Welcome to Episode 3 of Write the Book, Play the Game, a podcast about the business of being an author! We’re once again spilling everything we’ve learned in our cumulative decades as professional trad-published authors.

This week, in what’s sort of a Part 2 to last week’s episode (about how our zany industry survives and thrives), we’re delving deeper into the data you can (and should!) obtain about your book and brand, plus how to parse and leverage it. We’ll discuss…

* The industry trends and external factors that influence sales—so you can right-size your expectations

* How to set up systems to consistently collect and analyze engagement data

* Making sense of—dun dun DUN—reader feedback

* How long you need to commit to a marketing experiment to get meaningful data from it

* A simple rule for connecting your social media, newsletters, and events back to your books

* When (and how much) market trends and publisher feedback should influence what you write

* Figuring out how your marketing plan and performance metrics stack up against your peers’

…and more. You can listen to or watch the convo in a browser or the Substack app, or listen via your favorite podcast player (instructions here). Hit subscribe and you’ll never miss an episode!

Next week, we’ll focus on finding and leveraging your author community. Happy listening!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit writethebookplaythegame.substack.com