Three numbers that matter: what it takes to finish the build, what it costs to run for users, and what authors pay to use it.
The estimate to take the prototype through to a launch-ready MVP — testing, the remaining screens, hardening.
This is the validation-phase figure agreed in principle. It's deliberately lean — we're building on a foundation that already exists, not from zero.
The plan is that Nespola covers all the infrastructure — servers and AI tokens — so the experience is completely frictionless for the end user. An author never sees a usage bill or has to bring their own API key.
The real variable cost is AI tokens per book. Everything else (hosting, database) is small and fixed. So the unit economics are simple: cost-per-book is known and capped, and each plan tier sets a usage limit that keeps it predictable.
The practical ceiling on how many authors can generate at once is the AI provider's rate limit — which is exactly why the managed model makes sense: we tune and pool that capacity centrally instead of leaving it to users.
Positioned as a premium, fully-managed tool — not a cheap commodity generator.
That price is justified the same way your mentorship is: against a $7k / 6-month program, a tool that compresses the hardest part of the work into days is an easy yes. Tiers differ by features and monthly usage limits.
Affiliate program — ~$2,000 per client, run through Nespola's Flippa / Empire Flippers relationships. This is the fast-adoption engine: turn the existing network into a distribution channel from day one.
Pricing here is set on value and outcome — what a finished, compliant, sellable book is worth to an author — never on "cost plus hours." The marginal cost is low; the value delivered is high. That gap is the business.