Dominique Gibson

Good morning ( or afternoon or evening wherever you are in the world). I know it has been a while since I last posted on my website. I have been busy doing a lot of things (not to mention me fighting a bad cough) but I did take the time and the opportunity to write this really great post.

I had found a website some months ago that mentioned side hustles and I wanted to share it with authors who are struggling to make a living off of their book sales alone (Both traditionally published and self published authors might be going through this now considering the current circumstances right now).

My advice: It’s never a good idea to depend on book sales alone to support your writing full time.

I know a lot of people will be offended by this but that’s okay. I’m willing to take the backlash from this because I have done my research on this topic and have watched numerous videos and read thousands of articles on this topic and the majority of them will tell you the same thing.

And for people who has day jobs while juggling a writing career at the same time? Another word of advice: Keep your day job until you are able to make enough money to cover ALL of your expenses on a monthly basis and have a nest egg in case of an emergency to keep yourself afloat.

But what about authors who took the leap anyway and are now struggling to keep going on a month to month basis? Well, I want to share a website that I found by Mark Dawson that will give you some ideas on the five side hustles he recommends to add some extra income to your pocket whenever you are in-between book sales. Some of the things he mentions are:

Editing and Proofreading

Cover Design

Copywriting

Teaching and

VA work

I think that having these great ideas to start with will get you an idea of what you can do to survive between book sales. Enjoy!

Mark Dawson Six Steps to Author Success

Dominique Gibson knew she wanted to be a writer ever since she sat down at her plastic table and started writing stories out of sheer boredom at eight-years-old. Several years later, she decided to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Fiction Writing from Columbia College Chicago. After pursuing a degree in Early Childhood Administration, Dominique decided to go back and pursue a degree she had always wanted: An MFA in Creative Writing which she is now pursuing at Southern New Hampshire University. For more information, Check out her website at dominiquegibsonauthor.com.

Hi! It’s been a while since I have posted on my website. I have been super busy trying my best to do my homework for my class. Another thing I have been doing lately is finishing up my courses both in Author Accelerator’s Book Coaching Course and Mark Dawson’s Ads for Authors course so that I will be able to get the ball rolling when it comes to my book coaching services and doing ads for my books. This week, I had an assignment to do when it came to marketing my books: Planning a book launch and marketing my writer’s platform. One was for a thirty day book launch, the other a monthly book launch, and the last one was for a marketing plan to promote my writing platform throughout the year. This was a very interesting exercise.

If you want to see a quick sample of what I wrote for my class assignment, you can sign up using the contact form below. Make sure that you put in the message that you want a free download of my marketing plan (or otherwise, it will be used for signing up to my mailing list and getting a free short story and NOT the marketing plan). I will admit that this exercise has given me the motivation to plan a book launch sometime this year with both the third book and the previous books as well.

While I was doing this assignment, I just happened to stumble upon a question: How soon should an author do a book launch or even hold a virtual book party? So, I searched on the internet and I found a website that talked about the differences between promotion for a self-published author vs promotion for a traditionally published author. Click on the link below for more info:

How Important is the Book Launch?

Love to chat but I have to revise Courtney’s Redemption right now. See you soon.

Dominique

Dominique Gibson knew she wanted to be a writer ever since she sat down at her plastic table and started writing stories out of sheer boredom at eight-years-old. Several years later, she decided to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Fiction Writing from Columbia College Chicago. After pursuing a degree in Early Childhood Administration, Dominique decided to go back and pursue a degree she had always wanted: An MFA in Creative Writing which she is now pursuing at Southern New Hampshire University. For more information, Check out her website at: https://dominiquegibsonauthor.com/2018/06/23/the-journey-begins/

Contact Form for Sample Marketing Tip sheet

Hi! Hope you are doing well. I just wanted to let everyone who has been following my website, subscribing to my newsletters, following me on Facebook and Twitter or even people that are researching my books know that I will be doing my first video on my YouTube Channel that is set to premiere on Monday, April 12th, 2021 at 7:00 PM central time. This video will be me basically talking about how I got started self-publishing my book in addition to promoting my books.

Come and Join me for this event:

My Introduction Video – Dominique Gibson Author

See you soon.

Dominique Gibson knew she wanted to be a writer ever since she sat down at her plastic table and started writing stories out of sheer boredom at eight-years-old. Several years later, she decided to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Fiction Writing from Columbia College Chicago. After pursuing a degree in Early Childhood Administration, Dominique decided to go back and pursue a degree she had always wanted: An MFA in Creative Writing which she is now pursuing at Southern New Hampshire University. For more information, Check out her website at https://dominiquegibsonauthor.com/2018/06/23/the-journey-begins/

Hi! I’m back. I just wanted to take the opportunity to provide a short update on the progress of the third book in the Truson S.E.T. Series called An Orman’s Allegiance.

So, I initially thought I was in the finishing stages of my latest draft with An Orman’s Allegiance when I sent my latest draft to my editor, Judy Roth, for her to give out one last final look before I was going to publish the much anticipated book some readers have been waiting for. To my surprise, I recently just received this email back from my editor last week with this message:

Hi Again,
Here back with the notes. It’s all looking good, just a few little things and another few questions on their age differences. Take a look and I think the next pass will be it for this.

As to another reader, I have two thoughts for you if you are not able to find another set of eyes and would like to have that.

1. I have people who proofread for me. This is generally cheaper than elsewhere and the good thing is I look at their work when they are done so you get their eyes and then mine again as well. The only thing is while it is cheaper than most it is still a little costly at $.011 per word or about ($657.75 for this project), give or take a bit depending on final word count.

2. The other option is I could read it all again for you as the proofreader. The downside of this is of course like you I have already read it several times so I am not a fresh set of eyes but I do know the areas to look out for so should be able to identify inconsistencies, and because I have read it before and don’t need to pay the proofreader I could do it for you for $.005 per word which would come out to about ($298.98) again give or take a bit depending on final word count.

Anyway, no pressure on any of this and you may decide you don’t need anything. I just worried because of the number of plot changes between passes. Please do let me know you received this and do send it on back for another look at your final revisions!
Best,

Judy

I was surprised to see this in my email but I knew that I wanted this story to be the best it can be. Unlike some other writers who are able to write and edit a book within a month’s time, I am a slow writer and like to take my time when it comes to writing and editing my books (Which is another reason why I only can produce two books a year, although I would love to at least try to write and publish three books a year in the future). Considering I have been low on funds when it comes to self-publishing my work, I decided to hire Judy for the proofreading services.

Which means I don’t know when the third book will be done as of right now considering it is in the proofreading stages of editing. It might be short, it might be long, who knows? All I can say right now is:

Publishing is a very slow process.

See you soon.

Dominique Gibson

P.S. Before I go, I found another article that I think all writers should be interested in reading when it comes to if an author can truly make a living by writing books alone. Check out the article down below for more information.

Traditional vs. Self Publishing: How much money can you really make?

Hi! Dominique Gibson is back with a final link on how to do a radio interview. This will be the last link I will post on how to do a radio interview for authors as I will be practicing on doing my own radio interview this Saturday, March 6th, 2021 at 1:00PM on Chat and Spin Radio. But, to support authors who needs some more tips about how to do a radio interview, click on the link below:

Tips for Author Radio Interviews

See you soon.

Dominique Gibson