Data & Knowledge

First of all, I can’t believe August is almost over. I started this at the beginning of August to hold myself accountable for the next year.

And since my birthday is next week, which started this whole thing, I figured I’d set some goals for the coming year.

To do that, I had to gather some data. I follow a lot of small businesses on YouTube and the amount of data they have always surprises me, but then I realize back when I started in 2013, there weren’t really so many things we could know about our customers.

The many I’ve been following lately have been setting monthly order goals. I haven’t really ever done that in my career, so I thought this coming year would be a good time to start. In order to do that, I had to get some data.

I compiled my sales from all the platforms that I can get that info from (these do not include audiobooks). These are ebooks, hardcover, and paperback lumped together.

So I made a cool little graph. Then I took out my biggest number, and lowest number. Then I averaged what that number is. You’ll see this graph, my 2019 and 2020 were huge years. I always thought that 2020 and 2021 were my biggest years because of COVID. Because I did this graph, I found out I was wrong.

So I dug a little deeper into why 2019 specifically was a big year. Back in 2019, I had finished releasing my Moonshine Task Force Series. This series leaned HEAVILY into tropes, and while the first couple of books did okay, it was the third book that made this series take off, and then the fifth book that really made it take off. Those were two tropes that I love. Marriage of convenience and single-dad. The year of 2019 began the release of the next generation of that series, and those preorders were crazy. I was, at the same time, releasing another next gen series that was pretty hot. It didn’t lean into tropes, but it was darker, and the violence was done in a way that set up revenge, which my readers love. Also back then, I hadn’t disappointed my readers yet by cancelling and moving release dates all the damn time. So people knew they were getting a good book from me, when I said I was releasing it.

This gives me a lot to think about, as I’m seeing this year as a re-building year. The further I dig into data, it keeps coming back to a few solid truths. I need to be consistent and give my readers the books I promise, when I promise them, and I need to lean hard into the tropes I love writing. The tropes I love writing, are always my biggest sellers.

I decided to do a graph for both KU (I have a KU pen name) and Kobo Plus too, since Kobo Plus is a big part of my marketing.

You can see all three graphs here.

Profit has remained pretty consistent, because I raised the prices of my new releases and raised the prices on my backlist.

Now I have the data, and I can make an informed decision. For me, I need a goal to work toward, no matter what I’m doing. I decided that my goal for this year will be to either equal or surpass my average each month. I can do this by marketing effectively, and seeing what works.

To get my average, I threw out my biggest and smallest numbers on each graphic then I divided the total by the number of years, then I divided that number by 12 to get my monthly goal.

In this year of August 2025-August 2026 my goals are to get 3,386 orders, 57,746 pages read, and 64,210 Kobo Plus minutes monthly.

Now I have something to work toward each month.

So far for August 2025:

Orders: 1235

Pages Read: 22,485

Kobo Plus Minutes: (you don’t see these until the end of month)

It’s looking like I probably won’t hit all of these goals, which is okay. That what a goal is. It gives you something to work toward, and it gives you a tangible thing to measure. You won’t always hit it, but at least you’ll know where you are. In August 2026 - I’ll reassess.

New Release:

I my first new release in a little bit this week. It’s a spin-off series from one of my original series that’s always been a bit of a niche hit with readers. The release has done okay.

My first books in series (and this is a trilogy with a cliffhanger) do worse than the rest, typically. Preorders for the next book are pacing higher than the preorders for this book, so I will take it. This is a series that readers have been asking for, for years, and I finally felt mentally prepared to write it.

It will be backlist, and if people read the series leading into this one, then it’s an opportunity for more sales. That’s what I wanted. I figure a lot of readers aren’t going to purchase until the trilogy is done, so I planned for this.

December Reach-Out:

If you haven’t read my previous posts, I’m doing a big reach-out campaign to other authors in the genre of what I’m releasing in December, and I have goals that I want to hit.

I have two releases in December one that will be in KU with my publisher. One that will be a wide release that I’m self-publishing. I’m doing a grassroots campaign, and reaching out for shared swaps that would be mutually beneficial.

Right now I’m sitting at:

KU Release

Confirmed: 19

Goal: 75

Self-Pub

Confirmed: 4

Goal: 20

Next week: I’m going to talk about the community I’m trying to build after feeling like I’ve been the odd man out for the past few years.

Thank you so much for being here! Sorry this one was so long!