Progress Update 11/08/25
The inevitable end edges ever closer. How’s that going? Let me tell you in this progress update.
Heart for the Damned is locked in, ready and waiting to be released on September 1st. I’m very excited for people to read the continuation of Arthur’s story, and I’m very proud of the path the story takes and of my improvement as a writer on a technical level. As for sales, my expectations are reasonably low. Echoes Beyond the Forest hasn’t echoed its way into the wider world, and without the novelty of Heart being my first book, I’d be surprised if it matched Echoes’ first month sales. I refuse to delve into paid ads until I have at least four books under my belt, but, as this is in my opinion, a better book and story, word of mouth may lead to stronger long-term sales and more readers feeling inclined to leave a review. No matter how well it does commercially, I’m stoked to have a second book under my name with all my effort and passion poured into it.
Will there be a third book? Yes. I am currently 2000 words into chapter 5, and now that editing Heart is done, I’m making steady progress. I can say that it will be a slightly longer book, 15 chapters if all goes to plan, but here’s the bad news… It won’t be out next year. Here’s the good news: it will be out the year after that. Sure, I could maybe rush it out by December 2026, but I believe a book will turn out best when it’s had time to bake in the oven and cool on the windowsill. I’m always improving as a writer, so being able to go back to the manuscript after a few months away has proven to be time well spent, and while book 3 is cooling down, I’ll of course be working on a fourth book.
As we come to the release of Heart for the Damned, now’s also a good time to reflect on the marketing efforts I’ve made and my social media presence in general.
Like a fish out of water, all I do is flop.
I’ve been releasing ‘poster-esc’ posts inspired by my book world recently, and while I could absolutely write a thousand words on what I was going for, what worked, and what definitely did not, I’ll just keep it brief in this post by summarising them as: not good enough.
Being ‘active’ on social media still feels like oil to my watery self, which is maybe why my reach is practically non-existent, and attempts I’ve made beyond the posters, like a cool Echoes animation I made, haven’t fared any better.
But hope is not lost! (yet)
I have a big, high effort, marketing idea I will be working on in 2026, which I’ll be working on at a relaxed pace (so it won’t ever take priority over writing book 3) with the aim for it to be something I am very proud of (unlike some of the shite I’ve uploaded to TikTok) no matter how well it does online.
What else is there? Oh yeah, I’ll be updating my website with 3 new bestiary updates this year, and I hope to add a races page to complement the existing lore pages. I’ve always wanted to do a races lore dump in the same vein as the guilds or bestiary, but I was limited by the amount of art I could make. (I could use AI and churn something out in literally a day, but then where’s the respect for artistry?) Fortunately, a time-reasonable way to create the page’s art occurred me, so I’ll be working on that post-bestiary update.
That’s all for now! Look forward to another progress update in 4-6 months. In the meantime, feel free to watch the lil Echoes animation I made. (And if u watch it 120,000 times, the next update will be ready to read!)
Thank you for reading,
Jack R. Waite
