Progress Report 2026 Week 08

I’ve been working with Miblart to re-create the covers for Evolution’s Hand, and I just submitted the order for the last one. What’s the plan when that last covers comes in? I thought I knew the setting for my next series, but now I’m now sure. What made me doubt my decision? How’re sales for The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning — especially the audiobook? And finally, am I getting any closer to publishing Wayland’s Hammer? Let’s take a look at the key performance indicators before diving into these topics.

Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers

I’m making progress toward getting Resistance Movement ready for an alpha read.

I continue to be happy with how many problems I catch when I let MacOS read the manuscript back to me. Well, not “happy,” exactly, but I’m glad I’m catching them before anyone else does. I’m about 70% of the way through the manuscript (which means I hit my goal). When I’m done, I’ll run ProWritingAid and see if it catches any grammatical errors. My goal is to deliver a solid, read-to-read manuscript to my alpha/beta readers and my proof reader. And ultimately, of course, my paying readers.

I’m pondering whether I should use the MacOS read-aloud step the day after I write a new chapter. Right now, I had been reading it aloud myself. But I missed stuff. I liked reading the next day to re-immerse myself in the world. But the thing is, sometimes letting the manuscript sit a few months improves the odds of me catching certain classes of errors. Should I keep reading yesterday’s chapter myself, then wait until the edit pass to use MacOS? Or could I collapse those into a single step?

I like the idea of saving time. On the other hand, I hate the possibly of reducing quality. I guess a third option would be to use MacOS in both stages to maximize coverage. That is a bit more time; but it might be a lot more quality. That might be the way I go.

Evolution’s Hand Relaunch

Back in week 36 of 2025, I talked about a consultation I had with Chris Fox. He pointed out, correctly, that the covers for Evolution’s Hand misrepresented the genre. When I first published them, I thought they were science fiction/political thriller. The covers reflect that because it’s what I asked the artists to do.

I was wrong. They’re science fiction/hard science fiction/science fiction-action adventure. They might be space opera. Whatever they are, they’re not thrillers. That affected sales, and it affected reviews.

So now, I’ve been ordering new covers, one a month, from Miblart. I doubled up this month instead of waiting for March. Why? Because I want to get the first cover for Wayland’s Hand sooner than later. I need its fonts/typography for a lead magnet to use ahead of the trilogy’s release.

I used ProWritingAid’s AI features to run a marketing analysis on Evolution’s Hand Book 1: Executive Action. It’s not perfect; it’s not as good as a human expert. But it was $35.00, and it gave a reality check. One of the things it suggested was to add the point of view (POV) character name to the chapter title. I recently listened to one of The Expanse’s audiobooks and learned it did the same thing.

I shared the new cover for Blind Exodus back in 2026 week 5. Here’s the new cover for Executive Action.

So, I’m going to change all the chapter titles in Evolution’s Hand to do the same thing. Also, I’m reworking the “also by” section at the end to be consistent with The Sword of Sirius and Dreams of Deucalion. Finally, I’m going to use Vellum to regenerate all of the ebook and print book source materials.

I’ll probably review the blurbs, but generally speaking, they’re the best I can do right now.

If all goes well, I’ll probably relaunch in late March. I’m cautiously excited. I hope that better aligning the covers with the genre will improve sales. This will better position Evolution’s Hand with The Sword of Sirius and Dreams of Deucalion. Time will tell if this was worth the investment!

Am I Still Thinking about Blue Angel Ascension?

Last week, I talked about how my novels so far have three areas of focus. The Sword of Sirius represents the stories happening “out there” at Sirius and beyond. Dreams of Deucalion represents the Earth/Fissure-centric world.

What’s that means in terms of Blue Angel Ascension? Well, as I envision it right now, it would take place in the Earth/Fissure-centric universe. So far, it has sold far fewer copies than the Sirius-centric world ebooks. In fact, The Sword of Sirius has sold about twice as much as Dreams of Deucalion. Part of the reason is that I fumbled the launch of the latter. But I don’t think I’ve really figured out how to market that world. Going forward, I’m going to lean into comparisons to The Expanse and indie-author equivalents.

Should I use sales figures as a factor in deciding what to write next? I think the answer’s a qualified yes. Does Dreams of Deucalion not selling as well as The Sword of Sirius mean that Blue Angel Ascension won’t sell? That’s what I initially thought when I looked at the numbers.

I think a better conclusion would be I need to get better at packaging and marketing. No shock there, right? But it just emphasizes that I need to figure this stuff out. As of right now, Blue Angel Ascension is still the likely next installment.

Red Flag Warning Audiobook Sales

I released Red Flag Warning’s audiobook, narrated by Summer Foovay, in December 2025. I saw strong sales from Hoopla in December and January. Then sales cratered despite my Facebook ads. Which is strange — I didn’t push readers to Hoopla at all, but I saw sales there. I pushed readers to Amazon, Apple, and Barnes & Noble. But I have seen no sales there.

I decided to do a little fact-gathering. I picked a similar title, which was Rock Whitehouse’s audiobook Silver Enigma: The ISC Fleet Series, Book 1 (affiliate link). I’ve listened to and enjoyed that book, and I wanted to see how its sales position compared to Red Flag Warning. I anticipated Silver Enigma being ranked significantly higher than Red Flag Warning. But I noticed something that seemed unusual.

Here’re the numbers I saw (the Whitehouse’s book is on the left, and mine is on the right):

Rock Whitehouse’s audiobook and mine had one category in common: Military Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals). His ranked number 2,182. Mine ranked 2,361. I expected mine to be lower, of course. But only by 179? My Audio Republic dashboard says I’ve sold precisely zero copies. How am I so close to a book that’s selling more than zero copies?

I did some more research with Author Republic, and it turns out reporting from retailers might lag as much as three months. So, I might not see any confirmation of Amazon sales until March/April. The bottom line? I’m going to defer deciding whether to pursue audiobook versions of The Sword of Sirius Book 2: Collapse Zone and Book 3: Firebreak until the end of April.

Progress for Wayland’s Hammer

I’m 70% of the way through the MacOS reading for Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement. I hope to finish it this coming week. Then, I have to make a decision: throw myself into the next series, or start the MacOS read-aloud phase for Wayland’s Hammer Book 3: Lines of Operation.

Ordinarily, I let a book sit fallow while I write the next. That time gives me perspective. It helps me catch some kinds of errors. On the other hand, I’ve caught a couple of continuity issues in Resistance Movement that I might not have caught had I not just listened to Point of Departure.

Right now, I’m leaning toward moving forward with the MacOS reading of Lines of Operation. I’ll make the final decision next week.

Progress Against Last Week’s Goals

Here’s how I performed against my goals from last week:

1. Complete 70% of the read-aloud phase for Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement: Done!
2. Begin the ProWritingAid pass for Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement: Not started!
3. Evaluate my ad spend to see which series I should promote at this time (likely will continue to be The Sword of Sirius, but I want to watch the numbers): Ongoing!
4. Continue kicking around ideas for the next books: Ongoing!

Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2026 Week 08

Here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:

1. Finish the MacOS read-aloud pass for Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement
2. Complete 70% of the ProWritingAid pass for Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement
3. Craft and deploy the March ad campaign for The Sword of Sirius
4. Continue kicking around ideas for the next books
5. Prepare at least one ebook and print edition of Evolution’s Hand for re-launch

What Do You Think?

What weight do you give the sales from previous series when deciding what to write next? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!