News Progress Post

Progress Report 2025 Week 06

I confronted a truth this week: blurb writing is hard. Like, slamming my head into cement hard. Did I manage to make any progress on the back-cover blurb for Dreams of Deucalion Book 2: Flanking Maneuver? Plus, I was perilously close to finishing the first draft of Dreams of Deucalion Book 3: Bait and Bleed. Did my productivity fall to Real Life Family Events (RLFEs), did I finish, or did I manage some combination of the two? Finally, what’s going on with my Kindle Unlimited page reads? Let’s take a look at the key performance indicators first.

Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers

Another week over 10,000 words — so, score!

The second draft of Dreams of Deucalion Book 3: Bait and Bleed is now complete. Second? Yes, second! As I write a chapter, I read the previous day’s chapter aloud and make corrections before starting the new chapter. I got that idea from Lee Child – Review Your Writing Daily – Writing Popular Fiction – BBC MaestroChild. It’s working very, very well for me!

I did experience some RLFEs this week. In fact, on the 30th, I had to crash to recover. Still, I was able to finish the manuscript. More importantly, my family’s still intact. I count that as a win!

So now, Flanking Maneuver goes into hibernation until I finish writing the next book. That’ll give me enough mental distance to have a hope of finding problems with it. As I did with Sword of Sirius, I’m going to read all three Dreams of Deucalion books aloud so I can make sure the voice is right and find as many continuity errors as I can. That puts me on track to publish this spring. I hope.

The Bane of Blurbs

I really should stop complaining about blurbs and ad copy writing. I chose to be an indie publisher, and marketing is part of the package. So, starting now, I will complain somewhat less. I hope.

That said, I have a draft finished of Flanking Maneuver’s back cover blurb. It’ll be a model for the Amazon blurb (though not an exact copy). I need the back cover blurb before I can bid the cover, obviously, because the blurb is part of a paperback’s back cover.

I had an interesting experience writing the blurb. I don’t use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to write any portion of my books. ProWritingAid has a feature that uses AI to proofread, and I use it. But I approve any changes first. Good thing, too — any AI’s review of a human’s written material has a high error rate.

But my wife gave me an idea from a course she had taken in copy writing. I write a draft of a blurb, then ask ChatGPT to rewrite it in the style of some famous copy writers. They include:

  • Gary Halbert
  • Mark Ford
  • Bill Bonner
  • John Carlton
  • Dan Kennedy
  • Jon Benson

The results are unusable in their raw form. AI does not understand intent. AI cannot develop a theme through a series of paragraphs. In fact, the changes ChatGPT recommends frequently violates intent and wrecks themes.

What ChatGPT is good at is giving me an idea of how those copy writers might have approached my blurb. It gives me ideas about phrasing and word choice. It also gives me an idea of how writing with a different energy could look. I don’t use the output, but I let it give me new ideas. It also gave me insights into the limitations of AI, and that’s worth something!

Kindle Unlimited Page Reads

A month and a half ago, I began experimenting with Amazon Ads again. I’ve had some success as I try to find the right mix of spot-on key words and affordability of those keywords. But at the same time, I noticed something very interesting. My Kindle Unlimited page reads surged.

As in, they doubled from one month to the next.

In the Amazon Ads console, I can see page reads attributed to keywords. They account for some of it. I suspect the rest represents read-through.

I’ve heard some writers say that Amazon might give books greater visibility in Kindle Unlimited searches if the book is the subject of an active Amazon ad. I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but I can see why that rumor started.

I’m ecstatic about this development! I’m hopeful that it’ll help readers find my books.

Even more cool — I’ve watched as some kind soul started reading the book Evolution’s Hand Book 1: Executive Action and progressed all the way through to Evolution’s Hand Book 6: Unnatural Crypsis. I seriously hope that’s a trend! I also hope the reader had a great experience.

Progress against Last Week’s Goals

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

  1. Complete Janczak’s Resolution: Done!
  2. Complete Raven’s Resolution: Done!
  3. Begin ProWritingAid pass for Dreams of Deucalion Book 2: Flanking Maneuver: Done! It’s finished, in fact.
  4. Write the back cover blurb for Flanking Maneuver: Done-ish! I think it needs one more pass before it’s done.
  5. Bid alpha reads and the cover for Flanking Maneuver (stretch objective): Partly Done! I actually selected two alpha readers, and the manuscript is in their hands.

Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2025 Week 06

Here’s what I hope to complete this week:

  1. Brainstorm Wayland’s Forge arcs for the three main characters. I anticipate this’ll take a week or two.
  2. Create the Scrivener project for Wayland’s Forge Book 1: Conventional Forces
  3. Complete the back cover blurb for Flanking Maneuver.
  4. Draft a back cover blurb for Bait and Bleed.
  5. Bid the cover for Flanking Maneuver.
  6. Draft the Amazon blurbs for Special Recon, Flanking Maneuver, and Bait and Bleed. Might as well get those out of the way.

What Do You Think?

Do you use Amazon ads? Do they deliver the most sales for ebook, paperback, or both? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!

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