Progress Report 2025 Week 40

As I listen to Amazon Virtual Voice’s audio narration for Dreams of Deucalion Book 3: Bait and Bleed, I had time to reflect. I came to two conclusions that will affect what I work on until early next year. While I’m not working on Bait and Bleed, I’m still trying to finish listening to the Johnny B. Truant’s audiobook The Artisan Author (affiliate link). And I still can’t. Finally, is there any hope of me starting to actually write again any time soon? Let’s take a look at the key performance indicators first.

Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers

Still no new words. But I’m ahead of schedule for Bait and Bleed!

I’m still listening the Virtual Voice audio narration for Dreams of Deucalion. It started as an exercise to prepare the trilogy for a possible audiobook release. It morphed into a final proofread pass. I found so many typos that I paused most advertising this month. I won’t restart until I finish fixing all three books.

The week before last, I finished Flanking Maneuver. Last week, I began listening to Bait and Bleed. I’m ahead of schedule, and I intend to finish next week. I really hope that I do, because this exercise is dead-shorting my energy. Editing is bad enough. Knowing I failed my readers and released a manuscript with too many errors is a whole new level of angst. I’m trying to channel it into something positive. Namely, I’m trying to channel it into a resolution to never allow anything like this to happen again.

I’m exhausted to the point where I’m tempted to take a break. But there’s value, I think, in sometimes pushing myself, especially when the stakes are high. I published work that’s not up to my standards, and fixing it certainly qualifies. That said, this exercise reminded me that I don’t have quite the energy reserves I did forty years ago. That’s going to inform what I decide to do for the rest of the year.

Editing-Fueled Revelations

I’ve gone through the first two books in Dreams of Deucalion and seventy percent of the third. Over the last several weeks, I listened to Amazon’s “American English 2” AI narrator read my words back to me. The first thing I realized while doing so is that I there’s evidence that the Real Life Family Events (RLFEs) took more out of me than I suspected. I repeated words I need not have repeated. Some of my phrasing lacked clarity.

These are things I’ll catch when I implement my planned changes to my edit passes. But I wonder if there’s more I can do. I wonder if I need to take a break between books. I don’t want to short change my family during RLFEs. Nor do I want to short change my readers with subpar writing. I wonder if doing more to conserving my energy will give me better results all around.

The second realization had to do with Virtual Voice in particular and AI narration in general. I had tentatively decided to try Virtual Voice with Dreams of Deucalion. Now, I’m not so sure. I haven’t decided against it. But I’ll tell you what: AI narrators just don’t understand humans.

Yes. That’s an obvious statement. But as I listened to key scenes, I found myself increasingly frustrated that the AI’s voice remained flat. That’s just part of where we are technologically. But that face remains that an AI’s voice cannot convey the meaning and feeling I intended for the scene. Bottom line: it’s not the experience I want to give my readers.

Business realities might dictate my decision, given the low cost of using Virtual Voice. Plus, from the perspective of accessibility, offering an audiobook with AI narration is a lot better than offering nothing. But I really, really want to give my audiobook readers the same experience my ebook readers have.

Do I really want my readers’ experience with my audiobooks to be a voice that doesn’t understand anything about human emotion?

This whole effort made me reflect on what kind of experience I want to share with my readers. That’s also something obvious, isn’t it? But in the day-to-day rush of writing, editing, marketing, and experimenting with new technologies like Virtual Voice, it’s a little too easy to forget the basics. Which is, I think, another argument for enforcing a bit more downtime. Taking time to reflect is important!

Rebalancing The Schedule

As a software developer, I’m used to dividing my attention all over the place: a code fragment here, a database query optimization there, a web server configuration file tweak elsewhere. That’s fun (yeah, I’m weird like that), but I’ve come to believe it’s counter-productive when I’m trying to write.

I found evidence, even in the currently published draft of Bait and Bleed, where I began a thought and got detoured. That’s evidence of a lack of focus, especially when I consider how easily I caught it.

To combat that, I’m going to try to better compartmentalize my work. Until I finish with Bait and Bleed’s next draft, I’m not going to work on anything else. When it’s done, I’ll focus on the next task.

