Progress Report 2026 Week 10

Back in 2025 week 35, I kicked off a project that finally wrapped up. Almost. There’s one detail that tripped me up. Also, I finally finished watching David Gaughran’s latest YouTube video — and I wish I had finished it a month ago when he first released it. I pushed forward with the read-aloud pass for Wayland’s Hammer Book 3: Lines of Operation. How’s that going? And finally, I still have a to-do to begin plotting Blue Angel Ascension. Do I have any progress to report? Let’s take a look at the key performance indicators, then dive into those issues.

Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers

Still no forward motion on the new book. But I have other movement to talk about!

I still don’t have any progress to report on Blue Angel Ascension. Nothing official, at least. But I do have some ideas about Leah (Raven) Flores and how she relates to the larger universe. I also have some ideas about working a deaf character into the plot, along with Cristina Rojas and her organization, South American Stewardship Organization (SASO). Back in Evolution’s Hand, I mentioned how TransStell, the corporation our heroes work for, had no idea how SASO communicated. SASO also has a link to the exclusion zones like Cleveland. It might be fun to explore those ideas.

I ought to be able to finish the read-aloud pass for Wayland’s Hammer Book 3: Lines of Operation this week. Next will come its ProWritingAid pass, and then it’ll be ready for the alpha readers. I have two remaining concerns, and I’m trying to address them during the read-aloud. I’m on track for publishing Wayland’s Hammer in late spring or early summer.

I might release them all at once, like I did with The Sword of Sirius and Dreams of Deucalion. Or, I might release one and put the other two up for pre-order to be released after 30 and 60 days. Supposedly, Amazon gives a book a little bit of a boost for the first 30 days after release. It might be worth a try!

New Covers for Evolution’s Hand

Back in 2025 week 35, I talked about a consultation I had with Chris Fox. He suggested that the covers I originally had for Evolution’s Hand were not genre appropriate. I think he was right. I resolved back then, in late August 2025, to ask Miblart to re-do all six covers. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do it all in one go. Covers are not inexpensive! So I spread it out until this month. Here’s what the new covers look like:

Once again, Miblart was great to work with. I like the covers they created!

I’m thinking about how to better set reader expectations for these books. I honestly think that if I could do that, then correctly market them, they’d be more successful. I’m better at writing blurbs, but I’m nowhere near where I need to be.

Before I think about marketing Evolution’s Hand, thought, I’m going to push The Sword of Sirius for one more month, then switch marketing to Dreams of Deucalion. Those two series are closer in size to Wayland’s Hand, and Wayland’s Hand is the direct successor to The Sword of Sirius.

Regarding the covers, what was the one thing that tripped me up? I didn’t provide the ISBN for Evolution’s Hand Book 5: Split Infinities paperback, and Miblart put the wrong one on. I didn’t catch it. So, I’ve asked them to regenerate the cover with the correct ISBN. I’m pleasantly surprised that Amazon’s quality control caught it!

David Gaughran’s Marketing Advice

A month ago, David Gaughran released a video called Facebook Ads for Authors [2026] Ad Creation Tutorial. I should have watched it the day after he released it. Mr. Gaughran knows marketing based on his work in advertising. He also knows how the Facebook interface has evolved over the years.

The newest iteration of the Facebook ad engine has two huge challenges for indie writers. First, Facebook has curtained some of the demographics available to us. It used to be that you could pick a major writer in your genre and market directly to them. We could also pick interests to go with those authors. Most of those options are missing now.

Even worse, Facebook pushes their Advantage+ options. Facebook uses their AI engines to “optimize” ad presentation, but it’s optimized for products other than books. Selecting those options guarantees an indie writer will spend more money to get worse results.

I knew most of that because I watched previous versions of David Gaughran’s videos. My personal experience confirmed it. But there are some options under ad placement that I didn’t quite understand. Yes, I had turned off Advantage+, but I left several sub-options enabled. Turns out “Facebook ad network” is a money pit for indie authors. And guess which option I had enabled?

I adjusted my ad. It might have been coincidence, but shortly thereafter, my sales increased. My spend is so low that the numbers might not be statistically significant. Still, if this works, this could mean the difference between operating in the red or the black. I’ll watch sales carefully this week.

Progress Against Last Week’s Goals

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

1. Finish 75% of the MacOS read-aloud phase of Wayland’s Hammer Book 3: Lines of Operation: Under performed. I only got about 50% done.
2. Complete updating the manuscripts for Evolutions Hand, including the collections, for re-upload. Done!
3. Upload at least Evolution’s Hand Book 1: Executive Action with the new cover to Amazon and Draft2Digital; set up the series Evolution’s Hand in the Google Play store (it takes some time for the series to become active; then I can add the novels): Over achieved! All covers (except one, which needs its ISBN redone) and the manuscripts with updated chapter titles have been uploaded to Amazon, Draft2Digital, and Google Play
4. Continue kicking around ideas for the next books: Ongoing
5. Wait for the alpha feedback to come back (should take about two weeks): Ongoing

Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2026 Week 10

Here’re my goals for the coming week:

1. Finish the MacOS read-aloud pass for Lines of Operation
2. Finish 50% of the ProWritingAid pass for Lines of Operation
3. Review feedback for at least one of the two alpha readers
4. Evaluate sales figures for The Sword of Sirius
5. Keep kicking around ideas for Blue Angel Ascension

What Do You Think?

How long did it take you to turn a profit on your Facebook ads for a series or standalone? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!