My record for longest pre-production work on a plot remained intact — but it got an asterisk this week. What’s that about? Also, the slog towards publishing Dreams of Deucalion continued, with my proofreader tearing into Book 1: Special Recon. Have my investments in my own proofreading, alpha readers, and beta readers paying off? I made some more progress on digital narration for Evolution’s Hand Book 1: Executive Action, and it ties into one of the points previously made. And if that’s not enough, Facebook tossed a generous helping of chaos into my marketing plan for June. Before we get into any of that, let’s take a look at the numbers.
Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers

Yes, you’re reading that right. I’ve actually started writing Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement!
Well, I have good news, and I have bad news. Let’s start with the bad. It took me eighteen days to start writing Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement, from the time I started plotting until the time I wrote the first chapter. That’s a long, long time! It ties the previous record, which was Wayland’s Hammer Book 1: Conventional Forces. That’s the asterisk I mentioned earlier — it’s now held by both books in the Wayland’s Hammer trilogy.
The good news? I actually, finally, started writing!
I have two chapters done, and those are the re-introductions (hooks) for Owen Payne and Gerhard Wimmer. The words flowed smoothly. Both sets of characters drove the story forward. Moritz Lehner’s re-introduction is next, and I hope it flows just as smoothly. My main concern there is that his plot has some more surprises coming, so I have to be careful how I set them up.
Still, the story’s underway. I’ll count that as a win!
Dreams of Deucalion: Not Published Yet, But Not Forgotten!
My proofreader is hard at work on Dreams of Deucalion Book 1: Special Recon. That’s the good news. Yes, I have another good/news bad news pair for you this week! The bad news is that she’s finding about 50% more typographical errors than I thought she would.
My current process is:
- First draft
- Second draft, where I read it out loud the next day
- ( let it sit until the next book is done)
- Run it through ProWritingAid for grammar and spelling
- Alpha readers
- Beta readers
- Proofreader
That process leaves far too many typographic errors in place. I need to figure a way around that. It’s not just a matter of not wanting to make my proofreader work harder, though preventing that alone would be a good thing. No, in terms of the final product, I’m afraid that me leaving too many errors in place will cause proofreading fatigue, which will increase the number of issues that make it into the final draft.
I have one idea, and I don’t like it. It occurred to me while converting Evolution’s Hand Book 1: Executive Action into an audiobook.
Executive Action and Digital Narration
I’m still poking around with Amazon Virtual Voice. I won’t go into any details, because it’s a beta program (which is too bad, because I’m pretty positive about the thing). But I will say this because it would apply to any narration: it uncovers typographic errors at a ridiculous rate.
Executive Action might have been my first published novel, but I did not skimp on proofreaders. I hired two professional proofreaders from Reedsy. That was after hiring a developmental editor. I used ProWritingAid. I re-read it myself. And finally, after finding my current proofreader, I asked her to go through it.
That’s not counting the beta readers (I didn’t employ alpha readers back then).
And — damn it! — I’m still finding either typographical errors or missing words!

Here’s a graphical view of my progress in Resistance Movement so far. Maybe by the time I finish it, i’ll be able to catch more typos. I hope.
I’d like to say I’ll just use Virtual Voice to help me proofread. But it only works on the published ebook’s text. There’s always text-to-speech software, but seriously! I only have so much time and money.
As it is, I’m tracking the errors I noticed and will at some point issue an updated edition of Executive Action. For now, I’m trying to improve my vigilance when do my read-aloud pass, which is typically the day after. What I might have to do is add one more, consolidated read-aloud pass after I run the manuscript through ProWritingAid and before I send it to the alpha readers. That should allow enough time to pass to give me a new perspective, because each book I write is taking about four months.
At least I’ve noticed it’s an issue and will try to fix it. If you’re good at proofreading, you have my unwavering respect. It’s ten times harder than writing the damned thing in the first place!
Facebook’s Ad Manager and Its Chaos Engine
I’ve gotten my Facebook ads to the point they’re working well-ish. So, for the last several months, I’ve copied the previous month as a starting point. This month, I wanted to change the graphics, and I wanted to punch up the text.
I ran into what I thought was a minor snag. Facebook will now serve ads to Threads. Which is cool for me as a writer, but less-than-cool for me as a Threads reader. Anyway, the ads require me to link my Instagram account, and it requires a different format of ad. I didn’t want to deal with that, so I manually excluded Threads and saved the ad. It should have started running the morning of June 1st.
I checked in the morning of June 1st. It said the ad was active, but that it had no ads. One hour and several hundred expletives later, I had a working ad. I think. It’s getting clicks, at least. I’m sure it was something stupid I was missing, but when I researched the specific issues I had, I found that I was most decidedly not alone.
I don’t want to bad-mouth Facebook ads. They’ve given me the most success I’ve had so far. But I really, really wish I could get Amazon ads to work. Facebook ads are not optimized for indie writers, and it shows.
My First BookBub Featured Deal
I’ve read a lot of writers say they tried for months or years to get their first BookBub featured deal. So, I wasn’t in the least bit surprised when they turned me down when I applied in early April. The rules said I could apply again after 30 days, so after waiting 31, I tried again.
I was astonished when I got accepted!
The deal will run from June 2, 2025 to June 7, 2025. I hope to have some sales numbers to share with you next week. Well, it’s be more accurate to say I’m praying I have sales data to share with you! Those ads are supposed to work miracles with sales.
Honestly, I was just practicing to get ready for Dreams of Deucalion. Whether the ad produces or not, I’ll have more data to help me understand marketing. That’s a good thing, right?
But I really, really want to have amazing sales, too.
Progress against Last Week’s Goals
Here’s how I did against last week’s goals:
- Continue plotting Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement. Done!
- Incorporate the beta feedback for Dreams of Deucalion Book 2: Flanking Maneuver. Done!
- Contract with a final beta reader for Dreams of Deucalion Book 3: Bait and Bleed. Done!
- Complete preparation for June’s marketing push. I might have some special news next week. Done! The special news was the BookBub Featured Deal!
Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2025 Week 23
Here’s what I hope to achieve this week:
- Write Moritz Lehner’s re-introduction/hook
- Write Owen Payne’s plot turn one
- Write Mortiz Lehner’s plot turn one
- Write Gerhard Wimmer’s plot turn one
- Monitor the results of the BookBub Featured Deal
- Continue chipping away at the AI-narrated draft of Evolution’s Hand Book 1: Executive Action.
What Do You Think?
What techniques have you found help you catch the largest number of typos? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!
That’s awesome about the Book Bub featured deal. Hopefully, that will propel the entire series to new heights.
With typos, other than reading it aloud or having my computer read it to me, I find it useful to convert to an ebook and read it on my phone. The change in layout, font size, and words per line makes it appear fresh in my head, so places where I would have skipped over things become more apparent. Of course, the only sure fire way to spot a typo on the first page is to publish it. Then it will become glaringly obvious…
Thanks! Kinda terrifying, too. I’ll go into more detail in my next post, but the ad sold more ebooks in one day than I’d sold in any previous month. So, yeah, BookBub Featured Deals are as good (at least for me!) as folks suggested!
I tried the Kindle route. It helped me, too! But all of this takes so much freaking time! But then, once published, it’s there, so best to make it as good as I can.
LOL — yeah, that _is_ a foolproof method, isn’t it? “Glaringly obvious” is right. I hate when that happens (which is pretty much every time).