Data Is Only Good If You Know How To Use It

I will be the first to admit that I cringe anytime someone starts talking about "data" or that obnoxious phrase of "digging down into the data." Even when I say it, I want to scream. We are, unfortunately, living in a society where people who "are in charge" think that data drives everything. While there are a lot of things that data does do for you, there are simply A LOT of limitations.

First of all, data only means something if you understand it. A number is just a number unless you understand how that number came about and what that number means. When authors look at royalty statements and they just see a number, they really don't know how and why that number came about.

For example...

Harlequin Historicals no longer actively puts their books out on book shelves in North America. Yes, you can get the books but going to your local bookstore will result in those books not being there. So, if someone looks at book sales in North America and notices sales are down, this does not mean the book is not selling. It could simply mean that a huge portion of the buyers are not having access to those books.

I have talked about this before. One of my authors had a book come out the week Borders closed. They lost a huge market share. And yet, when the publisher "looked at the numbers" her numbers were not where they wanted the book to be. End of game. So, that is just one twist.

But now, how do you use the numbers? Again, if you see certain trends in your numbers, you have to know how to work with those trends. Are you seeing lower numbers in certain areas? Do you know how to increase those numbers? Do you see an uptick in certain areas? How are you going to seriously maximize that?

One of my authors has a huge following in the Scandinavian countries? So, what does she do? She seriously markets like crazy to her following in those areas. Going to the Amazon and Barnes and Noble sites in those areas and hyping up her books. Loving those translators.

I could go on and on with other variables, but I want to leave it right there with that single word -variables. When it comes to data, a single number IS NOT a single number. There are variables and a heck of a lot of variables that come into play. Be careful to not read too much into a single number, but along the same lines, know the how's and why's of that number. Then once you figure that out, if there is something you can do to work with those numbers, it is up to you as the author to make those changes.