Progress Report 2026 Week 15

I threw myself into The Fissure Kings’ three point of view (POV) characters this week. One of them actually made fun of me at one point, but I think we’ve come to an understanding. I hope. I’m still fighting with Facebook ads, and I’m starting to see a pattern. I think. Finally, I have (shockingly) started outlining. Did I get far enough along to start writing yet? I’m also still working toward releasing Wayland’s Hammer. Before we get into any details, let’s look at the key performance indicators (KPIs).

Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers

Still no new words. But I’m getting closer!

I spent time drafting the Amazon blurbs for all three books in The Fissure Kings: Semele’s Lament, Thyone’s Ascension, and Rise of Persephone. I might re-name the last one Athena’s Wrath. I’m not sure. In any event, trying to write the blurbs before the book, based on a suggestion in a post by Craig Martelle, has helped me focus the interactions of the three POVs. I’m not sure why that is. But it helped.

With those drafted, I thought I was ready to plot. I sketched Trent Raven doing some stuff in the hook chapter. While I did, I had a vague sense that I was packing in too much. But, I figured I’d catch it when I started work on his next chapter. I then sketched Raven sending Lincoln Taylor back to Sirius to get help.

Taylor’s arc fell apart quickly. When I tried to imagine what happened next, Taylor freely confessed to the Sirius team that he had no idea why he was there. He further said that he could envision nothing they could do to help, and he felt bad for bothering them. Then I had the distinct impression that he shook his head at me.

Concerned, I tried to sketch Raven’s next chapter. And promptly realized I’d stuffed about 2/3 of his arc into one chapter. Well, damn.

I retreated into building out traits and backstory for both Raven and Taylor. That helped me re-connect some dots I had misconnected. I scrapped off the plotting I’d done and started gain. It feels a lot better this time! And Taylor is most definitely not going to Sirius.

I’m glad I caught that at the plotting phase instead of getting 50,000 words in and saying, “Oops.”

Facebook Ads Continue to Thwart Me

About a month ago, I watched as a decently performing Facebook ad tanked. It just stopped producing. The numbers I thought I understood would indicate over exposure were still in the green. But figuring I just did’t know what I was doing, I went back through David Gaughran’s latest video and created a new ad.

For the first few days, the new ad performed at a level that would have put my ad spend in the black for April. Then, a week ago, it tanked. Again. I made no changes. The frequency was around 1.7, and conventional wisdom is that if it’s below 2.0, the ad hasn’t saturated its audience.

In the 20BooksTo50K group on Facebook, some authors reported similar experiences. Others report the opposite. In most cases, the authors who reported an experience similar to mine had very successful ad campaigns before a month or so ago. The sudden under performance doesn’t seem to be limited to one genre. Whatever’s happening affects some people and not others.

I have some theories that I’m going to test. It’s frustrating, because I was making headway. I was very close to profitability based on one set of assumptions and practices. Now those are up in the air, which I should expect — it’s an evolving situation. It still frustrating.

We’ll see what the changes do for me. I’ll let you know next week.

Wayland’s Hammer Shambles Towards Publication

Wayland’s Hammer is closer than ever to publication. Here’s where each book stands:

• Book 1: Duty of Prisoners: Alpha read complete; beta read complete; proofread complete; cover complete
• Book 2: Resistance Movement: Alpha read complete; beta read complete; proofread underway; cover ordered but not delivered
• Book 3: Lines of Operation: Alpha read underway; beta read pending; proofread pending; cover pending

I plan to have everything more or less ready to publish by the end of May, 2026. I might have to push it back to June 2026. I’m still kicking around the idea of putting Duty of Prisoners up first and scheduling the next two to go live 30 and 60 days out. I want to experiment with pre-orders to see if that does anything to sales. Maybe. I’ll decide when I get closer to publication.

Progress Against Last Week’s Goals

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

1. Finish deepening my understanding of the POV characters’ starting points: Done. And redone. I think it’s complete!
2. Write drafts of the Amazon blurb and Facebook ad for Semele’s Lament: Done! This has given me a different perspective on plotting, and I like it!
3. Complete at least half the plot for Semele’s Lament: Ongoing! I started, but I had to throw it out. I’m probably about 1/4 done.
4. Incorporate the beta reader’s feedback for Resistance Movement: Done! The beta read came back pretty clean.
5. Solicit alpha readers for Wayland’s Hammer Book 3: Lines of Operation: Done! It’s in the hands of two alpha readers.
6. Monitor the performance of the Dreams of Deucalion ad: Ongoing! And very depressing. But necessary.

Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2026 Week 15

Here’s what I hope to achieve this week:

1. Finish 75% of the plotting for Semele’s Lament
2. Receive the draft of Resistance Movement’s cover
3. Create a new ad for Dreams of Deucalion and see if I can crack the current code

What Do You Think?

If you’ve been writing for more than a few years, how often do you need to change your marketing approach? More than just a minor tweak, I mean. I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!