I’ve been monitoring the sales of Wayland’s Hammer Book 1: Duty of Prisoners way more often than I should. How’s it doing compared to my previous launches? I experimented more with Apple’s Logic Pro, and I achieved a minor milestone this week. What’s it mean for my audiobook efforts? Plus, I actually got some more writing done with week. How much? Let’s take a look at the key performance indicators first.
Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers
The word count is way better than it could have been!
I had a major Real Life Family Event (RLFE) on Tuesday, but everything turned out okay. I was able to recovery by sneaking in an extra writing day on Friday. So I hit my goal of writing more than 10,000 words for the week and for writing four new chapters in The Fissure Kings Book 1: Semele’s Lament.
Despite publishing novels for a while now (Evolution’s Hand Book 1: Executive Action went live on June 1, 2022 — over four years ago), I’m still having a hard time separating the creative and business sides of independent writing. It’s hard to maintain momentum on the creative side if the business side seems stagnant. Though, based off what some independent writers have reported, staying steady in this environment isn’t necessarily a bad thing!
Despite still not turning a profit, I managed to keep writing Semele’s Lament. I’m getting close to finishing the second draft (I read the previous session’s work aloud and make changes before I start writing; I count that as a second draft). I’m happy with how the story’s coming together. I realized I needed to tweak Trent Raven’s arc again, but I realized that before an alpha or beta reader had to tell me. I’ll count that as an improvement! Though undoubtedly I’ve inadvertently left other mistakes there for them to find.
So on the writing front, it could be worse.
Duty of Prisoners’s Launch
I compared the launch of Duty of Prisoners with the launch of The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning and Dreams of Deucalion Book 1: Special Recon. In the first seven days, without going into specific numbers, Duty of Prisoners significantly out-performed Special Recon while turning in numbers that were almost the same as Red Flag Warning.
I’ll check again after thirty days. But early indications are that Duty of Prisoners is as successful as any of my launches. That tells me something: I’m not improving my marketing game. Yes, I could comfort myself by saying that other writers have reported reduced sales over the last year due to market saturation and other factors. On the other hand, yet other writers have said their sales are steady or increasing.
My Facebook ads have hit a plateau where they are almost profitable. Amazon ads continue to completely elude me. I recently came across a post that might change that: a guide for Amazon Ads in 2026. It puts a lot of advice in one place, and I’ve already started experimenting with some of them. I’ve been able to generate sales, but the cost per click for the popular terms means I don’t see a profit.
I have this terrible suspicion that I’m missing something obvious. Or maybe something not so obvious. I’ve been at this for a while now, and once all three books in Wayland’s Hammer publish by the end of August, I’ll have published fifteen books. One would think I could figure out how to generate a profit by now.
Sales are similar to Red Flag Warning.
Audiobook Update
I had recorded one chapter from Duty of Prisoners using my wife’s Shure microphone. The result isn’t ready for prime time, but it served as a good test subject. I worked with various Logic Pro plugins like Compressor and AdLimit to try to produce a recording that would pass ACX’s requirements. Unlike the last time I did this, ACX now has a website that lets you test your recordings.
After several attempts, I finally managed to produce a recording that ACX said met their standards. I think that’s a huge milestone! And in doing so, I learned more about the Logic Pro interface. It’s very, very different from Adobe’s Audition. Fortunately, I think I like Logic Pro’s philosophy better. At least, it feels more natural to me. I’m glad I switched.
Summer Foovay continues to make more progress recording The Sword of Sirius Book 2: Collapse Zone. She’s up to chapter twenty-one now (out of thirty-six). So she’s making great progress! I need to hurry up and learn Logic Pro if I want to catch up.
I need to clean out my garage to make space for that portable recording studio I bought. That’s going to take a while, so I have no firm plans for when I’ll try to record Dreams of Deucalion. Or, if Wayland’s Hammer sells well, I might start with it. I’m not sure. That’s going to be a long term investment.
Progress Against Last Week’s Goals
Here’s how I did against last week’s goals:
- Write four new chapters in The Fissure Kings Book 1: Semele’s Lament: Done!
- Monitor Summer Foovay’s recording progress for The Sword of Sirius Book 2: Collapse Zone: Ongoing!
- Monitor the sales numbers for the Duty of Prisoners during the promotion period: Ongoing!
Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2026 Week 29
Here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:
- Write four new chapters in The Fissure Kings Book 1: Semele’s Lament
- Monitor Summer Foovay’s recording progress for The Sword of Sirius Book 2: Collapse Zone
- Monitor the sales numbers for the Duty of Prisoners during the promotion period
- Re-record the first chapter of Duty of Prisoners and confirm that I can engineer it to meet ACX’s requirements
- Keep experimenting with Amazon ads and try to have a profitable week
What Do You Think?
Was there some kind of perspective you had to adopt to figure out marketing? If so, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!