The Rogue Author - Episode 2: Stop Checking Your Damn Royalties (And Do This Instead)
In this episode, Scarlet dives into the compulsive habit that's destroying authors' mental health: checking royalties daily. She explores the psychology behind why we torture ourselves with constant number-checking, shares her personal journey from excited newbie to obsessive checker, and reveals the game-changing weekly summary method that completely shifted her mindset about ad spending and income tracking.
Scarlet breaks down why Facebook ads fluctuate, how daily numbers lie to you, and offers practical baby-step strategies to break the checking cycle. From the science behind our need for control to real business advice about tracking patterns and external factors that affect sales, this episode tackles the honest reality of running an author business without the usual sanitized advice.
Now here’s the transcript:
Hey there, I'm Scarlet, and welcome back to The Rogue Author - the podcast where we dive into the real thoughts that so many authors have but few dare to voice out loud.
The Royalty Checking Addiction
Today I want to talk about something that's probably going to hit way too close to home for most of you: the absolute torture of checking your royalties daily. And look, I get it. I still struggle with this sometimes, even now. But I've found something that's completely shifted my mindset and honestly, it's been the best thing I've done for my ads and my sanity.
First, let's talk about why we do this to ourselves, because there's actually some psychology behind this self-destructive behavior. When we're anxious about our performance, we compulsively check because we think more information will help us feel in control, even when that information makes us feel worse. It's like picking at a scab - we know it won't help, but we can't stop ourselves.
There's something called "catastrophic thinking" where we assume the worst-case scenario, so checking confirms our fears even when the reality isn't as bad as we imagined. Plus, as humans we're wired to pay more attention to threats - those low sales days - than positive things, so those bad days stick with us way more than the good ones.
And if that's not enough, there's also this weird psychology where we secretly want to know we're doing poorly. Maybe it's fear-based, maybe it's some twisted form of self-sabotage, but we almost seek out that confirmation that things aren't going well.
I personally believe it's a matter of trying to keep us safe. Because we all know that we're going to have bad days, that's part of life, but maybe we think if we know we had a bad day, then we can possibly stop the ball from rolling further in that direction. I think a lot of it is an attempt at protection, even though it's not helpful at all.
My Journey from Excited Newbie to Obsessive Checker
When I first began publishing, it was with a small little book and I was just excited to get it out there. It wasn't about what I made. Then people started asking about earnings, then I started wondering, and then I realized I wanted to turn this into a career - which meant understanding how I made my money.
I started in 2021, back when TikTok seemed far easier because if you posted something a little racy, sang along to a song, or danced, you'd get views. TikTok was still new to a lot of people and its algorithm was less complicated than it is now. Although, it also had a lot of drawbacks, like how it would instantly smother the views of black people because it viewed black/dark subjects as poor quality, but that's a conversation for another time and it's definitely long - I could go on and on about the racism within the bookish community.
But to make a career in this and do this full time, I had to first pay out money or be in the red, and then hope to earn money back and be in the black. And if you've published anything, you might know how difficult that is. Most people are not an instant success. Even a lot of the books going viral on TikTok now are books from over a year ago.
Publishing a new book also doesn't mean more money, because you're still in the red from edits, cover design, and so on. Trading services used to be more of a thing, but now people are busy trying to make their money and build their business. It's much harder to find those willing to do it. And even if you do it yourself, you'll likely still need feedback, and time is a type of currency too.
So it makes sense that you're constantly checking. It makes sense that you want to see your income improve. We all have goals and we all have what we look at as measures of success. But it can also be really mentally detrimental.
The Ad Spending Rollercoaster
Now I make the majority of my money on my direct store, and I run most of my ads to my store. I drop thousands of dollars a month on ads. And even to get to the point where I felt comfortable doing that was a journey. But I knew I needed to spend more, get my books out there more, to earn more. And yet, just like publishing, the ad game is very fickle.
Facebook works in cycles, especially with sales ads. It's pretty habitual for me that at the end of every month, I spend the same amount of money and often earn less. It's not because of something I did wrong or something I need to change, but because of Facebook's Algorithm.
Facebook is always testing new groups for you, and I've found this to generally be that when it starts to test, you'll see income fluctuations for about four days before it settles. And if I'm normally earning a certain amount of money and it suddenly drops by 60 or 80%, of course that's going to terrify me.
