News Progress Post

Progress Report 2024 Week 42

Readers have begun to rate The Sword of Sirius. As you might imagine, that’s good and bad. Also, the main promotions have run their course. Are my Amazon and Facebook ads picking up the slack? Also, did I finally, finally start making headway writing Dreams of Deucalion Book 2: Flanking Maneuver? Let’s take a look at the key performance indicators before diving into those questions.

Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers

No, that’s not a typographical error. I’m actually writing again!

I am very happy (and relieved!) to report that I’m back in the writing groove. I cranked out 17,666 words this week! That’s pretty much my current theoretical maximum. I worked in an extra Monday and Friday writing session, and I didn’t have any Real Life Family Events (RLFEs) that ate into writing time. It feels good to be cranking out words again.

Ratings for The Sword of Sirius

No Reviews Yet, But…

I don’t have any reviews yet, but I’m getting a few ratings on both Amazon and Goodreads. The first book, Red Flag Warning, has 2 Amazon ratings for an average of 4.5 stars. It only has one Goodreads rating, which is a 4 stars. I’m surprised — Goodreads tends to be a lot lower than Amazon.

The Sword of Sirius Book 2: Collapse Zone has no ratings on Amazon and a 4 star rating on Goodreads. Again, I’ll take it!

The Sword of Sirius Book 3: Firebreak has one rating on both Amazon and Goodreads. Unfortunately, it’s a disappointing 2 stars. And I think I know why. I might be wrong; I might be over-inflating my own sense of skill and the rating might be disparaging my writing. But I think it has more to do with the topic of Ursula K. Le Guin’s essay The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction.

I tried something different with The Sword of Sirius. I didn’t want to re-tell Star Wars. I didn’t want to extol the virtues of destructive military conflicts. The story I wanted to tell asked the question, “Is it ever okay to exterminate a planet if its leadership is demonstrably vile and evil?” What I’m afraid of is this: without giving away the, I’ll just say that I’m afraid I didn’t provide enough beat-down for the general military sci-fi audience.

I’d say this is disappointing, and in a way, it is. But I think it’s a good thing a reader took the time to rate the story, regardless of the number of stars.

It’s important I get this out of the way: I am in no way disparaging that audience. I’m part of it, after all! I enjoy reading that kind of book. A lot. I also enjoy reading other kinds of books, and I’m sure other readers do as well. I’m also in no way complaining about the person who left a two star review. I’m glad they went to the trouble to leave any rating at all! What I am doing is wondering how I marketing to this niche’s niche.

It’s worth mentioning that neither Amazon nor Goodreads ratings are for me as a writer. They’re for readers to talk to each other.

Marketing to Niches and Read-Through Rates

In terms of marketing, I have to ask: how do I market to the adherents of the “Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction” without coming out and saying it — and thereby giving away a huge section of the plot? Of am I looking at the question the wrong way? Does that theory of fiction have its own tropes? I haven’t been able to find much written about it; I’m still thinking about how to search.

Or maybe the issue is that readers will eventually find me and decide on their own that they’re part of my audience?

When I start spiraling down that rabbit hole, I have to remind myself: the three books have a total of six ratings in under a month. Evolution’s Hand, which has been out more beginning almost two and a half years ago, has twenty across six books. The number of ratings I have right now, for The Sword of Sirius, is a positive thing. I need to keep it in mind.

Another good bit of news: read-through rates are at levels I never saw with Evolution’s Hand. Ebook read-through from Red Flag Warning to Collapse Zone is eleven percent, which is okay (not atypical when the first book is $0.99). But Collapse Zone to Firebreak is one hundred percent!

The Kindle Unlimited numbers are even more encouraging. Read-through from Red Flag Warning to Collapse Zone is sixty-one percent, and read-through from Collapse Zone to Firebreak is eighty-nine percent. These numbers are considerably higher than I had hoped, especially having release less than a month ago.

The ratio between ebook and Kindle Unlimited keeps changing. I expect that it’ll show a bias toward KU after I raise Red Flag Warning to its full price. I’m surprised and pleased by the interest from the UK and Australia!

Amazon and Facebook Ads

I am grateful that I’m seeing signs of life among my Amazon ads. Only in the last couple of months did I see any positive results at all. Today, when I checked the numbers to prepare this article, I noticed that my Amazon ad for The Sword of Sirius has sold more than any previous ad — and in a shorter period of time. The latest updates to Publisher Rocket helped. So did advice from the Facebook group “20 Books to 50K“. And, yes, so did literally two years of experimentation.

My Facebook ads seem to be doing even better. I just doubled the budget for my Facebook ad. It’s not quite in the black yet, but if I can get it to earn even a little bit, I can risk scaling it. I need for the combination of my ads and promotions to keep my sales high enough that Amazon will start promoting the series in its Also Bought listings — which is the Holy Grail of sales.

I know that a change in Amazon’s algorithm could tank my sales. Same for Facebook. But for right now, things are moving in the right direction, and I’m grateful.

Progress against Last Week’s Goals

Here’s how I fared against last week’s goals:

  1. Finish Atticus Porter’s second Hook chapter: Done!
  2. Write Trent Raven’s first Hook chapter: Done!
  3. Write Jadwiga Janczak’s first Hook Chapter: Done!
  4. Write the first helper plot chapter: Done!

I also completed Porter’s Plot Turn 1, Janczak’s Plot Turn 1, and Raven’s Plot Turn 1 Part I (I think it’ll have two parts).

Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2024 Week 42

Here’s what I hope to accomplish in the coming week:

  1. Finish Trent Raven’s Plot Turn 1 Part II
  2. Finish Atticus Porter’s Pinch 1 (i have a feeling it’ll split into two parts)
  3. Finish Janczak’s Pinch 1
  4. Start Raven’s Pinch 1

What Do You Think?

How long do you let a Facebook ad run before you decide you need to change it or throttle it up? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!

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