Hi! Dominique Gibson is back with another post. I am super excited to announce that I am in the third draft of my novella Courtney’s Redemption with the added changes that were suggested by Karoline Rayne on Fiverr. There were some changes that I have already made based on her suggestions that were easy to do and then there were some that needed some major do-overs (Like the illness I had gave Evita in the book that didn’t apply to girls, only boys). I figured that the only way for me to address these changes was for me to have a physical copy of the third draft of the book (the same way as I did for the first one) so I can carry it with me whenever I am on the bus or the train to rewrite it into the fourth draft of the book without having to carry my laptop everywhere I go.
I will be sure to upload the changes that she suggested on a later post. Please be on the lookout for it real soon.
Hi! Dominique Gibson is back with another post. So, I took the opportunity to catch up on some videos on self-publishing and happened to come across a video that talks about the one thing that we all suffer from as authors: marketing. Although I am pretty sure that traditionally published authors suffer from it as well, my focus for today is all about different strategies and different ways on how indie authors can market their books. I will admit that this video came out a month ago but I still think that it’s a great video to go back and take a look at to figure out what works for different indie authors out there when it comes to marketing their books and their brand.
I just watched this video as these two wonderful ladies talk about book marketing and what strategies might work for one indie author and not another. Sara also gives out pretty good tips about tropes, genre trends and more (I especially like when she says how it’s important to write what you love instead of following what other people are doing). If you would like to check it out, feel free to click on the link above. The video is long (about and hour and twenty-eight minutes) but it’s worth watching.
Hi! Dominique Gibson is back with another post. Now, I don’t know if any of you were paying attention or missed any of my last posts I mentioned when it came to landing my dream job at the Self-Publishing School as an Author Success Coach (If you are interested in learning more, you can find out that info my clicking down below on my latest posts between me and the Self-Publishing School).
Well, I’m back. Only this time, it’s just to share my results of my overall experience when it came to this issue. So yesterday (which was Friday, September 9th, 2022), I received this email from the self-publishing school about their position on the issue:
Good Morning Dominique,
We understand your frustration and are disappointed to hear about your experience. However, you booked two time slots—one of which you booked the wrong time. with over 200 applicants, attention to detail is one of the key characteristics of the job.
Although you feel shortchanged, imagine how another applicant feels as they could also could have had the opportunity to interview and were unable to. We can agree that the communication should and will improve and we will address that internally.
We sincerely hope you consider SPS in the future as we would love to consider you in the future for other opportunities.
The SPS Team
Here was my response to their email:
Good morning,
As you stated in your earlier email, “Attention to detail is one of the key characteristics of the job”
Shouldn’t that rule also apply to your talent management as well? It shouldn’t just be with this particular job but with all jobs in general.
I can only imagine if someone else was in the same position I was in and automatically got kicked out because they switched time slots even though the calendar system you created didn’t cross it out or say it wasn’t available for that particular time at that moment.
Then on top of that decided to give the 1:15 time slot to a brand new applicant instead of taking the time to ask the simple question of if I still wanted to attend the 1:15 PM time slot that was originally given to me at first.
I see that you are are trying to cover yourselves up when it comes to this situation but it’s fine. My statement will go as follows:
“It’s always better to work for yourself than to work for other people. Why? Because you have no one to answer to but yourself.”
Good luck with all of your future endeavors. Send my best wishes to the candidate you hire in the future.
Dominique Gibson
My Overall thoughts on this situation:
I think I did a really good job when it comes to defending myself in this situation. I felt as if it was a little unfair about what went down between me and them and I was glad that I made the effort to talk about it instead of ignoring it. If I did, then they wouldn’t be able to see the error of their ways to fix the problem in the future.
“If you don’t speak up, change will never come.” I am pretty sure that is a famous quote from somewhere (Or not I don’t know) but that quote sums up what I did in this situation. I spoke up on what was wrong and even give out some hints right here on my website on what they could have done instead.
“It’s always better to work for yourself than to work for other people. Why? Because you have no one to answer to but yourself.” I believe in this quote because after this experience, I think that me working for myself vs. working under people works a lot better for me. I am seriously thinking about becoming my own book coach and helping writers on my own vs working under someone else and following their rules. This situation makes me more determined than ever to do so.
Despite the constant emails back and forth, I will give them credit for mentioning their scheduling system and saying that they need to improve their system in the future. However, I have ran into people who say this all the time but doesn’t do anything about it. I am hoping that this is not the case here.
As far as this situation goes, I am done with it. I have said my peace already and it’s over from my end. Whatever they have to say after this won’t matter anymore. I will continue to focus on other things besides what I am writing about right now (unless it’s really urgent to where I can’t help myself but to write about it here). I am in the process of rewriting my latest book, Courtney’s Redemption and finishing up other passion projects that I will share here on my website really soon.
I will see you soon. Please be sure to check back here for future posts.
Hi! Dominique Gibson is back with another blog post. Yesterday, I took to my blog post and let out my frustration about the application process I originally applied for as an Author Success Coach that they posted on their website. I applied for it once I saw the email from their newsletter about the position. Yesterday, I expressed my frustration about their whole application process and how I got kicked out without even been given the opportunity to get the zoom call or anything else. (If you want to read my whole rant about what happened in addition to when I applied for the position, you can click on those two links down below for more information).
Today, I decided to sent out an email through the email address I was given on their website and sent this email to them on September 8th, 2022 (Which is today on my end):
Hi! My name is Dominique Gibson. For the longest time, I have been an advocate for the self-publishing school. I have read Chandler Bolt’s Published and subscribed to your newsletter at your company.
Unfortunately, I am a little upset when it comes to your company and how you handled your applicants for your job search.
