Book sales analysis: Which date is best for book sales each month?

Knowing which date is best for book sales is always helpful, especially when you're deciding when to run ads.

I don’t use AI in any way shape or form so this is all manually gathered data I’m analysing and sharing, with the focus being on answering the question: Which date of the month do my books sell best?

First the worst? Second the best?

The headline news is the 1^st of the month isn’t first. Nor is the 2^nd second. And the 3^rd almost but doesn't quite come third.

Ahead of the analysis, I was expecting the days at the end of the month around most people’s paydays would be the most lucrative. After all, more money in the account would surely mean more spare cash to splash on a Jon Lymon zombie trology, starting with A Big Bluff and Some Green Stuff.

But not a bit of it.

Payday for many, but not me

In fact, quite the opposite. In the first nine months of 2025, the 28^th, 29^th, 30^th and 31^st of each month generated the lowest level of sales, closely followed by the 1^st.

As a result, I now no longer expect a grandstand finish to any month financially, nor an all guns blazing opening day of the month. That’s the way of the market, certainly from where I’m sitting bean counting.

The Top 3 best dates for selling books

 Enough of the glum news, time for positivity and a top three of the days of the month on which I’ve generated the most sales during the first 9 months of this year:

Third Place: The 4^th of the month

Second Place:  The 3^rd of the month

First Place: The 16^th of the month

Sweet 16!

This info will likely impact my advertising strategy. I’ll perhaps assign more budget to these days to see if I can persuade more people to part with their hard earned at the start of the month and during the middle section.

But I’ll be leaving the end of the month alone for now…

How do your sales compare with these?