Progress Report 2025 Week 35

I had a consultation with Chris Fox this week, and it was the most useful hour of consultation I’ve ever had. I now have a plan that’ll take me at least through the end of the year, and it dramatically changes major elements of my plans. What do those changes look like? Also, I have some developments to report regarding Wayland’s Hammer. There’s a lot to talk about, so let’s take a look at the key performance indicators, then get into it.

Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers

Some day, I vow to begin writing Lines of Operation.

Still no words written in Wayland’s Hammer Book 3: Lines of Operation. I have alpha feedback from Jonah H and Summer Foovay, and both identified some of the key issues. Both gave me a lot to think about. I’m still waiting on Stephanie F. I hope to have her feedback early this week.

Once I get the all the feedback, I plan to focus on fixing Wayland’s Hammer Book 1: Point of Extraction. I think I know what I’m going to do. I say “think” because a key element is that I’m going to dive more deeply into all three point of view characters, so they might drive developments one way or another. But I know how I want the reader to feel at the end.

That’s going to be a key difference in my process going forward. I’ve focused hard on getting the plot and character arcs right. I think I’ve neglected the emotional aspect, which is a serious mistake. In retrospect, it’s kinda obvious, isn’t it? But it’s part of my brand. We all have limitations, and emotional intelligence is one of mine.

Well, I’ll file this discovery under “better late than never.”

Consultation with Chris Fox

Chris Fox recently published a video called Covers Sell Books. In it, he offered to consult with writers about their covers, blurbs, and general marketing plans. I signed up immediately. Before the meeting, he sent me templates for blurb revisions. I’ll tell you this: it was strange seeing him on Zoom with the same background that he uses for his videos!

We discussed my books for an hour. As I thought about writing this post, I tried to come up with a clever way of expressing the impact of that hour. But it’s been a long week, and I’m going into another long week, so since I don’t have the energy to be clever, I’ll just be clear. It was hugely helpful. Immensely. I not only know that I have to replace the covers for Evolution’s Hand; I know why. I not only know I need to change my blurbs; I have a better understanding of why they need changed.

Also, I have a more clear idea of what I need to do with my audiobooks (more on that later).

The conversation was so far-ranging that I’ve spent three days (so far!) trying to tease out all the to-dos from that meeting and sequence them. This meeting re-vitalized my focus on the business aspects, and it increases my dedication to the writing craft that’s driving this entire effort.

Audiobooks Revisited

A Faltering Commitment to AI-Generated Narration

I’ve talked before about my efforts looking into Amazon’s Virtual Voice and Eleven Labs’ AI narration. I had decided to move forward with AI narration in the form of Virtual Voice because I can’t afford a professional narrator. That said, I’ve also hired an amateur narrator, Summer Foovay, to record an audiobook version of The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning.

Even knowing how to set Adobe Audition‘s zoom-in level to balance field of view with ease of editing is a challenge! It all takes time.

My conversation with Chris Fox convinced me to re-evaluate my approach to audiobooks. I knew audiobooks were important. After talking to him, I think they’re more even more important than I’d thought.

Let me preface what I’m about to say by noting that I’m not saying that AI narration is bad. I know writers who are having very good luck with AI narration, and I absolutely support their decision to do that. But even though I had planned to move forward with Virtual Voice, I’ve had to re-evaluate. The more I use it, the more brittle my resolve became. The longer I listened to the lack of inflection, or the mis-placed inflection, the less I liked it.

I’m building a brand. How do I want readers to think about me?

Chris Fox suggested I look more into ACX’s Royalty Share. That’s opposed to Pay-for-Production. The latter starts at $250/finished hour. To put that into perspective, Evolution’s Hand Book 1: Executive Action is 16.86 finished hours (approximately). That works out to $4,215.00. If I want an audiobook for the entire Evolution’s Hand (6 books), that’s about 100.88 finished hours — or a whopping $25,220.00.

Yeah, that’s not happening.

That’s exactly why I didn’t think that Royalty Share would work for me. If I’m not confident enough to sink $25,000+ into my work, why would a narrator and their producer? In effect, that’s what I would be asking them to do. I had not considered Royalty Share because I didn’t think anyone would bet on a relatively unknown writer.

Royalty Share + Pay-for-Production = Opportunity

That may not be the case. Turns out newer narrators might be willing to take a risk. But even then, I don’t feel right about asking a narrator to assume the entire burden. That’s just not fair to them.

Fortunately, there’s another option — I can combine the Royalty Share with a limited up-front payment. One example I saw was to offer $50/PFH along with a royalty share. In this case, Executive Action would cost $843; Evolution’s Hand would be still be $5,044. But I might be able to pull that off, whereas $25,000 is out of the question.

This isn’t the only consideration. Evolution’s Hand will need new covers before I publish the audiobook(s). That argues in favor of going first with Dreams of Deucalion, because while I want to eventually redo its covers, they’re okay for now.

The Sword of Sirius also needs new covers. But there’re not bad (at least compared to Evolution’s Hand). I think I can still use what’s there.

I still intend to move forward with Summer Foovay’s audio narration of Red Flag Warning. My editing/producing is taking a lot longer than I expected. I’m still learning Adobe Audition, and I’m not sure what I’m doing will be acceptable to ACX. To be clear: I like Summer’s narration. Her work’s not the problem. It’s my ability to produce an ACX-ready output that’s in question.

You’ll see my next steps in my goals for next week, below.

Thinking through what needs done when (blurbs first; then covers; then audiobooks) is a challenge. Each of my three currently published series has its own considerations. Above all of it, I have to be cognizant of my time. I’ve been trying to edit the Virtual Voice version of Dreams of Deucalion Book 1: Special Recon and editing Red Flag Warning. I can’t keep that up. It’s too big a drain. And it’s keeping me from fixing Point of Extraction and starting Lines of Operation.

Progress against Last Week’s Goals

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

1. My workflow for Adobe Audition means I have to split out the chapters first, then edit them. I want to mark ten chapters this week in preparation for splitting. Done! I actually have completely split the original WAV file into individual chapters and have edited two or three more chapters.
2. Review/edit four more audio chapters for Special Recon. Done!
3. Analyze feedback from Chris Fox’s review of my covers and blurbs. Underway! My meeting with Chris Fox brought up so much that I’m still parsing the individual task predecessors and successors.
4. Analyze alpha feedback from one (possibly two) other alpha readers. Underway! I’m still waiting for the last alpha feedback. I’ve analyzed feedback from the first two.
5. Continue to monitor my Amazon keyword ad. Ongoing! The Amazon ad is not doing well, and my meeting with Chris Fox meeting helped me understand why.

Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2025 Week 35

Here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:

1. Craft the optimal to-do list based on my meeting with Chris Fox.
2. Receive and process the final alpha read for Wayland’s Hammer Book 1: Point of Extraction.
3. Begin revising Point of Extraction.
4. Draft new blurbs for Evolution’s Hand.
5. Investigate ACX, specifically the requirements and particulars of a Royalty Share agreement, for Dreams of Deucalion.

What Do You Think?

How do you convince yourself to drop a task you really want to do — but just don’t have the time to do it? I’d love to hear about your thought process in the comments!