Running a successful self-publishing business isn’t just about writing great books. It’s about making informed decisions, and doing that is all about tracking the right numbers.

The tricky part? There are a lot of metrics you can track when it comes to running a business. But most authors don’t need more data; they just need the right data, tracked consistently and used intentionally.

Let’s break down the five most important metrics to start with when it comes to tracking the health and success of your author business, including why they matter, how to track them, and how to use them to make better decisions.

1. Revenue

Revenue (along with return on investment, or ROI) is your ultimate scoreboard for your author business. This term refers to your total income from book sales, paired with how much you’re spending in order to generate that income.

Revenue tells you if your business is working, while ROI tells you if it’s working profitably. You can be making sales and still losing money if your expenses are too high. That’s why these two metrics should always be looked at together.

You can track your revenue by keeping things fairly simple:

• Use a spreadsheet with monthly tracking
• Break revenue down by:
  • Platforms (direct, retailers, social stores)
  • Format (print, eBook, audio)
  • Individual books and/or series
• Track expenses alongside it, like:
  • Editing
  • Design and formatting
  • Ad spend
  • Software and tools

To calculate your ROI, or how profitable you actually are, simply divide your total revenue by your total costs, then multiply by 100 to get a percentage.

You can use revenue metrics to identify your most profitable books or series, determine which platforms are actually performing and worth more of your time, and decide where to reinvest earnings (such as into ads, new books, or enhancing direct sales). If something has high revenue but low ROI, it needs more optimization, not more investment.

2. Conversion Rate

Conversion rate refers to the percentage of people who take a specific type of action—in this case, usually buying your book. It’s determined by comparing traffic and sales, whether that traffic is to an ad or your own website. You just need to make sure you can access data on page visits or clicks in order to track it. 

You can calculate your conversion rate by taking the number of purchases made and dividing it by the number of visitors to the page or ad you’re focusing on, then again multiplying that by 100 to get a percentage.

When it comes to making sales, you don't necessarily always need more traffic—you need more effective traffic. This is when knowing your conversion rate comes in handy. Even a small improvement in conversion rate can dramatically increase your income, often without increasing your audience numbers at all. It can provide an indicator that something about your sales setup may need adjustment.

If you have a low conversion rate, consider focusing your efforts on:

• Stronger, on-genre covers
• Clear, compelling blurbs
• Social proof (reviews)
• Cleaner, simpler page design
• Stronger calls to action

If you have a high conversion rate, that’s your signal to then start sending more traffic to that page via ads, email, or social media.

3. Traffic

You can’t track your conversion rates without tracking your traffic, or the number of people visiting certain parts of your online presence (such as your website as a whole, certain product pages, or clicking on your ads).

Tracking your traffic is important because it’s what exists at the top of your sales funnel. Without traffic, nothing else can happen.

You can most typically track your traffic through tools like Google Analytics (specifically for your website), or most platforms where you’re running things like ads will have their own tracking dashboard of some kind.

When tracking, pay close attention to:

• The total number of visitors
• What your highest traffic sources are:
  • Social media
  • Email
  • Ads
  • Organic searches

The best way to use your traffic analytics is to double down on sources that bring in actual buyers (not just clicks). This will help you to better identify which platforms are worth your time and energy to pour more effort into and align your marketing efforts with what’s actually working.

If your traffic in certain areas is high, but sales are low, your problem isn’t visibility—it’s conversion. When that’s the case, revisit some of the ideas shared above in the section on conversion rates.

4. Email Growth

When you have an email list, you’re building your very own audience that you have full ownership and control over. You don’t get that with other forms of marketing, which is what makes your email growth so important to also track.

What you’re tracking exactly, though, is both how fast your list is growing, as well as how engaged it is. You need these numbers to know how well you’re reaching your readers and how responsive they are to that outreach.

You can track your email growth by:

• Total subscribers
• Monthly growth rate
• Email open rate
• Click-through rate

It’s highly recommended to sign up for an email provider such as MailerLite, Kit, FloDesk, etc. to help build and maintain your email list and newsletter. These types of platforms not only  make creating email flows more streamlined, but they will provide you with all the above metrics clearly laid out.

If you notice you have low growth, work on improving your lead magnet or your signup form’s placement. If you have low open rates, experiment with testing different subject lines for your emails. And if you have low click-through rates, try improving your email content and CTAs.

And those people who provide high engagement? These are your proven, core audience members. Prioritize selling directly to them as often as possible.

Want to learn more about email growth and other marketing tactics for authors? Check out The Ultimate Guide to Author Marketing.

5. Read-Through Rate

This is the percentage of readers who continue on from one book in a series to the next. Tracking this number matters because it shows you where real scalability can happen.

A strong read-through rate means:

• Every new reader is worth more
• Ads become more profitable
• Your backlist does more of the heavy lifting

You can track your read-through rate by dividing sales for the prior book in the series by the next book in the series (so Book 1 sales divided by Book 2 sales), and multiplying that by 100 to get a percentage. And you can do this for every book in a series, or if you write standalones, by release order.

(Want to learn more about the strategies of writing series vs. standalones? Check out this article)

If you have low read-through, there are several adjustments you can explore:

• Strengthen your endings (make readers need the next book)
• Improve back matter with a clear next-step link
• Ensure your covers and branding are consistent
• Reduce friction between books (pricing, availability, etc.)

If you have a high read-through rate, that’s a great green light to invest in ads or promotions specifically for Book 1 of that series.

You can learn even more about the importance of read-through rate at this article.

How it All Comes Together

Think of these five metrics as a system:

• Traffic brings people in
• Conversion rate turns them into buyers
• Read-through rate increases their lifetime value
• Email growth keeps them in your ecosystem
• Revenue tells you if it’s all working

If something feels off with your author business, one of these metrics will usually point to the problem. There are, of course, other metrics you can track, such as average order value, funnel drop-off rates, and cost per acquisition. But if you’re not already tracking the above five metrics, start with those before diving into others.

To start, you can keep these five core metrics all together in a single spreadsheet, scheduling a specific time every week to give each of them a quick glance and record the new numbers, and leave them at that. Then, once per month, do a deeper review to see what the weekly numbers were telling you, and make adjustments accordingly.

It’s best, however, to start with a single piece of the puzzle to improve at a time. What is the weakest-performing number you’re seeing that month? Focus on improving it, then track everything again over the next month.

This is how sustainable growth happens. It’s not reached through massive overhauls of everything at once, but rather small, consistent improvements as needed. This is what keeps you from playing a guessing game, and focusing instead on building an author business that actually works.

Related Questions

What is a “good” conversion rate for book sales?

It varies, but anywhere between 1% and 5% is common for cold traffic specifically. Higher rates (5% to 10%) often indicate a strong alignment between your audience and your books. With warmer audiences, rates vary more widely.

What are the best tools for tracking author business metrics?

When first starting out, you don’t actually need any fancy software for tracking metrics if you don’t want to invest in any just yet. You can start with an Excel or Google spreadsheet, and keep organized tabs for all metrics. Dashboards on the various platforms you use will also help to track what you need.

How do I calculate ROI if I’m not running ads?

There’s a lot more investment that goes into your author business than what you’re spending on ads, and you’ll want to make sure you’re accounting for everything when determining your ROI. You can factor in upfront costs (editing, cover design, software and tools), as well as your time spent working on your business. The latter may not be absolutely precise, but it all works together to help you understand whether your books are generating meaningful returns.