Progress Report 2025 Year End

It’s been another week, so how many URLs show up in Author’s Republic for The Sword of Sirius now? Did the Google Play Store accept my account yet and offer The Sword of Sirius for sale — or will I have to wait another week or more? Christmas has come and gone (and wow, did it seem faster this year or what?); what impact did it have on my writing? Finally, what specific goals for 2026? Let’s look at the key performance indicators, then dive into those questions.

Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers

I was relieved to pass the 10,000 word mark for the week. And I did it without scrimping on family times during Christmas!

I hope you and yours had a pleasant Christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate. And if you don’t celebrate any, I still hope you had a pleasant week!

I got to spend time with my family, including my four year old grandson. That was great. I also had time to work on Wayland’s Hammer Book 3: Lines of Operation. I’m finding that using MacOS’s Speak Selection helps me find a lot more typos than me reading it aloud myself. That’s the good news. The bad news? It takes about 50% longer than me reading it. Which, if I’m honest, might account for why it finds more! My two hour writing block has expanded to about two and a half hours.

I can live with that, especially if it helps me dramatically improve the quality.

I’m evaluating the possibility of a last pre-publication read-through that I also record. I hope that the recording would be suitable for editing into an audiobook, for the books that have more male than female leads. I wouldn’t have to edit and publish the audio right away. But if I read it through one more time anyway, it might make sense to record it. I’ll make a decision in the next month or so.

Taking The Sword of Sirius Wide

Author’s Republic still only shows the URLs from two retailers: Google LLC and Audiobooks Now. It’s available at several other locations, like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple Books. It said to wait for up to two months before inquiring about missing links. I guess they weren’t kidding! But at least it’s available at key retailers.

More good news: the Google Play Store processed my account, and The Sword of Sirius ebooks are now available there! Since Draft2Digital has pushed the ebook to key retailers as well, including Barnes & Noble and Apple Books, I can go ahead with the promotion I plan for January.

Google finally approved my account! I guess I can’t complain about them being thorough.

I brushed up on ads this week by buying Chris Fox’s audiobook Ads for Authors Who Hate Math (affiliate link). It was published back in 2019, but in a recent YouTube video, he said the content should still be valid. Based on what I think I know about the various ad platforms, I agree. Everything was where I expected it to be.

That said, the book gave me several insights I’d missed before. I have a lot of work to do, but I think I can build on what I’ve already done with ads and make the upcoming The Sword of Sirius promotion my most effective yet. Anyway, I hope so. I need to demonstrate proficiency with ads at some point. Might as well be 2026!

Goals for 2026

In addition to continuing to chase profitable ads, I intend to publish Wayland’s Hammer. Unless I hit a major snag writing the third book, Lines of Operation (which, given this trilogy, has a non-zero chance of happening), I should be able to finish writing it by mid February. By then, I should have the proofreading pass for Book 1: Point of Departure done and Book 2: Resistance Movement well under way. Conservatively speaking, I should be ready to publish in April.

I also hope to write and publish my next trilogy. Do you remember me talking about writing a new short story lead magnet? Well, that plot got away from me. The characters starting interacting. And before I knew it, I had material for at least one and a half and maybe two books. I think my next trilogy will be Blue Angel Ascension. Unless I change the title. Which I might. Titles and I have a contentious history. The tentative publication target is November/December.

Over the last three months, I’ve commissioned Miblart to redo the covers for Evolutions Hand Book 1: Executive Action, Book 2: Dying Breath, and Book 3: Primary Target. Over the next three months, I’m going to ask them to create new covers for the last three books, Book 4: Blind Exodus, Book 5: Split Infinities, and Book 6: Unnatural Crypsis. That effort should wrap up in April. I’ll touch up the books, use Vellum to regenerate the various formats, and re-release the books in Amazon and Draft2Digital. Probably Google Play as well. That’ll probably happen this summer. Probably.

The last major effort will be an evaluation of audiobooks. I’ll monitor how well the audiobook for The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning performs. As I’ve mentioned before, if it does well, I’ll work with Summer Foovay to narrate the next two entries, Book 2: Collapse Zone and Book 3: Firebreak.

It’s cool seeing the audiobook for sale on sites like Apple Books.

As far as Dreams of Deucalion and Wayland’s Hammer, my tentative plan right now is to try recording my read-aloud pass as the final edit for the latter. It’ll give me a chance to catch any last-minute typos that slipped past my editors as well as potentially help me create a tighter bond with my readers. Unless they think my voice sucks. But that’s why I monitor reviews, right?

And Evolution’s Hand? Chris Fox suggested that I bid it on ACX using the profit sharing model. I’m still considering that. The drawback is that it’s ACX-only, which means Amazon-only. I’m not sure I want to do that, but I’m also not sure I don’t. In 2026, I hope to make a decision.

What’s keeping me from recording it myself? Well, the whole series is over one hundred hours of audio. That’s what’s keeping me. The Sword of Sirius, which is a trilogy, is only thirty-one hours.

Finally, in 2026, I want to get to the point where at least half of my ads turn a profit. It’s time I do the “put up or shut up” thing. Either I’m going to make a go of this, or not.

Now I’m really curious to see what goals I get to write at the end of 2026!

Progress Against Last Week’s Goals

Here’s how well I did compared to last week’s goals:

1. Finish Owen Payne’s pinch 1: Done!
2. Write a helper plot chapter from Jackson Scott’s perspective: Done!
3. Writer Gerhard Wimmer’s midpoint: Done! I also went beyond this to write Moritz Lehner’s midpoint!
4. Monitor availability of URLs in Author’s Republic: Ongoing! Still only 2 URLs showing up.
5. Continue working on the Sirius colonial guide: Not Done! If we keep power, I’ll try to work more on that this coming week (a nasty storm front is moving through with really high winds, which don’t play well with the power grid in my area)
6. Finish publishing The Sword of Sirius to Google Play: Done!

Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2025 Year End

Here’s what I hope to accomplish in the coming week (assuming I have electricity):

1. Write a helper plot chapter preparing Owen Payne for his midpoint
2. Write Owen Payne’s Midpoint
3. Write Gerhard Wimmer’s Pinch 2
4. (Stretch objective) Write Payne’s pinch 2
5. Continue working on the Sirius colonial guide
6. Monitor availability of URLs in Author’s Republic
7. Monitor proofreading for Wayland’s Hammer Book 1: Point of Departure

What Do You Think?

How far in advance do you set your goals? Annually? Monthly? Some combination of the two? I’d love to hear what works for you!