As an author, having a marketing plan is essential to earning money from your books. It’s not enough to rely on your perceptions, as this can lead to flimsy publishing plans that fall apart in the face of unforeseen events. Instead, you need to base your plans on data, specifically on the numbers that come from your book sales.

You need to know how much money you’re making, where your sales are coming from, and which books are selling the best. An easy way to gather this data is to use a data analyzer such as Book Report (getbookreport.com) or BookTrakr (booktrakr.com). These tools gather sales information for all your books and organize the information for you.

Once you have this data, you can use it to make more informed decisions about your publishing plans. For example, if you see that a significant percentage of your sales are coming from a particular country, you might consider investing in translations to appeal to a new set of readers. If you see that one of your forgotten titles is suddenly surging in sales, you can adjust your plans to promote it and release a sequel.

With this data in hand, you can build a detailed and data-driven publishing plan. This should include target dates for publishing new books, as well as dates for starting promotions through various channels such as Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

By basing your plans on data, you can avoid wasting money on ideas that aren’t likely to pay off, and focus your efforts on the areas that are most likely to generate sales. And by tracking your sales data over time, you can continue to refine your plans and make better decisions in the future.

This benefited me most recently when I saw a sales spike in one of my forgotten titles for kids. With zero promotion, The Christmas Spiders surges to 38% of my total sales every December. Now that I know, I’ll build that into my plans and schedule some promotion, audio book version and a follow up book. I always knew that I sold some copies of that book each holiday. I just didn’t realize how significant they were.

Picking a data analyzer depends on your situation. If you have most or all of your books available on Amazon, you can use Book Report (getbookreport.com) to track that information for you. Book Report gathers sales information for all your books, including extended channels. You can check sales by book, country, your top sellers in easy to read charts. Best part is that Book Report is free until you make $1,000 a month on KDP, and then it costs $19 a month. When I’m bringing in $1k a month from book royalties, I will happily pay Book Report to count it all for me.

BookTrakr is better for authors who publish wide including Draft2Digital and Smashwords. BookTrakr doesn’t have a free version like Book Report, but the cost is from .99 to $19.99 based on how many books you have. BookTrakr and Book Report both have free trials so you can check them out before committing.

In short, if you want to earn a living as an author, you need to be a professional and keep track of your numbers. Use a data analyzer to gather this information, and then use it to build a detailed and data-driven publishing plan. With a little focus and effort, you can turn your hopes into reality and build a profitable career as an author.

BIO: Angela Yuriko Smith is a third-generation Shimanchu-American and award-winning poet, author, and publisher with 20+ years of experience as a professional writer in nonfiction. Publisher of Space & Time magazine (est. 1966), a two-time Bram Stoker Awards® Winner, and HWA Mentor of the Year for 2020, find her at angelaysmith.com.