I’m a data person. In my day job, I develop Salesforce dashboards, interpret financial reports, and monitor business development trends. I’m bringing the same lens to my new career as a writer. And let me tell you, there’s a lot of data at my fingertips, even though a lot is behind a black box. So in the interest of transparency, here’s a window into what I’m currently tracking.
Sales Data
The most important piece of my success as a writer is book sales. The trouble is, this data is all over the place. Here’s what I know:
Amazon
My current sales rank for the paperback for Moonrising is 1,040,968. The best rank was on my launch date, when it was 29,184. Woah, huge difference, right? So it seems that my lovely friends and family who jumped right on Amazon pre-sales (thank you!) helped it have a decent start. But now it’s really petered out, to the point where my editor is flagging low Amazon pre-sales. 😬 So if you haven’t pre-ordered yet, or need a second copy for your summer home or to give to your dentist 🤣🤣🤣, it would very much help me out to pre-order from Amazon.
Barnes and Noble
But wait…Claire, didn’t your last Substack ask us to pre-order on Barnes & Noble?
Yes, yes it did. And thank you to my dad for ordering his 11th copy of Moonrising. I wish I could be writing today to say how much my sales ranking had grown from the 1,398,941 rank it was languishing at in mid-April. But instead, Barnes & Noble has just…dropped sales rank information from their website. For all books. For some reason. WHY IS PUBLISHING LIKE THIS???
Indie
Even if I do need Amazon and Barnes & Noble, in my heart, I will always push book orders to local indies. I have been getting some cool data from City Lit Books, where my launch will be on July 8. I’m ranked 2954 in forthcoming releases. Three weeks ago, my ranking was 3487. So that seems promising! Where do they get this data? Is it specific to City Lit or a network of indie book stores? I HAVE NO IDEA.
Goodreads
Goodreads has useful charts that help me understand interest in Moonrising. What I’m seeing is a slow, steady progress that shows no sign of me having a runaway bestseller on my hands. Reviews are coming in every few days and a few people are adding to their shelves every day.
Instagram
Instagram is all about the data, and it’s really fun. I can see my views (26,644 in the last 90 days!), my followers (110 new followers in the last 60 days!), etc. I also can see my best performing content, which helps me tailor my new content. What performed best fall into three categories 1.) Call to action like the Barnes & Noble pre-sale and the launch of ARCs on NetGalley, 2.) Blurbs and praise of Moonrising, 3.) Posts showing my face.
In Conclusion
I could keep going (Substack, LinkTree, Threads, my website), but you get the picture. Looking at this data together reminds me that I need to start somewhere, and I’m seeing slow, steady progress over time. All of this is in service of getting Moonrising and future books into the hands of readers. And I’m really, really proud of the book I wrote and can’t wait for you to read it.
But yeah… today, I’m also asking you to pre-order on Amazon. 🫠
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Please help support my journey as a debut author!
Chicago folks - Join me on Tuesday, July 8 at 6:30 pm at City Lit Books in Logan Square for Moonrising’s book launch. RSVP here.
Request an e-ARC of Moonrising on NetGalley
Pre-Order Moonrising:
Add Moonrising as Want to Read on Goodreads
Request Moonrising at your local library
I love hearing how others use their day job to support their writing career. A lot of people, myself included, are mystified on how to interpret datapoints let alone understand how it can help them.