The week has closed on my first BookBub Featured Deal. Did it do for me what it’s done for other writers? Or was The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning beyond even BookBub’s ability to help? Any more movement on the audiobook version of Evolution’s Hand Book 1: Executive Action? And last but not least, did I write any more of Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement? Let’s look at the key performance indicators first.
Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers
Last week, I reported I’d only written 2,686 words. It was really 4,676. I read the wrong column in my worksheet! D’oh!
As you can see from the KPIs, I wrote more than 10,000 words last week. That means I officially consider the week a success! I’m particularly happy with the word count because I lost one day to a flameout. But then I was fortunate enough that something I’d had scheduled for Friday fell through, so I could use the time to write.
I think the time I invested in Resistance Movement’s outline is paying off. I understand where the characters want to go, and I understand what they’re trying to say. I also think that some extra time I spent this week going back into Wayland’s Hammer Book 1: Conventional Forces to make sure the foreshadowing was in place will pay off. That gave me more confidence. I’m one of those writers who wants a solid foundation before building.
I’m trying to invest yet more time to really get into the characters’ heads. I want each chapter to authentically represent the character’s perspective. I feel like I’m making progress in general, but I’m having a little trouble with Lehner. I need to remember: he is, when all’s said and done, a Nazi. I tend to downplay that aspect, but that blunts the story’s effect.
BookBob Featured Deal — Myth or Reality?
Let’s make this simple. It’s an reality.
Everything you’ve heard the BookBub Featured Deal’s boost is true. That’s assuming you’ve heard it boosts sales like crazy. I don’t want to give specific numbers because a) I don’t want to seem like I’m bragging and b) I don’t want to disappoint anyone. But, I’ll stay this:
One the first day of my BookBub Featured Deal, I sold more than twice as many books as my best previous month. Yes, it was that effective.
The first day (of seven) was by far the best. Each day afterward fell off. However, even the slowest day exceeded my typical day by a factor of two.
What surprised me is how many new ratings I’ve gotten. I was frankly worried, because BookBub readers are discerning. They have high standards. I feared they’d be brutal. But so far, they’re giving me four and five star ratings. That is such a relief! I’m glad they seem to enjoy the work.
How effective is a BookBub Featured Deal in terms of Amazon ratings? Red Flag Warning usually hangs out around position 500 to 600. Beacuse of the BookBub Featured Deal, it got as high as #17 in hard science fiction. That’s even better than my release campaign!
I’m going to watch the numbers for the rest of the month. I’m hoping that the majority of those who bought The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning go on to read the other two books. And just in case they’d still want to read more, I’ve priced both Evolutions Hand Collection 1: Earthbound and Evolution’s Hand Collection 2: Sirius Rising at $0.99. Readers seem to respond well to collections at $0.99. I’m a little surprised at how many I’ve sold, actually.
Audiobook for Evolutions Hand Book 1: Executive Action
Who the hell writes a 156,819 word novel as their first book? What a moron!
Oh. That was me.
The implication here is that it takes freaking forever to listen to each chapter and make minor corrections. On one hand, I’m a little disappointed at the voice inflection in the AI narration. On the other, I’m pleasantly surprised at the overall quality.
Given how “fast” I’m going, it’s going to be at least another month to finish. And that’s just the first book! Evolution’s Hand Book 2: Dying Breath is even longer at 197,683 words! Man, what was I thinking?
Progress against Last Week’s Goals
Here’s how I performed against last week’s goals:
- Write Moritz Lehner’s re-introduction/hook: Done!
- Write Owen Payne’s plot turn one: Partly done! Turns out there are three chapters for Payne’s plot turn one. I only finished two of them. It’s doing a little double duty because it’s setting up a bit of the third book.
- Write Moritz Lehner’s plot turn one: Done!
- Write Gerhard Wimmer’s plot turn one: Done!
- Monitor the results of the BookBub Featured Deal: Done!
- Continue chipping away at the AI-narrated draft of Evolution’s Hand Book 1: Executive Action: Done!
Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2025 Week 24
Here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:
- Finish Gerhard Wimmer’s plot turn 1
- Finish part III of Owen Payne’s plot turn 1
- Finish Wimmer’s pinch 1
- Finish Moritz Lehner’s pinch 1
- Continue working on the AI-narrated draft of Evolution’s Hand Book 1: Executive Action
What Do You Think?
Do you write series? What techniques do you use to entice readers to go to the next book? I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments!
When I was running my serial, I always put the cover and first chapter of the next volume at the end of the book as a teaser and then a link to the pre-order. Obviously, that requires being incredibly organised and sitting on a completed book until the next one is ready, which was fine for a novella serial, I’m planning on doing the same with the next series, which should be around 50k words each, but then my goal is also to have a year’s worth of releases in the bag before I start publishing. I’ve no idea how long that’s going to take me at my current speed, but I’m hoping to pick things up again.
I like that idea.
Recently, I’ve had some success with writing a trilogy at a time, so that approach would work. Longer term, I might write some longer series, but even then, I should be able to get at least a couple books ahead.
Armies live and die by logistics. Looks like indie writers do, too!