It’s been cold here in Ohio. As in, it’s been around or below zero (Fahrenheit) most nights for a couple of weeks now. I’ve come to learn that’s not part of my optimal temperature range! Did it affect my writing? I’ve kicked off my February marketing program. It’s only day two, but is it showing any signs of success? How long does it take to tell? I’m still working with Miblart to re-cover Evolution’s Hand, and I just took delivery of the new cover for Evolution’s Hand Book 4: Blind Exodus. How’s it look? Finally, I have some progress to report on Wayland’s Hammer Book 3: Lines of Operation. Did I finally — finally! — finish the first draft? Let’s look at the key performance indicators first!
Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers
I didn’t break 10,000 words this week. But I’m not even upset about it!
I didn’t break 10,000 words last week, which is my target. But it’s actually good news. The cold didn’t slow me down (though it seems to really hate my joints!). But that’s not why I didn’t break 10,000 words. It’s because I finished writing Wayland’s Hammer Book 3: Lines of Operation early in the week! Now I’m going to let it sit until after I write the next book.
The proofread for Wayland’s Hammer Book 1: Point of Departure came back this week. As I wrote that book, I read the previous chapter aloud myself to help me catch errors. I’ve since found out that using MacOS’s “Speak selection” feature helps me catch more problems. Lots more problems. In fact, it helped me catch copy, line, and proofreading problems. It might even be my best error detection tool.
I’ll test this theory when I sent Lines of Operation to get proof read, but I hope that it eliminates the need for ProWritingAid entirely. It’s been helpful. Don’t get me wrong. But Point of Departure went through ProWritingAid, and my proofreader still find about ten issues per chapter. Many were things ProWritingAid should have caught. That’s not cool.
It’s going to be interesting to see what ProWritingAid thinks of Lines of Operation, since I used “Speak selection” from the start. It’d be cool if it finds almost nothing. I don’t mind using ProWritingAid as a final check. I do mind investing time in a tool that isn’t giving me any value.
Once I’m done with Point of Departure, it’ll be ready to publish. I’ll then turn my attention to Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement. It didn’t get the MacOS “Speak selection” treatment, either. I’ll have MacOS read it to me, make corrections, run it through ProWritingAid, and send it to the alpha reader.
And then I’ll need to decide what to write next.
Marketing Update
Two things happened that have upped my marketing game. First, David Gaughran released a new YouTube video about running Facebook ads. I’ve already been through all the material he released on Facebook ads, but Facebook made some changes. I figured the new video would bring me up to date.
It did. And it also, almost incidentally, pointed out something about ad behavior that I’d glossed over before. I’d started running the ad in places other than the US, and I’ve seen a few sales. But not many. Turns out that’s probably because I was sending everyone to the Amazon US store!
Each ad can have only one target URL (though you can include links in the text). I’ll need to divide my ad budget between different ads, each targeting a specific country’s Amazon presence. I’m grateful David Gaughran point that out! He might have done so before and I just missed it. Or I could have thought of it — it’s kinda obvious in hindsight.
Well, now I know!
I’m going to let this ad run for about a week before I decide to tweak or replace it. So far, it’s performing better than I expected, though not as well as I had hoped. We’ll see how it performs for the rest of the week.
New Covers for Evolution’s Hand
I just took delivery of the new cover for Evolution’s Hand Book 4: Blind Exodus. Here’s what it looks like:
I really like the covers Miblart has created for me.
I’m embracing the hard science fiction/space exploration/space opera aspects of Evolution’s Hand. Back when I released it, I leaned into its political thriller/hard science fiction angle. In retrospect, that was probably a mistake. I’ve come to understand it’s more like The Expanse than anything Tom Clancy wrote.
I’m ordering one cover per month, so in mid-March, I should have all six. Then I’m going to go through each book, make sure there’re no glaring errors, and regenerate the ebook and paperback versions with Vellum. I’ll upload them to Amazon and Draft2Digital, new covers and all.
I’m going to explore Ingram Spark for wide (non-Amazon) paperbacks. Anyone can order the paperback from Amazon, but many libraries won’t by from Amazon. This might increase my reach a little bit. Plus, I want to support libraries.
The World After Wayland’s Hammer
I’ve been thinking about what to pursue next. I general, I’ve had really good success with writing a trilogy and releasing all three books at once. In particular, I’ve tried selling the first book at $0.99, which yields more sales of book one but a lower percentage read-through to later books. Also, I’ve tried selling the first book at a dollar off compared to the next two, which has given me a much higher percentage read-through. The profit margin is better, too. So, I might not release the next one at $0.99. Instead, I’ll reserve it for promotions.
But that doesn’t answer the question of what’s next. I mentioned I had tried to write a short story tentatively called Blue Angel Ascension as a lead magnet. Then the story kind of exploded. It grew all sorts of branches and started pulling in more main-line characters. I think it might actually become the next trilogy.
The story centers on Leah Flores. She’s a teacher in the California Republic. The story begins at the end of Dreams of Deucalion, when the nuclear warheads fall on San Francisco. I haven’t decided what kind of teacher she is. I might have her teach American Sign Language, or maybe teach deaf students at a middle school or high school level.
I’m going to try for as much realism as I can. I’ve already started my research.
It’ll somehow involve Trent Raven, who is TransStell Ross 248’s CEO in that timeframe. Leah Flores is his sister. They don’t get along. Like, at all. I have some other ideas to pull in Christina Rojas, who I introduced back in Evolution’s Hand Book 1: Executive Action. She oversees the South American Stewardship Organization (SASO), which is actually a clandestine group trying to undermine corporate control on Earth.
I might experiment with a four or five book series this time. That’s still something I can write in one year, and it might improve reader involvement. I’ll share more as it comes together!
Progress Against Last Week’s Goals
Here’s how I did against last week’s goals:
- Finish Moritz Lehner’s arc Done!
- Finish Owen Payne’s arc Done!
- Begin preparing Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement for alpha reading Pending!
- Monitor proofreading for Wayland’s Hammer Book 1: Point of Departure: Underway! It’s going to take about two weeks to get all the way through.
- Monitor the Facebook ad for The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning: Ongoing!
Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2026 Week 5
Here’s what I hope to complete this week:
- Apply the proofreading results and MacOS’s “Speak selection” against 2/3 of Point of Departure
- Begin preparing Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement for alpha reading
- Monitor the Facebook ad for The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning
- Begin kicking around ideas for the next books
What Do You Think?
Do you find it difficult to correctly place your books in the proper genre? Do you have any tricks you can share? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!
