Read about this week’s progress by P. H. Solomon with The Unseen Hand and other projects.

Hello and Happy Friday to everyone! PH here with a weekly progress report. This weekly post is meant to keep me honest about how much I’m doing as well as keep readers informed. As such, the post format may change as some projects progress or roll off the active list due to completion. Regardless, my intention is to keep everyone informed of progress on various items, especially new books up to release. Let’s get started!

The week was unusually busy for me. There was an online conference I attended. Likewise, I had several follow-up appointments. The house phone (yes, I still have one of these) went dead and needed repairs. Other repairs were needed which took services visiting the house. All these distractions and more took up valuable time. I’m almost ready to stay up into the wee hours of the morning and work on project because it’s quiet. Victor Hugo used to do the same thing so maybe I should try it!

The Unseen Hand

The good news is I worked on editing this book everyday and made significant progress. I completed most of the work on the epilogue adventure. The bad news is the work took longer by several days than expected – distractions. Still, I made significant strides with the book and that’s a win for the week.

Next week will provide a more solid picture of how soon I expect to be finished with the book as I take on the first case. On the plus side of revising this case, it’s already been significantly edited, so I expect to move quickly with further revision as I update the book with newer elements to the story and the series. Fingers are crossed regarding the progress, but I’ve cleared up a lot of appointments and broken things around the house.

A Charm in the Hand

As noted last week, this book needs to be polished for review by my editor to have a hope of getting published this year. I’ve made progress on it every day this past week so I expect to complete the immediate work on it this upcoming week and send it off to my editor. If all goes well, that book should be back within a month or so and be awaiting revision once The Nine Jewel Heist is completed. Just finishing the current phase of work on this title is significant and will free more time for TUH and other projects. Expect this project to roll off the weekly report for a while and that’s a good thing!

Miscellaneous Projects

Foremost on my list of these projects is upgrading this website with a new theme as well as some advanced bells and whistles. The other main concern is launching the Archer’s Aim Press imprint.

1. I toyed with hiring WordPress to handle the site upgrade. I dropped a proverbial line in the water to get a quote on the work. It turns out this work is very expensive, and with all the recent repairs around the house, the project falls back to me rolling out the improvements. I have created several bite-sized projects to space out the work so it can have several functional plateaus on which to rest. A more gradual approach will create additional time for book production.
2. The imprint saw probably my most effective progress this past week. I addressed several bottlenecks in my understanding of developing the imprint such that I’m free to push forward on several fronts at once. This change in outlook about developing the imprint led to an updated project list and several details being quickly addressed.

• • Registered ISBNs will be purchased as soon as my latest royalty payment arrives tomorrow.
  • A business card design was completed and a box was ordered.
  • Design plans for the imprint website are being addressed (it won’t be that extensive as I plan to keep it rather simple and straightforward).
  • I’m prepared to push forward with print production of books on Ingram and hope to advance re-publishing The Bow of Destiny in paperback from Ingram (there’s already an edition, but I used a free ISBN and need to re-published with one owned by the imprint).

I’ll share briefly about the additional steps in upcoming weeks as I address them, but I foresee this imprint project making very steady strides for a while and being completed in time to help bolster the release of The Unseen Hand over the summer.

There’s no update from Podium at this time. I don’t know how long the evaluation will be, but it could be several weeks before I know something. If the result is positive, I’ll share ASAP.

Here’s the past post about the subject for those who are interested:

The Unseen Hand submitted to my audio publisher, Podium Audio

That’s all for the week that was. I hope readers get an idea of what it’s like for a self-publishing author, let alone any author. It’s always busy since this post doesn’t cover the rest of what needs my attention, as well as my health concerns.

Thanks for stopping by the site today and reading this post. Please leave your thoughts in the comments section. Like what you’re reading? Feel free to follow this site, you can even view the site from the WordPress reader app. Looking for more information? I’m growing a text club for faster, shorter announcements and exclusive specials. You can also join me in Marston’s Station, my private fan group on Goodreads where you can read about more non-public development news and additional exclusive special deals. Look for me at these additional sites too. There are plenty of ways to follow and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

When will the next volume of The Cursed Mage Case files arrive? Find out in this week’s Archer’s Aim progress report.

Hi all! PH here with a progress update for the week. This is a new series for me as I detail some of what I’m doing each week. It’s a way for me to keep myself going by posting each week. The update format will likely change over time until I’m comfortable with the feel of the posts. Now for what happened this week.

