I Sell TENS of Books from James W. Ziskin

Do you keep track of your sales numbers? If so, how? What tools and processes do you use? Would you recommend doing so?

The Royalties Statement

“I sell TENS of books!”

I’ve been singing that tune for years. In fairness, I must give credit where credit is due. I stole (borrowed) that line from my wife. And even though we don’t reside in a community property state, we do own property in one. So I’m claiming half the credit for the quote and full credit for the meager sales numbers.

No, I don’t keep track of my sales for a couple of reasons. I’ve alluded to the first above. Another reason is that I don’t particularly trust the numbers. I know I’ve sold more books than my royalties reports show, but I simply don’t have the energy to dispute them. The difference probably wouldn’t be that great anyway. Certainly not enough to make me rich. So, instead of tilting at that windmill, I’ll sit in my own juices and stew. Maybe someday I’ll ask for an audit.

If you’re a masochist, however, there are a few readily available tools to monitor your sales. Amazon Author Central, for example, will show you some sales, though I don’t know for sure how accurate it is. But there’s no charge. You can wallow in your anemic sales for free! 

Of course you can also pay for sales data, though I’ve never done that. And since it’s a service you have to pay for, I’m certainly not going to give them publicity here. Plus, from what I hear, the results are anything but reliable.

All of this is to say that I don’t see the utility in monitoring my sales. In any case, the only measure that truly matters is what my publisher reports. I’m not saying those reports are accurate, but those are the ones used to calculate my royalties. If you self-publish through Amazon, they supply sales reports and pay you accordingly. I don’t know how accurate those are since I know little about self-publishing. If you’ve got experience with that, please post in the comments below.

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THE PRANK…enigmatic and unnerving. The pace never flags for a second. This is some masterly plotting. I loved it.”

—Liz Nugent, author of Strange Sally Diamond

 

“The Holdovers meets The Bad Seed,”

THE PRANK. A picture clipped from Playboy magazine, a missing Swiss Army Knife, and a prank gone terribly wrong conspire to make Christmas 1968 a deadly holiday to remember.

From two-time Edgar Award finalist, Anthony, Barry, and Macavity award-winner James W. Ziskin, THE PRANK releases July 2026.

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