When I optimize ads, I let them run for a week then record all of the daily stats I track on my designated ad day. Which means even if I didn't check my store or my retailers, I'll see the dips then. And sure, we could say, well just don't let it bother you. But that works on absolutely no one. It's going to bother me, because for me it's my career. I need to know what I'm making to pay bills, support my life, and so on.
The Game-Changing Solution
After seeing how much this would affect me, I decided to see what I could do to change it, and what I've found is that by summarizing my totals weekly, it presents a FAR better view than it does daily.
Maybe one day I make $47, which is extremely low to me. Another I make $67, another I make $178. If I'm just looking at those numbers, especially if I'm spending over $150 in ads a day, no, I'm not going to be happy. But with the weekly summary I've found it rarely ever looks like that. Sure, I lost money on those days, but I ended up being above break even and earning a profit for the week. And that's fantastic for me!
It's so great that I now just ignore the daily numbers, and after I put in everything I check the week and normally leave with a huge smile on my face.
On my sheet, I also have a place for notes. For instance, there are some events that always lower my income: The Super Bowl, elections, Stuff Your Ereader Days - not just the big one by Zoe York, but ones specific for my niche that happen randomly throughout the year. And I have nothing against any of that, but I run a business. So knowing when those things are happening and what I'm seeing those weeks helps me know what might happen next year or what habits I can expect.
Other Ways to Deal with the Checking Compulsion
The weekly summary works best for me, but there are other things you can try that might work well for you:
* Set specific check-in times: Instead of randomly checking throughout the day, slowly work yourself to once a day, then once a week. You could even schedule it on your calendar like a business meeting. Because, our brains work off of evidence, and if we can show it that whether we check it or not, we earn money, it'll become easier to stop checking it as often.
* Remove easy access: Save your retailer accounts in a work folder. Bury it a little bit so it physically takes longer for you to get to or feels like it's more steps. Removing the ease of checking will slowly remove the brain from wanting to check. It's about adding friction to the checking process.
* Focus on things you actually can do: Instead of checking sales, check things you can actually control - like how many words you wrote, how many ads you set up, how many social media posts you made or if you have others you need to post. Leave the data for another day.
* Try to look at it another way: If you remember your science classes, you may remember the Scientific Method. But there's always variables and when you have those, it's hard to reach the hypothesis.
The point of the matter is there's too many variables. You can have videos go mini-viral but have most people want to save your book to their TBR, which already has a hundred other books on it, and if they never see your content again because they didn't follow you, it could take years before they read the book (I'm still getting KU reads for books that have been out of there since 2022).
It's not that you did something wrong, you just can't know everything that's going to happen on a specific day. You don't know what new sale will pop up or what author will put out a new book that is going to go viral. So instead, try to figure out your average.
I specifically wait for an event to happen 5 times. Like when I mentioned that I tend to have less sales at the end of the month? That's because I've seen that happen for more than five times. And now that I know that's a habit, I'm no longer as fearful of the result.
But honestly? Some level of this is just acceptance. You're going to have good days and bad days. Your ads are going to fluctuate. The algorithm is going to algorithm. Fighting against that reality just makes you miserable.
The Bottom Line
I'm not saying you should never check your numbers or that caring about your income makes you shallow. This is your business, your livelihood. But there's a difference between strategic monitoring and compulsive checking that's making you miserable.
The daily numbers are going to lie to you more often than not. They're going to make good weeks look terrible and hide the actual trends that matter for your business. Weekly summaries give you the real story without the emotional rollercoaster.
And here's the thing nobody talks about: when you stop obsessing over daily numbers, you actually make better business decisions. You're not panicking and turning off ads that just need time to work. You're not jumping between strategies every other day. You're running your business instead of letting your business run you.
Your Turn
So here's what I want you to try, but let's start small because I know this can feel impossible at first. First, set up a simple spreadsheet or document where you can track your daily numbers - include a notes section for external factors that might affect sales.
Start by just checking once a day instead of constantly throughout the day. Then try skipping a day and see how that feels. Maybe skip two days. When you get to a place where you can handle that, work yourself up to checking just once a week and dedicate that as your "numbers day." Give yourself at least a month with whatever checking schedule you land on.
I guarantee you'll be surprised at how much better the weekly view looks compared to the daily anxiety spiral. And more importantly, you'll probably find you're a lot happier and more productive when you're not constantly refreshing your dashboard.
Leave a comment on the Substack post for this episode or leave a review. I want to hear if you try this approach and how it works for you, because I know this struggle is real for so many of us.
Until next time, keep telling the stories that need to be told.
This is Scarlet, and you've been listening to The Rogue Author.
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