Know Your Numbers (Without Hurting Your Feelings)

In the previous issue of Real Talk for Writers, I broke down my most recent royalty statement (you can read that here), so I thought it would be a good time to about numbers.

Specifically, how to balance knowing what's going on numbers-wise (as much as we can with trad publishing anyway) with protecting your mental and emotional health.

Or, as the title of today's post says: how to know your numbers without hurting your feelings. 

Buckle up, friends. There might be a smidge of tough love in this one.

The Value of Knowing Your Numbers

Whether you realized it at the time or not, when you decided to become a published author, you also became an entrepreneur.

Your author career is a small business, and to run a successful business, you need to know what's going on. 

Burying your head in the sand about things like taxes, sales numbers, and other money stuff isn't going to do you any favors in the long run.

Can you avoid them? Sure. 

But before you pass off all things "business" to someone else, consider where that impulse is coming from. 

Do you think you're bad with money?

Does sales data "go over your head"?

Do you feel incapable of looking at that info without crushing your creativity?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, I invite you to explore where you got those ideas about yourself.

For the vast majority of authors I talk to, none of those statements are actually true. 

Those are messages society has engrained in us -- particularly for women and people from historically marginalized groups. 

The patriarchy wants you to think you're bad with money. That you're not cut out for "all that business stuff."

It's another way society tries to keep us playing small. 

Don't do the white supremacist patriarchy's work for it! 

It's okay if looking at sales data and money and taxes and all of that is uncomfortable at first. You'll get better at it with practice and support.

(And, to be very clear, I do recommend hiring a tax professional to do your taxes. This isn't a call to DIY everything. It's an invitation to be willing to engage with the data instead of hiding from it.) 

Knowing the basic information about your author career (aka your small business) provides valuable context that can help you make better decisions.

As the saying goes: knowledge is power.

 
Deciding How Often to Look

All that said, you don't have to look at your numbers all the freaking time. (In fact, I actually recommend you don't look more than once a month.)

Who publishes your books will have a major impact on how easily and often you can access your sales data.

Some publishers - like Simon & Schuster and Penguin Random House - have author portals with weekly sales information. Others only provide numbers once or twice a year via royalty statements.

And even if your publisher does provide a portal, it can sometimes wildly underreport sales or take several weeks to pain a semi-accurate picture. 

For those of you with access to weekly numbers, I don't actually advise you to look every week. 

For my older books, despite having portal access, I only check the sales around royalty season and maybe once or twice a year beyond that if I'm curious or am in the portal for something else anyway.

But with my adult debut, With All My Haunted Heart, coming out in just three weeks (which PS - you can preorder a signed copy here!), I suspect I'll feel tempted to check way more often than a few times a year.

Your mileage may vary, but my plan for this new release (out Sept 8th!) is to only check my portal:

• Once per week in September
• Biweekly in October
• Once per month starting in November until the first royalty statement arrives
• At which point I'll transition to checking no more than quarterly - UNLESS I'm specifically checking how a particular marketing campaign worked (more on that in a bit) 

Here's why I'm setting those intentional parameters ahead of time: With my YA debut came out in 2019, I checked the portal obsessively. Like, several times a week as the data for the previous week slowly updated.

And I used those (actually very solid!) numbers as proof that I was a failure. (Spoiler, I wasn't a failure at all - but it sure as hell felt like I was.) 

Which brings me to my next point...

 
Stop Looking for Proof that You Suck

There is a point at which "knowing your numbers" turns into an anxious habit that obliterates all the good feelings you might have had about your work.

I've seen many authors (clients, friends, and Discord mutuals) treat their author portals as a "how much of a loser am I?" fortune teller. 

Or a "Will I ever get another book deal" Magic 8 Ball.

They look up numbers whenever they feel insecure about the future of their career, and then spiral about the state of their numbers and how no one is reading their book and everything at the publisher probably hates them and their entire career is doomed.

And look. I get it. I really, really do. 

It fucking sucks when you put so much time and effort and heart into your work and then the book doesn't sell the way you'd hoped. When it doesn't reach the readers you were hoping to connect with.

It genuinely feels terrible. 

Disappointment is an uncomfortable feeling. 

But it's so much better for your emotional health to acknowledge and feel that disappointment instead of slathering a whole bunch of additional painful thoughts on top of it. 

Thoughts like:

This is so pathetic.

Why didn't my publisher do more?

What's the point of writing if no one knows I exist? 

What's wrong with me/my book that it's tanking so hard?

I'm such a failure/loser/imposter. I'll never publish again.

No matter how many (or few) books you sell, YOU ARE NOT A LOSER.

Cutting through the noise to reach readers isn't easy. 

And your best chance at finding those readers is to continue writing and releasing more books, not obsessing over sales numbers and trying to game the social media algorithm.

So if you've found yourself in a place where looking at your numbers is making you feel like shit, it's time to set some boundaries and either stop checking for awhile or come up with a healthier reason to check. 

Choosing Curiosity Over Despair

If you do choose to look at your sales numbers on a more regular basis, I encourage you to adopt a mindset of curiosity rather than wrapping up your self-worth in the number on your screen. 

Remember: Your worth as a writer (and the quality of your books) is NOT determined by your sales number.

So when you do look at those numbers, let yourself get playful. Let yourself get curious and experimental.  

If the number is lower than you want--and you have time and energy to do a little more marketing--ask yourself questions like:

• What would be a fun way to help more readers find out about this book?
• When would it make sense to ask my publisher to do an ebook sale?
• I wonder if in-person events would help spread the word -- what's the easiest way to try that out?
• Are there local bookstores I could partner with for a book club discussion? 
• I wonder if it would help to remind my newsletter readers to leave reviews?

 If you're going to check your sales numbers, let it become a fun way to experiment with marketing and see if you get any useful data in return.

And if you don't see any changes in your weekly sales? 

Consider this your permission slip to stop checking so often and focus on writing the next book instead.

Final Thoughts

Here's the TL;DR of checking your sales numbers:

• 2-4 times a year is enough to know the basics of what's going on in your career sales-wise 
• If you want to check on your numbers more often than that, do so with a mindset of curiosity and experimentation not as a way to measure your worth
• Your value as an author is NOT determined by sales numbers! The quality of your book isn't either.
• If you find yourself struggling with major disappointment and frustration when looking at sales numbers, consider this your permission slip to drop down to twice a year and focus on writing something new.

And if you haven't already, check out the "Earning Out Doesn't Guarantee Anything" section of this royalty post for a reality check on using good sales numbers as proof of career "safety." 

Happy writing,
Isabel 

PS - If you're ready to build unshakeable confidence in your author career and bring joy back to your writing process, click here to learn more about private coaching.

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