This Week With The Unseen Hand

The Unseen Hand cover is ready and waiting for the book release.

This week, I took a long look at where I am with The Unseen Hand. This review was helpful as I dug into how long it will take me to complete the next volume of The Cursed Mage Case Files. I started by estimating how many days each section of the book would take to revise plus copy editing, formatting and other preparation details. This assessment was very honest and I arrived at a mid-June completion date of everything up to formatting.

As a result of this appraisal, I’m giving myself until at least mid-August for release. It’s a soft date that could slide closer or further out based on my progress, especially over the next several weeks. If progress is faster, then release will be sooner. The closer I get to a finished book, the better I can determine when to set the release date. I think I should have a pretty good idea of the date within a few weeks.

Why am I being conservative with the release date? The last release was done with about thirty or forty-five days lead. There were quite a lot of details that were not finished and then I contracted Covid several weeks before the launch and haven’t been the same since. As a result, The Order of the Dark Rose didn’t get the proper release it should have gotten and, while it has sold well over the last year and a half plus, it could have been better with a more robust release. I’m planning to release The Unseen Hand with a broader plan. Advanced release copies will be available and more blog posts for the series will be written. I may even complete a growing series companion. There are other plans for promotion that need my attention so I need appropriate time to build toward the release.

This Week With Other Writing Projects

Place holder image for A Charm in the Hand, Book 1 of The Black Glove

What else happened this week? I also reviewed where I stand with The Nine Jewel Heist, Volume 3 of The Cursed Mage Case Files. Again, this book will go into in-depth revision as soon as possible after The Unseen Hand is completed. This book is intended to be launched later this year so my intention is to put myself on the clock for completing the work.

Additionally, A Charm in the Hand, Book 1 of The Black Glove, is almost ready for an editorial review. The plan is to complete that revision to send to my editor ASAP so there’s a chance to release that book this year too. It needs about 8,000 words edited which won’t take too long to complete. I’ve even gotten most of it posted to my Reedsy account where I’ll produce a draft copy for my editor. This book is much further along than it seems due to the nature of the story. I hope to share more about it over the next weeks and months and I think it will be the beginning of an entertaining series.

This Week With Miscellaneous Projects

I’m also planning an overhaul of the site with a new theme. It’s something to juggle, but this is necessary since viewing on the mobile version of the site is somewhat limited. The change is overdue so I want to push this along over the next month parallel with work on The Unseen Hand and getting A Charm in the Hand off to my editor.

Archer’s Aim Press logo

What else is going on? I’ve been planning to launch an imprint for print books this year. I’m behind on this project, so I plan to push it along. There’s some lifting to do, but it’s mainly smaller tasks for existing books. Readying the books is mainly having the imprint stood up with a basic website, obtaining ISBNs registered to the imprint, and putting these into distribution through Ingram. The goal here is to make the print books available to bookstores so there will be some marketing material to create. The goal is to possibly have it all ready for the release of The Unseen Hand and the following books.

Once The Unseen Hand is ready along with the website and the imprint, I hope to clear time to spend on outlining, world-building, and drafting books for publication next year. It’s important to make progress on several projects to free up creative time in addition to editing and revision.

The Unseen Hand is submitted to Podium Audio which could affect the entire Cursed Mage Case Files series.

Oh yeah, I’ve submitted The Unseen Hand to my audio publisher, Podium Audio. If there’s interested, this should get audio on the launching pad for all of The Cursed Mage Case Files series. If this doesn’t work out, I’ve got a few ideas for audio I’ll pursue at a later time

Otherwise, The Order of the Dark Rose is on sale at 99 cents through 4/24. I’m planning more items for listings in the merchandise store. I’m also looking into digital products for the NFT market as well as possible 3D figures. Stay tuned for these developments.

Thanks for stopping by the site today and reading this post. Please leave your thoughts in the comments section. Like what you’re reading? Feel free to follow this site, you can even view the site from the WordPress reader app. Looking for more information? I’m growing a text club for faster, shorter announcements and exclusive specials. You can also join me in Marston’s Station, my private fan group on Goodreads where you can read about more non-public development news and additional exclusive special deals. Look for me at these additional sites too. There are plenty of ways to follow and I look forward to hearing from you soon.