Hi! I know it has been a busy week for me considering I am doing lesson plans and training at my daycare job (Not to mention I haven’t even got started on doing my taxes yet…gulp!). But I decided that I wanted to start the new year off by creating some new deadlines when it comes to finishing Courtney’s Redemption. I know that deep down, I had to be realistic about my writing deadlines when it came to completing the book. I am pretty sure that I would have fully completed it if I had just turned it into a full length novel already but I will not dwell on the past. Have to keep moving forward right?
Anyways, after thinking about this long and hard, I came up with at least five different deadlines to complete Courtney’s Redemption by the end of this year.
April 9th, 2023
June 18th, 2023
August 28th, 2023 (My Birthday!)
October 9th, 2023
November 10th, 2023
I am pretty sure I will be able to complete this book between June and August of this year. As of me writing this, I am currently on chapter eight of this book and have already established a range of ten to thirteen chapters for me to complete this book. Considering my books have a word count range of 60,000 to 65,000 words (240 to 260 pages), I have no doubt that I will be meeting my deadline very soon. For any of you who might be wondering if my book is on the short end, it is. Normally, the word count to my books would have to be closer to 80,000 to 90,000 words for a science fiction romance novel if I wanted to do a traditional book publishing deal.
But considering I am self-publishing, I can do what I want.
Hi! Dominique Gibson is back with another post. As I am working on the latest edition of The Gibson Newsletter, I decided to make this announcement on my blog considering I am going to be so busy working on my newsletter and the latest draft of ‘Courtney Redemption’ and a few other things that need my attention. Anyways, considering how much of a struggle it has been for me to keep doing newsletters every month due to my conflicting schedule with my full-time job, I have decided to do the newsletters six times a year (Every two months). Here is how the schedule will go.
January/February 2023
March/ April 2023
May/June 2023
July/August 2023
September/October 2023
November/December 2023
I think this schedule will work a lot better for me considering it will give me more time to think about the content I want to present to you coming from the author’s perspective. The topic for the January/February issue is a really good topic that authors and readers should explore. If you want a copy of it, please feel free to sign up for my email list down below.
As you can see, I have introduced a new logo that you will be seeing in the new Gibson newsletter for the new year. I think it’s looks pretty neat. One final change I wanted to mention is that my newsletters will start becoming shorter from now on. Instead of the extra content I have been doing for the last three years, I will be posting articles about some of the things that I am passionate about or which grabs my attention at the moment. I will be posting some things that are related to my own work as well but I will also post some things that are happening in the publishing world in addition to what readers are reading now a days, the latest trends, etc.
I hope you will enjoy my newsletter this month and for the coming months afterwards. See you soon.
I did it again. I signed up and entered in the Romance Includes You Mentorship program this year. I will never forget when I did this back in 2019. I had prepared my submission to be entered into the ‘Romance Includes You’ Mentorship. It was for writers in the United States and Canada who dreamed of becoming a Harlequin author. The winner was going to receive a $5,000 dollars to sign a contract with Harlequin and to be mentored by someone on the Harlequin team for an entire year. Within that year, the winner will be able to publish a category romance with Harlequin. The contest was open to unpublished and self-published authors who are not represented by a commercial publisher or agent.
I wanted the opportunity to be published with Harlequin so I submitted the story to them. Then, that’s when I got the disappointing news: I didn’t win. I wasn’t offered the contract or mentorship I wanted. I was devastated. But I was happy for the winner. Since then, I waited for the opportunity to come around again. If you check out my prior posts on my website, you will see I mostly reviewed books by Harlequin authors. I can’t help it, I love being a romance reader and writer and Harlequin did that for me back when I was little.
Now fast forward to 2023 where the opportunity to become a Harlequin author has presented itself once again. Despite the fact that I have three self-published books out into the world…and despite the fact that I love writing the Truson S.E.T. Series with all of my heart, I still have that burning desire I cannot shake no matter what I do.
To become a hybrid author. To continue to self-publish and write for Harlequin at the same time.
I know what you are probably thinking: But wait a minute Dominique, you can achieve a lot more success, money, and freedom when it comes to you self-publishing. All you have to do is give it a couple of years and I’m pretty sure you will achieve what you mostly desire.
Or: Dominique, you are giving self-publishing a bad name when you do this. Don’t you know that there are authors like you who have achieved thousands and even millions of dollars just by self-publishing?
Yes. I am aware of all of this. I could easily continue to self-publish my work and not even consider traditional publishing because of the low royalties I would get or the rights the publishing company would take away from me once I sign on the dotted line and give my book away. Yes, I am aware of this but guess what?
I don’t care.
For me, I don’t do writing because of the money. I have heard about publishing companies paying authors very little money for the hard work and dedication they put into their work. I m aware of it and it sucks. But, the reason why I decided to try again with this mentorship is because I love reading their novels and hoped to one day write for them. I have a full time job that pays the bills right now so I am not too worried about my writing on the money side. No, for me, I want to enjoy my life writing stories that I love to read and write about without having to worry about money in the process.
Isn’t that what it’s supposed to be about at the end of the day? I don’t know, you tell me.
That’s it. That’s all I have for now. Just wanted to rant for a little bit before I go back to writing my next masterpiece. See ya soon.
