey Bernhart are experienced, unconventional self-publishers who share their strategies on self-publishing, Amazon KDP, book creation, AI, and more in their podcast “The Publishing Playbook.”