Progress Report 2026 Week 11

Have you heard the phrase “a swing and a miss?” Well, I have a real example of that metaphor. Again. Not only that, but I almost got caught by a scam — how embarrassing would that have been? I’ve received feedback from both alpha readers for Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement. Do I have to go al the way back to the drawing board? I’m also making progress on Wayland’s Hammer Book 3: Lines of Operation. Is it ready for its alpha read yet? Finally, I still have an open to-do to prepare the plot for Blue Angel Ascension. But I’m worried about marketability. Do I need to change direction? Let’s take a look at the key performance indicators first.

Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers

Still no writing on the new books, and I’ll tell you this for free: I’m feeling the lack. I want to start writing soon!

The good news? I finished the read-aloud pass for Lines of Operation. The bad news? I under achieved on the ProWritingAid pass. In my defense, it was a busy weekend, and in a good way. My grandson just turned five, and I got to attend his birthday party. It was really cool seeing him interacting with his friends.

Some more good news: I didn’t hate the characterization in Lines of Operation. The story felt good to me. I don’t know if that means I’m getting better, or I’m becoming more delusional. I’m hoping for the former!

This week, I really hope I finish the ProWritingAid pass so I can get this manuscript out for its alpha reading. That’ll be another step in getting this trilogy in front of readers. I’ve been writing it for more than a year. It’s time it sees the light of day!

Scammers Are Getting More Sophisticated

Last year, I was fortunate enough to get a consultation session with Chris Fox. I also follow, and sometimes comment, on his YouTube channel. So when I received an e-mail with graphics and display names that seemed to match, I thought it was from him. It mentioned the YouTube channel, and it presented what looked like a reasonable question: it asked what my marketing pain points were.

I figured I make no secret of that, so I laid out my marketing challenges. I received a response within hours saying that Chris Fox was spinning up a consulting team, and they’d be happy to work with me. All I had to do was contact another e-mail address.

It was at this point that the security professional in me spoke up. Why would this team need me to reach out to one of their members? Why couldn’t they refer me? Just who were these people? That’s when I examined the e-mail addresses and saw they were Google Mail addresses that just looked like Chris Fox.

So I e-mailed Chris Fox and said hey, this didn’t look legit, but I wanted to check with him first. He was very surprised and asked that I forward the e-mail chain. My guess is that he’s going to do what he can to protect his name and his brand. Looks like scammers were trying to profit from his name and reputation.

Dale L. Roberts is another writer whose recently seen scammers using his name. It’s got to be really annoying to invest so much time in effort building a reputation, only to see scammers try to reap the benefits. That’s why I wanted to contact Chris Fox. It’s not much, but I wanted to do what I could to help him protect himself.

At least I didn’t fall for it. As a security professional during the day, that would have been really embarrassing. Probably expensive, too.

Hiding Behind Metaphors

Last week, I expressed hope that a restart of my Facebook ad would yield results. That was the “swing.” The ad’s performance last week was the “miss.” That damned thing tanked. I thought I had it. I really did. In fact, I expected a 25% increase in sales. That’s not what I saw.

I had made only handful of changes:

• On the graphic, I added he price ($2.99)
• On the graphic, I changed “For fans of ‘Old Man’s War'” to “For fans of ‘The Expanse'”
• I changed the demographic from “Star Trek” to “science fictions (movies)”

Sure, I expected that adding the price would reduce the number of clicks but keep the number of sales per click steady. And I hoped that changing to The Expanse would emphasize the story’s politically deep aspects. Finally, I intended to broaden the audience to people who liked science fiction movies.

Just a few fields can make all the difference. I think. As far as I know.

At least one of those changes catastrophically misfired. I’m honestly not sure which, but I think I need to change “The Expanse” back to “Old Man’s War.” I also need to change the demographic. The former needs to change because The Sword of Sirius leans towards military science fiction. I need to change the latter because I don’t think movie-goers are natural fans of books.

That said, I think I’m still missing something. The Sword of Sirius has three points of view. I need to set reader expectations for that. I need to sell what’s in the books. So I’m going to give that some thought.

Alpha Feedback for Resistance Movement

I was anxious about how the alpha readers would respond to Resistance Movement. I felt confident that I had hit the notes I wanted. But as a writer, I really don’t know if I performed well until readers tell me I did.

I was relieved to see that both alpha readers enjoyed the book. Both had some questions and suggestions that helped me see opportunities for improvement. But the feedback was much more positive than it was for the first book. I’ll take it!

After I finish the ProWritingAid pass for Lines of Operation, I’ll incorporate the alpha readers’ feedback into Resistance Movement. Then I’ll ship it out to the beta reader.

Blue Angel Ascension and Marketing

The Sword of Sirius and Wayland’s Hammer are two series that emphasize the challenges facing TransStell Sirius. The stories tend to feature starship fleets and military-style action. On the other hand, the first three books of Evolution’s Hand and the series Dreams of Deucalion tend to emphasize politics first, action second.

I’ve had more success marketing The Sword of Sirius because I could lean into the military science fiction genre. That resulted in more sales, but truth be told, I’m not sure they were the right sales. Turns out (and I didn’t know this at the time) that military sci-fi readers are often conservative. I have no beef with conservatives; I used to be one (I’m independent now). But those readers often dislike women in leadership roles. And, well, two of the three point of view characters in The Sword of Sirius are women.

Competent, high-performing women.

That doesn’t change the fact that I can’t get my sales higher for either. So, Blue Angel Ascension is an opportunity. And to leverage it, I think I’m going to lean into a suggestion from Craig Martelle. He makes Successful Indie Author videos daily; he gives a ton back to the community. In one of those videos, he suggested that instead of waiting until after the book’s done to write the marketing materials (ad copy, blurbs, etc.), write them first. Then write the book to fulfill those things.

In essence, that’s just a minor tweak to the idea of plotting ahead of time. I’ll still plot ahead of time. I’ll just start with the other materials. I could even buy the covers up front. I’m going to give this some thought.

How will this help me market? At the very least, it’ll give me time to establish and refine the copy. It’ll help me think in terms of the tropes I need (without necessarily going all-in on writing to market).

At the same time, I’m still trying to get better at Facebook ads. So, maybe by the time I’m ready to market Blue Angel Ascension, I’ll know what I’m doing.

Go big or go home, right?

Progress Against Last Week’s Goals

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

1. Finish the MacOS read-aloud pass for Lines of Operation: Done!
2. Finish 50% of the ProWritingAid pass for Lines of Operation: Not done! I only for to 22%. It was a busy week, though, so I’m not too upset.
3. Review feedback for at least one of the two alpha readers: Done!
4. Evaluate sales figures for The Sword of Sirius: Ongoing!
5. Keep kicking around ideas for Blue Angel Ascension: Ongoing

Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2026 Week 11

Here’s what I hope to achieve this week:

1. Finish the ProWritingAid pass of Wayland’s Hammer Book 3: Lines of Operation
2. Incorporate alpha feedback into Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement
3. Solicit the beta tester for Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement
4. Deploy a new ad for The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning
5. Keep kicking around ideas for Blue Angel Ascension

What Do You Think?

Have you noticed an increased level of sophistication in spam attacks? How have you responded? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!