I ran into two issues writing this week — one typical for one of my books and the other unique to Wayland’s Hammer. The net effect? Well, you’ll see. I also miscalculated my weekly goals with regard to Miblart, and it had nothing to do with them — they did their typical great job. Finally, we’re half way through the month, and I’m watching sales. Did raising the price of The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning hurt or help profitability? Let’s take a look at the key performance indicators first.
Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers
I didn’t quite hit 10,000 words. But to be honest, i’m surprised I hit as many as 9,500!
This was a tough week. I lost a whole day to a flame out. Then I got half way into a chapter with Moritz Lehner and his boss, Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel Thorsten Gruber, and realized it just wasn’t working. At least I didn’t assume it was time to quit! I would have a few years ago. Now, I knew that my reaction meant I was missing something. So I backed off and reconsidered.
On the way home from my son’s work site, I realized what I needed to do. And in doing so, I set the stage for the conflict in Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement. What surprised me even more was that I had an idea to transform the ending of Wayland’s Hammer Book 3: Lines of Operation. I don’t want to say much more than that, but I think I’m going to enjoy writing Conventional Forces more now that I have a slightly different view of where the trilogy’s going.
That issue (which was my difficulty writing from the perspective of Gruber, who’s a “traditional” Nazi) was unique to Conventional Forces. The other issue that hit me this week is that I needed to start Owen Payne’s Plot Turn 1 earlier than I’d planned. To do so, I needed a new ship design. I found something that looked good on Deviantart — just to give me an idea to start with. While writing the outline, I didn’t realize I needed this ship, which is the prototype for the new Amiatina-class maintenance ship. I even got to work in a little world-building! I think the story’s on solid ground. Again. I hope it stays that way!
I was surprised to learn that this character is going to be more important than I had expected. But, man, he’s a pain to write!
Art for Dreams of Deucalion Book 3: Bait and Bleed
Last week, I said I hoped to take delivery of the cover and marketing art. I’d forgotten that Miblart produces proofs of the marketing art first. They gave those to me late last week, and as usual, I loved their work and approved it. I should have the full deliverable next week.
My schedule usually has me finish the next book (in this case, Conventional Forces) before performing the third edit and the alpha read of the previous manuscript (which is Bait and Bleed). I still think that’s the best so I can let the manuscript sit. I don’t want to let impatience feed into my decisions, because that’ll increase the manuscript’s suck index, so I’m going to stick with that.
Even though I’m really looking forward to seeing how readers react to Dreams of Deucalion!
Update on Marketing Strategy for The Sword of Sirius
We’re only halfway through the month, and the data set is pretty small. I read some writers have multi-thousand dollar ad budgets every month. I’m still trying to find the basic scalable unit, so I’m not spending anywhere near that! Still, the trend is beginning to suggest that my hopes will play out. Mostly.
It looks like page reads are about the same as last month when Red Flag Warning was $0.99. Sales of that first book are down at the higher price, which I expected. The percentage of read-through is way up — from about 20% book one to two to about 50% book one to two. In both cases, read-through from book two to three is cruising around 95%. I’m ecstatic with those numbers.
I’ll look at the financials when the month’s over. I’m almost convinced that Evolution’s Hand is esoteric and will never sell well. The Sword of Sirius is more on-trope with military sci-fi/fleet, but it has a female protagonist, and that doesn’t match the expectations for some readers. Dreams of Deucalion has a male protagonist, so maybe it’ll fare better.
Progress against Last Week’s Goals
Here’s how I did against last week’s goals:
- Write Gerhard Wimmer’s Plot Turn 1 Part III: Done!
- Write Moritz Lehner’s Pinch Part I: Done!
- Write Wimmer’s Plot Turn 1 Part III: Not done! I realized I needed to split Owen Payne’s Plot Turn 1, and I wrote that instead.
- Write Lehner’s Pinch 1 Part II: Not done!
- Write Owen Payne’s Plot Turn 1: Done! I realized I needed something between Payne’s hook and the meat of Plot Turn 1. So, this represents Part I.
- Evaluate the Facebook and Amazon ad campaigns: Ongoing!
- Take final delivery of the Miblart cover and marketing materials for Dreams of Deucalion Book 3: Bait and Bleed: Started! I approved the first drafts of the marketing materials.
Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2025 Week 11
Here’s what I hope to finish this week:
- Gerhard Wimmer’s Plot Turn 1 Part III
- Moritz Lehner’s Pinch 1 Part II
- Owen Payne’s Plot Turn 1 Part II
- Payne’s Pinch 1 Part I
- Take delivery of Miblart’s cover and marketing materials for Dreams of Deucalion Book 3: Bait and Bleed
- Continue evaluating the Facebook and Amazon Ad campaigns
What Do You Think?
How long did it take for you to create profitable marketing campaigns? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!
