📋 Here’s the July report!
A lot in progress, plus a new release! 😁
I’ve highlighted the projects that had changes in blue.
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Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). On hold while working on The Dark Forest of Aneth. Next step is to merge the two revised drafts and start writing the missing scenes.
Deceived #3: On hold. Needs revisions. Tentatively titled Exposed.
Future steps: Input Isaac’s notes from Deceived #5 (formerly #4) into the manuscript, revise Deceived #5, and revise #6 (formerly #5) before handing it to Isaac for his feedback.
Dossiers (Deceived Spin-off): On hold. Next step is a revision round which involves incorporating notes into the manuscript.
Multiverse Chronicles (Distant Horizon Universe Spin-off): On hold. Next up is adding the missing scenes, doing a read-through for revision smudge, and then a read-aloud with Isaac. Then it’s off to beta-readers!
Little One (Distant Horizon Prequel): Last time I was up to chapter six with light revisions, and at this point I’m still at chapter six with the lighter revisions (I did do another pass of that chapter, however), but chapter three has been polished and sent to the newsletter, and chapter four has been through ProWritingAid edits and was scheduled to go out with the August 2nd newsletter.
TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). On hold. Next step is to write the outline and reread the first three books.
The Dark Forest of Aneth (A Legends of Cirena short novel): Got my notes from the Kindle Paperwhite read input! Afterward, I had Claude Fable do an “ARC reader/developmental editor” pass to help me catch remaining issues. I’ve started the next step, which is to review those suggestions and input the ones I agree with. Then it’ll be time to give it a polish and send it out to beta-readers.
Other Goals: Revisit the book cover concept. Create a blurb. Polish the related poem/ballad so it can be included as back matter.
The Ruins of Amixthael (The Gryphon and the Mountain Bear Spin-Off): On hold. Next step is to revise the chapters of the secondary character, then merge the two drafts together.
Future goals: Polish cover. Create blurb.
Untitled LoC Short Story (Standalone – Merchant in Reveratch): On hold. Next step is revisions.
Goals: Figure out a title. Create book cover and blurb. Polish the related poem/ballad so it can be included as back matter.
Untitled LoC Novella (Standalone – Twins in Ferta): Continued the process of writing a chapter, using ProWritingAid for edits, and then using Claude for review and checking plot progress. Last time I was at chapter twenty-seven sent to the newsletter with the draft at 60,000 words. Now I’m at chapter twenty-nine sent to the newsletter and roughly 66,500 words. (Finally wrote a chapter that had been eluding me… yay!)
I also discussed possibilities of future plots points regarding the Litkanston War era with Isaac, since those are directly tied in to this story arc, and began developing detailed ideas of Lord Nomca’s backstory.
Next step is to continue writing the rough draft.
The Wind Mage and the Wolf Spin-Off (Joran’s Story – A Legends of Cirena short story) : On hold. Needs the rest of the fight scene cross-referenced.
Goals: Edit in ProWritingAid, read-aloud, proofread. Book cover and blurb.
Fae (Huntress 3): RELEASED! 😀
After seven years of waiting, the ebook of book three is now available!
Got the final chapter written that Isaac suggested, plus made a few other adjustments based on the read-aloud. Did the ebook formatting and printed out the story for one final proofreading pass. Updated Huntress and Changeling backmatter and got that uploaded, plus set Huntress at 99 cents for Fae’s launch and will keep it that price through August.
I used Claude Fable to help me rework the blurb I was having issues with (mostly by me explaining the section I was having a problem with, then having Fable suggest what might be the problem… which is how I finally landed on a version I liked much better).
I added in the special effects I was wanting on the cover, then used Claude to pinpoint the remaining issue I was having with the Fae cover and make suggestions for improvement. The change I chose to make was to adjust the flute’s color to make it stand out better, and I’m much happier with the result. (All image work done in Photoshop CS6).
I also got the pre-order links up early and updated the Infinitas Publishing website with the information for Fae, and set up a couple paid newsletter promos for Huntress. (Tried for a BookBub, but didn’t set up the discount right, so I didn’t get it. Oh well. Maybe next time). I also redid the promo sheet to make it easier for me to start keeping track of paid promotions again.
Next step is to format the print edition.
Horse Shifter Romantasy 🐎: On hold. Next step is to start drafting from the outline.
Dark Romantasy Idea: On hold. I need to finish writing the synopsis (currently 4,000 words).
Writers of Warrensburg Anthology – All four of the other anthology short stories were edited and returned on time! Next step is to complete the edit based on the feedback for my story.
Other Stories: The YA Alien Invasion/Dystopian short story is on hold.
Poetry (?!): Nothing new this month
Game Design:
Phalanx: I got the blog post up about the digital edition of Phalanx! It’s also linked on the Phalanx and Extras page of the Infinitas Publishing website.
I still need to get a photo showing all of the pieces for the mousepad edition.
Elemental Card Game: On hold. Needs a lot of playtesting because the rules weren’t finalized before I started tinkering with a digital edition.
Legends of Cirena Tabletop Game: I had Claude Fable implement a lot of mechanics for the digital version of this game, mostly in implementing the base rules and then intended expansions, to the point where the game is mostly playable but still missing a few key mechanics. There’s one more expansion to add, and then playtesting. (And I need to see if those expansions had art already or if that still needs to be drawn).
Battle Decks: I had Claude Fable make some tweaks that made the digital game considerably more playable, which meant more playtesting got done, though it’s not quite ready to move forward. Once the base mechanics are working I’ll look into trying to get a mobile version functioning properly.
Anchor: I need to get a landing page for it set up on the Infinitas Publishing website.
Fantasy RPG Productivity App: On hold.
