John Carney suggest that the palm should almost always been done on an offbeat. Stick with Royal Road for now and get Erdnase after you have put some work into RRTCM. Erdnase is great but Royal Road is the best place to start. You shouldn't definitely do the palm with at least some misdirection. There is no reason to do the top palm with everyone burning your hands if you don't have to. If you are in a situation where your are putting hte focus on the deck, then a good cover is to do it as the hands come together and then square the deck up. Also, put a little bit of movement in the deck. Like when you bring your hands together, move the deck up a bit or tilt it down or something like that. If you want some other tips, Dai Vernon's Inner Card Trilogy, I think it is Inner secrets, the first one, has a section on some tips for palming.