The exception is when two tasks are wildly different. For example, I don’t want to work on writing Wayland’s Hammer while I try to edit the audio for Red Flag Warning. But I could edit Red Flag Warning while I work on marketing campaigns. The two tasks are completely different. Even more importantly, I can work on marketing if I have 15-30 minutes free here and there. Whereas writing or editing (audio or textual) needs bigger chunks if my brain’s going to get into the zone and stay there long enough to get effective work done.

Some writers can write a few minutes at a time. Honestly, I admire that skill! I will try to emulate it some day. But for now, I need at least an hour, and preferably two. Enforcing that should help me improve overall quality, reduce burnout, and in the mid to long term, get more (and higher quality) work done.

Not a Fan of Straw Men

I mentioned in previous posts how I’d begun to read Johnny B. Truant’s The Artisan Author (affiliate link). His premise is solid: rapid-release and other techniques can demand a cost in quality. They can also burn out writers. He’s offering a different way.

I supported his Kickstarter, and I’m glad I did. It’s a very important topic right now. I hope that I’ll get more out of the book — once I get past the current chapter. See, he’s building the case that Amazon and rapid release are evil. And I can’t see his points because there’s so much straw flying around!

Yes, he does come out and say that rapid release works for some people, and his comments aren’t directed at those it works for. Then he spends pages enumerating its evils. Even worse, he makes Amazon and its algorithms out to be evil incarnate.

I suppose straw men are preferable as an opponent to straw camels. Those guys spit thistles.

I get it. A story needs a villain. But we indie writers need more data and fewer straw men. Rapid release or another oft-maligned idea, writing to market, are simply concepts. They can be useful, and they can be harmful. I’d welcome a conversation to help indie writers decide what approach to take, based on their individual circumstances. It’s hard enough for new writers to decide. It’s hard enough for seasoned writers to keep up with trends! Tools to help in that regard would be helpful.

And painting Amazon as evil? That doesn’t work for me. Amazon wants happy customers. In the ebook domain, they want to match readers with books they’ll like. Happy readers in that case are happy customers. So of course Amazon is going to optimize their automation to support that.

Does Amazon sometimes hurt writers, especially when Amazon tweaks their approach? Absolutely. Just like Google hurt some websites who gamed the search engine with tricks or techniques unrelated to making web site visitors happy. Note: I’m not suggesting anyone’s gaming the system; I’m not saying they aren’t. I’m just making the point that in my mind, Amazon’s algorithms are conceptually similar to SEO. Which means the approach should be roughly the same: write good books first. Worry about the marketing second.

To be fair, Mr. Truant is not arguing against separating the business from the writing. Not at all. But for someone like me who understands Amazon’s business drivers, trying to paint them as the bad guy undermines the argument. They aren’t bad. They’re a business.

I’m just hoping that once I get past the straw man chapters, I’ll get more out of the book. Because the idea of crafting a product readers want, and will pay for, is very appealing. In the spirit of giving credit where it’s due, just thinking about this book and its subject has already clarified how I’m thinking about my audiobooks. So even if the current chapter is annoying me, the book has already succeeded in one of its primary goals. I gotta respect that!

Progress Against Last Week’s Goals

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

1. Finish about 40% of Bait and Bleed’s Virtual Voice review: Done! I actually got 70% done.
2. Continue to experiment with Canva Pro and animation: Done! This is going to be ongoing.
3. Finish an audio edit of one more chapter in The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning: Not done. I’m afraid I need to focus on one major task at a time. This’ll come soon, though!

Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2025 Week 40

Here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:

1. Finish the Amazon Virtual Voice pass of Dreams of Deucalion Book 3: Bait and Bleed
2. Update the Scrivener master manuscript with the fixes
3. Use Vellum to generate the ebook and paperback
4. Upload both to Amazon
5. Restart Facebook ads for Dreams of Deucalion Book 1: Special Recon and reduce the Amazon ad spend for same to conserve cash

What Do You Think?

What’s your best source for indie writer business advice? Or sources? How do you find them? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!