Cozy Fantasy Pet Sim: On hold. Adult creature lineart needs cleaned up and added to game, and juvenile creature art needs adjustments. I still need to add my own flavor text as well.
KROWN Assessment: This is a personality quiz for the Huntress universe. A while back I had Claude code a basic version of the in-person quiz Isaac and I did at last year’s GeekUP convention. This month I had Claude Fable revise the code and add details that the previous model was having trouble with. I had Isaac look at the result, which functions nicely now. I want to do a bit more testing before I release it, but it should be about ready.
AI Usage and Policy: No new updates. Detailed usage is in this report.
Marketing and Admin:
- Had Claude develop an author/series analysis of my published books to help me recognize patterns I wasn’t familiar with and predict future patterns I might want to keep an eye out for. One pattern that stuck out was a tendency for books in a series to get longer and more complicated the deeper they got into a series, which is where series often stalled for new releases.
- I tried developing a “publisher advisory team” with Claude that would analyze the previously mentioned analysis from the point of view of an editor, a reader, a publicist, etc, but I don’t think I’ve really got that working very smoothly. Mostly it found the same things as the original analysis… and said to finish the series that are already open. (I mean, it wasn’t wrong, but I was hoping to learn something new).
- I continued using Claude to conduct Amazon price checks for my permafree books and automatically draft an email to send to KDP support whenever one showed up as no longer free. I switched this to weekly to catch the frequent changes. So far, it seems this has been helping me keep up with the permafree books (The Wind Mage of Maijev and Whispers in the Code).
- Got BookFunnel subscribers downloaded and added to their respective newsletters.
- Continued doing a weekly/bi-weekly review of my Infinitas Publishing-related progress using Claude. This has been super helpful keeping me on task, or very close to it.
- I’m up-to-date with accounting! (This one makes me so happy…)
- Newsletters all went out as planned! (Well, there was a technical glitch which resulted in one email going out a day late, but mostly this proceeded as intended).
- I had Claude Fable review Dossiers, Exposed… and the rest of the Deceived series drafts, Merto’s prequel story from the Wishing Blade universe, as well as the horse shifter romantasy outline.
- I had Claude Sonnet 5 pull my BookFunnel promo stats and review them for patterns. The clicks have been lower than what I would like. So I did a test round of sending out a second email of the monthly promo highlights to the newsletter I hadn’t yet sent them to (but with anyone who had already seen the other email removed from the second send). So far, the results are positive, so I plan to try the same technique this month. Previously I had been sending the monthly promo highlights out every other month to each list. I’m also keeping an eye on which banners subscribers seem most interested in.
- CliftonStrengths Test! I’ve been wanting to do the CliftonStrengths 34 test ever since getting my top 5 results a few years ago. I finally bribed myself that if I completed work on Fae by a particular day, I could go ahead and purchase the test. (The bribe worked. Yay!) Anyway, I input my list into Claude to compare my writing/publishing processes, and now I’ll see if I can use the new insights to improve what I’m working on.
- Finally reviewed Google Search Console analytics using Claude in order to see if the weekly blog posts repurposed from the newsletter are drawing in new reader traffic. Doesn’t appear to be the case (and actually, older posts specifically on writing processes seemed to be bringing in more search traffic). For now I’ll continue doing the newsletter blog posts because I enjoy them, and because I don’t have any measurements to test for whether or not readers who are already here (Hi, reader!) are sticking around for them.
- I finally figured out how to add alt text to images in ebooks. I think I successfully updated the Huntress series. However, other ebooks will need alt text added as I go through and update their backmatter.
- I ran the Claude CoWork task to review September BookFunnel promos. Those have now been chosen and scheduled as a newsletter send and blog post.
Next up: Review and update book prices; watch Book Blurb Magic course on books with multiple POVs, review a social media and newsletter email PDF I bought. Continue updating the design of individual Infinitas Publishing book pages and adding metadata. Continue adding books to the Stripe store for direct sales (alternately, review new BookFunnel feature offering Square sales?). Overhaul book categories, keywords, and blurbs.
Crafting Your Fictional World: On hold during July, but we’re now in the works of determining the date and time for the August presentation.
Repurposing Old Newsletter Content:
I think the July posts were mostly scheduled close to their post days rather than ahead of time, but they all went live as intended. I did pull more content for the Distant Horizon Universe blogs, though, and got the first August one scheduled.
- Blast from the Past – My Top 3 Most Memorable YA Sci-Fi from 2019 (DHU)
- Cover Process for The Wind Mage and the Wolf (WBU)
- The Mysterious Time Stones… (DHU)
- Choosing a title for “The Trial of Bells and Blood (WBU)
Events: No events in July. A Crafting Your Fictional World presentation is planned for August.
SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Finished the formatting project for the indie press! It’s uploaded for them, and now all that remains is to upload a minor revision that includes the ASIN, as well as the age categories that KDP is asking for. Otherwise, it’s complete!
Additionally, I did a printing job for a friend, which was fun because I got to pull out the specialty paper. (11×17 luster metallic! 5×7 polar matte cardstock! Whee!)
Future Goals: Update the SBibbPhoto website to incorporate Daz work and fix the SEO information. Finish designing cute mascot for a local store. Finish editing photos for a local Aikido group.
SIFlint Art: The stickers came in! I restocked merch at Black Ice Comics.
Here’s the new bag hoarding dragon sticker:
Daz PA: Pretty good back catalogue sales, though not specifically due to the Quick Grab and Outlet Store slots. I still intend to continue submitting to those sales promotions.
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Happy writing and reading (Or 3D rendering if you’re into Daz)! 🙂
Stephanie Flint - Author and Artist 