How to Track Book Sales and Identify Your Most Profitable Channels

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

You can’t improve what you don’t measure, and if you’re a self-published author, you’re not just a writer — you’re also a small business owner. That means you need to be analytical. Relying on your gut or a wild guess to tell you which marketing avenue is worth pursuing is a surefire way to spin your tires in the mud.

In this article, we’ll show you exactly how to track your book sales across channels, interpret the data, and see which channels are most profitable, so you can focus on what works and sidestep what doesn’t.

What tracking can show you

What exactly can tracking show you? Well, you might notice that a promotion had good results, but without metrics, you won’t know which channel drove the most sales. Keep in mind that you also have limited time, energy and budget, so it makes sense to funnel those where they’ll result in the biggest return on ad spend.

Tracking can also tell you things like:

• Which months are strongest
• Which book formats sell best
• Which geographic regions respond well to promotions

All of these things help you plan smarter and spend better. Tracking is essentially a feedback loop, and without it, you’re just throwing money away while hoping you hit the right target.

How BookBaby helps you centralize your sales data

If you’re using BookBaby for publishing and distribution, you may not realize it, but you already have a powerful centralized hub for tracking your sales. Let’s break it down:

The accounting dashboard

BookBaby provides authors with an accounting dashboard where authors can see their sales and earnings over time. You can filter it by date, book, format, and retailer/partner store.

From the accounting dashboard, you can export data (as spreadsheets) and then further refine it by searching through Excel or your favorite analytics tool.

Reporting delay/lag times

It’s important to note that retailers don’t always report sales to BookBaby immediately when they happen. We generally receive store reports 90 days or more after the end of the sales period.

Sales made through BookBaby Bookshop (your direct-to-reader storefront) are posted more quickly — often as soon as the business day after the book ships. What this means is that you shouldn’t panic if recent promotional efforts don’t show up immediately in your dashboard. The good news is that you’ll start to see trends from past months once the data comes on.

Bookshop analytics direct from the source

If you’re selling through BookBaby Bookshop, you’ll also get extra analytics, including:

• Buyer location
• Device type
• Traffic sources
• Daily traffic snapshots

This way you can see exactly where buyers are coming from and what’s driving them to your pages. You can also create custom coupons in Bookshop and track their redemption to see how discounted promotions or specific codes perform.

How to interpret the data and see your top channels

Your sales will come through different channels. Here’s what to track, how to track it, and what to focus on:

Bookshop/direct sales

Track page visits, coupon redemptions, conversions, buyer location, and devices. You can do this easily through Bookshop analytics as well as your own accounting dashboard exports. Tracking this data will show you which promotional channels, such as email, social, or ads, are bringing you the highest conversion rates and where your markets are geographically the strongest.

Retail and online retailers

Here, you’ll want to track numbers of units sold, revenue, return volume, royalty rates, and margins. BookBaby’s accounting dashboard and exported reports will tell you this information. By looking at it over time, you’ll see which retailers are the most profitable (after printing and discounts are applied) and whether or not you should push more on certain platforms.

Wholesalers, libraries, and brick-and-mortar stores

For wholesalers, libraries, and brick and mortar stores, you’ll want to check orders fulfilled, return volume, discount, and margin timing. If BookBaby distributes your book, you can see this information consolidated through BookBaby reporting, or you can get reports directly from wholesalers. Over time, you’ll learn whether or not your wholesale placements bring you a positive return on investment, or if there’s too much risk of “dead inventory.”

Ads and promotional channels

You’ll want to look at clicks, the cost per click, conversions, and the ROI (cost versus revenue). This information is available through each respective ad platform dashboard, like Facebook or Google, as well as BookBaby’s Ads for Authors program, if you’ve chosen that option. These numbers will tell you which ad campaigns, keywords, or audiences are powering profitable sales.

How to interpret the data you get

Once the data starts coming in, don’t just stare at the numbers — use them to inform your next move; like a chess player that’s thinking five moves ahead. Compare conversion rates across different sources, segment your buyers (by geography, device, coupon users, and so on), and watch trends over time. Ask yourself if a channel’s performance is consistently good, improving, or declining over time.

By measuring, interpreting the data, testing, and acting on what you’ve learned, you’ll start to see exactly which channels are making you money, and which are costing you too much. BookBaby gives you the tools and the information you need to see exactly which channels are moving books so that you can stop guessing and start scaling.

By using BookBaby’s accounting dashboard and promotional services consistently over time, you’ll be able to see exactly what’s working, so that you can invest more of your money in that. The data doesn’t lie, and when you discover precisely where your readers are through the channels that work best, you’ll also discover that that’s precisely where your next big opportunity will come from.

Start selling books!

Ready to publish sell your books? Reach out to a Publishing Specialist to get started.