Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Most authors treat their sales dashboard like a mood ring:
A good day? It’s about time I got noticed and my book got the attention it deserves!
A bad day? Publishing was a terrible idea, why did I ever think I could cut it as an author?
Your sales numbers aren’t a verdict of your writing ability. Used correctly, they make an excellent map. Once you learn to read that map and understand what those numbers are trying to tell you, you go from marketing guesswork to marketing strategy.
Table of Contents:
• Why most authors misread their sales numbers
• Know the numbers that actually matter
• What do I do if my sales flatline?
• Your book sales numbers action plan
Why most authors misread their sales numbers
The biggest problem for indie authors is that they look at their sales numbers like validation, but they’re not — they’re evidence. They’ll tell you:
- Who’s paying attention
- Where your book is being discovered
- What’s working (and what isn’t)
- How your cover and positioning are performing
- Whether or not your marketing message is landing
Publishing is just as analytical as it is creative. Tracking the right metrics is the difference between hopeful sales and long-term marketing success. Most authors never get to that second category simply because they never learned now. In this article, we’ll explain how to fix that.
Know the numbers that actually matter
Not all metrics are worth your attention. Some are just noise and clutter. Here are the ones to pay attention to:
Units sold (but only when compared over time)
Units sold is the number everyone looks at, but it only matters when you compare it over time, such as:
- Previous weeks
- Previous months
- Previous formats
- Previous marketing methods
Your raw unit count doesn’t matter nearly as much as the change in unit count. That’s when you’ll want to ask yourself things like whether or not your ads plateaued, or if a social post or podcast mention spiked your numbers. By following that trendline, you’ll arrive at what’s actually selling more books.
Format split: print vs. eBook vs. audiobook
Every book has a dominant format, but most indie authors don’t know what theirs is. Do you? Consider this: If 80% of your sales are in print, your audience prefers physical books. If 70% are on Kindle, they want portability and go for impulse buys. If audiobooks spike, you’ve tapped into multitaskers and commuters.
Knowing these things can change your whole marketing plan — everything from ad placement to pricing strategy to launch and where you direct people from social media.
Retailer breakdown: where people actually buy
This is one of the most important, but also one of the most overlooked data points. Different retailers attract different types of buyers. Knowing how your marketplace spread looks will help you target more interested readers while getting a better return on investment. For example, if you’re getting:
Mostly Amazon Sales – Optimize your keywords, categories, Amazon SEO and page optimization through your metadata
Mostly Barnes & Noble Sales – Push print-heavy audiences, libraries, and book bloggers
Mostly Apple Books Traffic – Optimize your metadata for the Apple marketplace and take advantage of Apple’s global reach
A Mix of Everything – Cast a wide net for your marketing, including direct sales through BookBaby’s Bookshop
Conversion signals (saw vs. bought)
You want to be sure you know how many people saw your book versus how many people bought your book. We’ve made it easy for you through BookBaby’s dashboard, as you can uncover easy-to-understand “conversion clues” that will predict your long-term success. For example, if your book page is getting views but no sales, it could mean:
- Your cover isn’t attracting eyes (cover design can help fix that)
- Your description isn’t compelling
- Your metadata is off (wrong categories, wrong keywords, etc.)
- Your reviews aren’t supporting the message that your book is sharing
- Your pricing feels off for your genre
It’s important to note that these are not failure signals. These are things that you can fix and put yourself back in the game.
What do I do if my sales flatline?
Most sales flatlines come from mispositioning, not lack of interest. If your readers don’t see you, it’s as if you don’t even exist. If they see you but don’t recognize you, they won’t buy from you either.
Keep in mind too, that print buyers act differently than eBook buyers. Print readers respond well to podcasts and interviews, they love behind-the-scenes content, and often buy books as gifts. These are the people who won’t hesitate to pick up bundles, signed editions, direct-sale bonuses, or posts that show the physical quality of your book.
Now, let’s say that you look at your numbers and you see that 90% of your sales come from Amazon. It doesn’t mean that Amazon particularly likes you (Amazon doesn’t care). But it does mean that Amazon’s readers like you, so focusing on things like optimizing your Amazon page, choosing the right categories, and improving your description puts your book more in their orbit.
Your book sales numbers action plan
Review your sales every 30 and 90 days, and then again every six months for long-term patterns. Look for spikes, drops, seasonality, format shifts, and retailer patterns. This will tell you your baseline. From there, look at your dominant reader behavior. Your data will tell you if your readers tend to be impulse buyers, collectors, price sensitive, and so on.
From there, build your marketing strategy around the things that are already happening. If Apple Books sales are the big mover, lean into that. If print books are climbing every month, run campaigns around print. If Kobo is doing surprising numbers in Canada or Australia, you’ve got an international audience that’s genuinely interested in what you have to offer.
The important thing to remember is that your sales numbers aren’t a direct reflection of your writing style, quality, or topic. Your sales numbers are designed to reveal who your readers are, what they respond to, where they live, and how to focus your marketing campaigns. By understanding these patterns, you’ll be able to build your marketing around what the data is telling you. Get started today with BookBaby and start planning out your long-term career as a published indie author.
