R.M. Gauthier's Blog, page 2

Launch Day!

If there is anything more nerve wrecking I'm not sure what it would be. This day was hard. Although, I have to say instead of sitting around watching my page collect dust, I went out for the day, almost forgetting about the campaign. Almost.All of this was sadly noted the next morning when I saw my 34 page views and no hot & trending hours. It's a sobering sight. I started panicking, self-doubt running amuck. My book is not good enough, no one likes my cover or blurb ect…After stewing in self-pity for an hour and pretty much giving up hope. (After one day of campaigning I might add) I decided to do something about it. I just wasn't sure what that should be. I had looked into FB & Twitter ads previously but wasn't sure how effective they would be for what I wanted to accomplish. So, I returned to my Headtalker campaign and was surprised to see I had 15 out of the 25 supporters I needed and I had done nothing to gain those supporters.So where did they come from? Headtalker themselves. To start with they all support your campaign, which in fact, gives you 6 supporters right out of the gate. And it would seem that more people follow them. This was quite a surprise to me and knowing that I only had to get a minimum of 10 more supporters seemed obtainable to me. So I put out a few links on twitter, supported a few other campaigns and reached 20 within an hour. I highly recommend Headtalker, especially if you have minimal social media outlets.When I saw my numbers for Day 2, I was pleasantly surprised to find 54 page views, no Hot & trending yet, but I wasn't worried. After seeing the page views go up I knew with a little more effort I may even get on the coveted H&T list.So that night was spent finding FB groups that would allow me to advertise my campaign. I found half a dozen or more. (Who knew?)I was already a member of Kboards, which by the way if you are planning on running a campaign, the threads on Kboard are a tremendous help & support. Highly recommend being a member there.Such a learning curve this campaign is for new Indie Authors. I highly recommend it for people who have no platform and no idea how to grow an audience. The lessons I'm learning even this early in the campaign are invaluable.Till next time, when a miracle worker comes on board to help with my campaign!LINKS:KBoardsKindle Scout experiences, anyone?Headtalker & Thunderclap supportHeadtalkerhttps://headtalker.com/Thunderclaphttps://www.thunderclap.it/Facebook Groupshttps://www.facebook.com/groups/NominationHotspothttps://www.facebook.com/groups/kindlereaderHope this helps anyone thinking of campaigning.

MY KINDLE SCOUT EXPERIENCE

 I wrote the book, but after getting involved in the marketing aspect, I knew I was in trouble. I had no platform to speak of. Sure, I had family & friends like everyone else, but honestly, no one I knew owned a kindle. A few family members owned Kobo's, but for the most part, my group of supporters are NOT readers. At all. Getting them to read my stuff is like pulling teeth. Go figure. So when I looked at marketing my novel, I knew I was in for a rude awakening. Enter Kindle Scout. When I began

Marketing Your Book

  So you're ready to market your book. Where, when and how will you accomplish this? That's the million dollar question that's on every persons mind no matter the business you are in. And let's be clear, writing is a business whether we are reluctant to think about our writing that way or not.   And just like everyone else out there… I JUST WANT TO WRITE MY STORIES! But, if I just wrote stories and no one ever saw or read them, where would the fun be in that, which leads us back to that dreaded

Article

Here's a link to an article I did an interview for over at The Writers' Lens. Hope you enjoy!   http://www.thewriterslens.com/2016/01...

Designing the Interior

  When I first started researching how to format the interior of my novella for both print and kindle the consensus was it would take hours, even days. From everything I had read or watched (thanks YouTube) let me know that the process would be difficult and that my file would most likely be rejected a couple of times before success would be had. I admit, I was intimated when I began. Fortunately, Smashwords provided a style guide with step by step instructions, which put me on the right path.

Novella Release

Finally I have published my debut Novella, which will be available at many bookstores and Amazon soon. (details will be available as soon as possible) Below is the realeas for the book. Enjoy!    

Book Covers

  Wow! Just Wow. When I first looked into self-publishing, I knew it would be a journey, but I failed to realize just how long that journey would take. It's incredible the amount of work that goes into creating your masterpiece, which eventually will become your book.   So the writings down, the editing done and you have a book ready for the world to see… wrong. The manuscript is finished and your dreams of having a bound book in your hands are just beginning. There are so many decisions to be

Preparing to Publish

Well, here I am again, a couple of months after my last blog and my writing career has been moving along. Maybe not a quickly as I hoped it would, but I'm still writing and enjoying it.   At the moment, I'm editing my first novel, which was written 5 years ago. I have sent it out to about 20 agents, but no interest as of yet. That brings me to now and after some deliberation I've decided to publish it myself. For the past several months I have been researching how to self publish and now I am

M.I.A

So, as you can tell I'm a horrible procrastinator. Starting this blog was the easy part. Writing everyday... not so much. But, I will try to keep up.   First, I wanted to let you know that I entered the Screen Craft Short Script contest with my short called Dreams. The result... nothing. Didn't even make it in the top 100. I was devastated! Well, not really. It was my first contest and I'm just feeling my way around that world. There are a couple of more that have peeked my interest, but I'm not

Day One

When it was suggested to me to document my writing I shrugged thinking why would anyone want to know, see or hear about how I write. It was also suggested to set up a camera to film myself as I write and I thought, yeah right... as if! I've since changed my mind about sharing the process. No, I won't be filming myself, but yes, I'm going to share my experience of writing as it unfolds. If for no other reason than to look back in a year and see how far I've come... or not! LOL    One year is how