I had applied for a position for the Author Success Coach on your website after receiving a post about it in your newsletter. Yesterday, I received an email on Tuesday saying I was invited to do a zoom call. So, I signed up for the 1:15 PM slot, only to realize that the 1:15 PM slot wouldn’t work at the time and decided to switch it to an earlier slot (8:00AM). Unfortunately, your talent Manager at your company shot an email back saying that the time slot wasn’t available.
Unfortunately, she didn’t ask me if I wanted to keep my 1:15PM time slot. She took it upon herself to kick me off the application process altogether by stating she will consider me for the next opportunity.
That was unfair.
I feel as if I should have been given the opportunity to still keep my 1:15 PM time slot instead of being kicked out. I was still interested in the position but the way she handled it bothered me. Another thing that bothered me was when she stated she was all booked up for all the time slots when we were exchanging emails around 11:30 AM in the morning. But when I checked at 6:00PM my time, the 1:15 PM time slot I had signed up for was still there even though she lied and said all of the positions were filled.
I hope you will respond when it comes to this matter and see what you guys are going to do in the future to prevent this fromhappening.
Sincerely,
Dominique Gibson
My hope after this experience is that they will be able to respond soon when it comes to this matter and what action steps they are going to take in the future to prevent this from happening.
Hello! Dominique Gibson is back with another post. I just wanted to share with you my feelings when it comes to what happened today-Wednesday, September 7th, 2022-that has really upset me to a point where I am seriously thinking about unsubscribing from their newsletter and ranting about the level of unprofessionalism I have experienced when I signed up for the Author Success Coach position at the self-publishing school.
In case you guys are wondering what the heck I am talking about, in my last post (which you can click here for more information), I talked about the Author Success Coach being my dream job because it was everything I was looking for when it came to coaching other authors on self-publishing. Not only am I a self-published author myself, I had the liberty of coaching two other clients who also sought my help when it comes to the self-publishing process for Author Accelerator Book Coaching course. I thought this was the perfect opportunity to really showcase my skills when it came to working as a a coach for their company.
After I applied for the position, I got an email yesterday that said the following:
Congrats, Dominique!
You’ve made it to the next phaseof the hiring process for the Author Success Coach position at SPS!
In this next step, we’ll conduct 15-30 minute interviews with all qualified candidates.
If you could please click on the link to book a call for this interview that fits with your schedule.
Thank you,
Shiana Talent Development
Of course when I got the email like this, I was super excited. Unfortunately, I was at work at the time and couldn’t respond to the email right away so I waited until I went on my lunch break to sign up. Once I clicked on the link, I was taken to a screen similar to this one:
There were a lot more time slots available when I signed up so I chose the 1:15 p.m. time slot at first. Shortly after that, I received the email that I was all booked up for the time. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that my lunch break wasn’t until 1:30 PM which meant I wasn’t going to be able to make it for the 15 minute zoom call. So, I switched it to 8:00 AM central time (9am pacific time for their side) and waited.
Well, this morning I woke up with a cough and a sore throat so I decided to take the day off of work to recover. I had no intention of doing anything today…until I got this email from the talent manager at the self-publishing school:
Hi Dominique,
Regretfully, I am unable to change the time of our interview as I am fully booked this week. I will keep you in mind for the next opportunity.
Thank you for your interest!
Okay, it was fine for her to cancel the time slot for 9AM. I didn’t have a problem with that. My problem came in when she said that she would keep me in mind for the next opportunity…even though I still was signed up for the 1:15 PM slot. Apparently, She gave me the impression that she was kicking me off for good instead of asking me if I still wanted the 1:15 PM slot.
That was unfair.
So, I decided to send another email to her to clarify what she was stating in the email:
Hi!
Okay, so does that mean you are not going to consider me as a candidate for the position this go round because of the time change?
Dominique Gibson
I waited for her reply and this is what she sent me:
Yes ma’am – we had over 200 applicants and I was booked solid almost instantly. I am so sorry.
Mind you, she still didn’t check the roster to see if I was still booked for the 1:15PM time slot that I originally applied for when I signed up the first time. So with that in mind, I sent another email:
So, I guess I wasn’t even given the opportunity to get interviewed at all even though I signed up the same day I got the email?
I had originally had the appointment for 1:15 in the afternoon. If worst came to worst, I would have arranged to have the meeting done at that time but now you went from canceling me from the 9am slot to just not considering me for the position at all.
I accept your apology. I think that in the future, you should have a different calendar system where it deletes the booking time automatically once too many people sign up for that time.
Have a great day.
Dominique Gibson
Again, I was willing to let this go (After posting it here on my website). Now, this exchange back and forth happened between 11:30 and 12:00 PM central time (my time). I was more than willing to let this go until I just so happen to look up the link just to see if they were all booked up like she claimed.
And they wasn’t.
If you see in the screenshot above, the time slot for September 8th at 1:15 PM was still available…at 6:17 in the evening. What does that mean? She wasn’t going to consider the other candidates who had already signed up to choose a different slot if there wasn’t one available. On top of that, she didn’t even cancel the one I had initially signed up for like she did with me and the 9AM slot.
I am not upset about not being considered for the position itself. I am upset at the way the situation was handled. Obviously, if I were in charge of a position like this, my email would have went something like this.
Hi Dominique,
We are so happy that you have made it this far in the hiring process. Unfortunately, due to the massive number of applicants applying for the position, we have decided to hire other candidates for this position.
Thank you so much for this opportunity. We hope you will apply again in the future.
Best,
The self-publishing school
If I would have gotten an email like this, then I would be able to let it go and maybe apply again in the future. But now, I don’t know if I want to or not. I have even thought about sending an email on their website just to let them know how I felt about the situation. If it does happen, I will be sure to keep you guys posted.
