What do I keep track of? by Matthew Greene

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

This is a tricky one, since the short answer is: "No, I don't." And the longer answer is something along the lines of: "I know I should keep track of this and so many other things, but my irrational fear of numbers is something I really should process with my therapist."

Of course, I'm trying to get better about keeping an eye on the business-related side of things, especially with some exciting career developments in the works. (Watch this space.) One of the rude awakenings I've had about pursuing a creative career is the amount of mental energy I have to devote to the non-creative parts. And clearly, it's something I'm still getting comfortable with.

But, rather than writing a whole blog post about some numbers I don't track, I thought I'd try and identify some numbers that I do track. Are these are significant as sales numbers? Debatable. But they are, in fact, numbers. And they include:

Number of hours spent writing last week: 12 (This was lower than usual this week because I started rehearsals for a play and got consumed, but enough with the excuses!)

Number of words I'm averaging per hour: 700 (Always looking for tips on how to increase that number. Are my fingers not fast enough? Possibly.)

Number of Nerds Gummy Clusters consumed while writing in a typical session: 18

Number of regrets about the aforementioned Nerds Gummy Clusters: 0 (Life is hard enough.)

Number of gay books read during pride month so far: 4.5

Number of projects I'm bouncing between at the moment: 9

Number of projects I should be working on at one time: 3, tops

Number of margaritas it would take for me to agree to taking on another project: 1.5

Number of days I spent this week being grateful I get to spend (most of) my time doing creative things: 7 (awwwww...)

But, all those fun things aside, I fully acknowledge that keeping track of sales numbers is important, and I should be much better about it. (More to talk about in therapy.) I look forward to hearing from the other authors on this topic this week, who are undoubtedly better at this than I am!