Happy Friday, everyone! May your day be filled with lots of sunny goodness, preferably the non-sunburn-inducing sort.
Moving right along to my first topic: Goodreads Giveaways. There are mixed feelings about Goodreads Giveaways amongst the self-publishing community, because apparently a lot of authors who send out free copies of their books via the giveaway never hear from the winners again, or get the reviews they’re hoping for.
That wasn’t my experience at all, I’m pleased to say. I held the giveaway back in April, and the two ladies who won the contest were very sweet. They responded promptly to my messages querying them about their addresses, and how they wanted the books signed to them, and they’ve both now posted reviews up on Goodreads and Amazon. Maybe I just hit the jackpot with these winners, but I’d definitely say it was a good experience overall.
The giveaway also resulted in approximately 463 people adding Imminent Danger to their to-read list. Now, this might not translate into sales (I still haven’t received my first sales report from iUniverse, lol), but it at least puts my book on the radar, which is pretty decent. I can only hope that one day, in the distant fog of the future, someone will look at the their to-read list, see Imminent Danger, think “Heck with it”, and download that puppy so fast it grows up into an adult dog and starts barking at everyone with wild abandon.
Oh yes, and I’m going to be holding another Goodreads Giveaway starting tomorrow, so keep an eye out for that! Only one book up for grabs this time, but I did open up the competition to include Australia, so … yeah. Woo!
Once more unto the vlog …
One of the aforementioned ladies who won the Goodreads Giveaway mentioned that I should post some sort of pronunciation guide on my website for my book. The problem, of course, is that Imminent Danger is sci-fi, so there are assorted silly-named aliens and planets and technology and whatnot parading around. I’ve decided to one-up her request and create a vlog about pronunciation, partially because it’s a lot easier to figure out pronunciation if you hear it, rather than trying to sound it out phonetically, and partially because it was recently brought to my attention that I haven’t done a vlog in ages.
On with the show! (Note: If the lighting fluctuates wildly, blame Youtube — they decided to “fix” my video.)
Unrelated image of the day:
Source: http://i.imgur.com/uyfMvxD.jpg
Michelle Proulx - Author 
Woo hoo for us in the land of Oz! I’ll be entering for sure!
Excellent! I’ll post a link tomorrow so you don’t have to go trekking across half the internet to find it 🙂
Yay for success with the Goodreads giveaway! 🙂
Huzzah!
Congrats on the Giveaway results. Love your delivery in the video too.
Ha thanks 🙂
Hahahaha…hahahahaha.. [in tears laughing]
Michelle, you are funny as heck! 🙂
~ Michelle ‘Blu’
Thanks 🙂 I try, lol.
Glad to hear that, it gives me more confidence about my own giveaway. And I think I might just sign up for yours as well. =)
Excellent! Here’s a link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17246542-imminent-danger
The Goodreads giveaways seem like a great way to get your book out there on people’s radar, like you mentioned. Thanks for giving us the inside scoop.
Also, the Darth Vader – Flo graphic is fantastic. 🙂
No problem 🙂 And isn’t it??? I love anything to do with / making fun of Star Wars.
I did the Goodreads Giveaway for my little book as well, and it garnered more than 500 entries, and the 5 people that won have givens positive, though not ecstatic reviews. I’ll take it. And I’ll be entering your giveaway as well.
That’s good to hear! Hey, every review doesn’t need to be stellar — if they all are, people are like, “Well, that’s a little bit suspicious, not EVERYONE can possibly love this book …”. Here’s a link to the giveaway: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17246542-imminent-danger
Awesome VLOG. Haven’t read the book yet but I will (especially if I win the Goodreads giveaway) and the pronunciations will DEFINITELY help! Out of curiosity, how’d you come up with so many original names? I have a hard enough time coming up with average people names! The graphic is hilarious by the way!!
Thanks 🙂 Here’s a link to the giveaway … http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17246542-imminent-danger
As for the names … hmm. Mostly I draw inspiration from the world around me. For example, Varrin’s last name — Gara’dar — I came up with because I was driving through a really big suburb and we were surrounded by garage doors, and I was like, “Garage door … garage door .. gara-door … hey, gara’dar would make a pretty good name!” Etc. 🙂
That’s awesome how you came up with gara’dar! I’ve done that too sometimes but was curious to hear if you had some methodology I should know about 🙂 ha ha. Thanks Michelle and thanks for the link. I’m heading over there now to sign up! 🙂
You are fearless, and I fully expect to find you acting in a television series one day. As always, great vlog!
Lol, I feel sorry for whatever director ends up with me. They’d be like “Okay, now your sister just died, act really sad,” and I’d keep cracking a smile because my “sad” face involves pouting and doesn’t look very sad at all.
Michelle Proulx… This. Is. Epic! 🙂
Excellent! I wasn’t sure people would enjoy it, as it’s mostly just me reading off names, lol. But yay!
Whaaaat? Both my lady and I think you’re pretty hilarious, and your video was great!
Excellent! In that case, I shall film myself day and night, flood the internet with my videos, and thus conquer the internet.
We look forward to it, Michelle Proulx, conqueror of the Interwebz!
I’m going to admit something. I TOTALLY thought that Doc T was a female when i read the book. xD I have NO IDEA where I got that, since apparently it is a he, but I just thought I would let you know. 🙂
Interesting!!! Hmm … I’m trying to remember if I ever assigned him a pronoun … I feel like I called him a “he”, but I could have just as easily called him an “it”, which would leave his gender open to interpretation. I guess I think of cold, ruthless doctors as male, and you think of them as female 😀
Right?? I’m like, oh gosh, what does that even say about me? XD But I thought it was interesting too. x)
I’m so thrilled that you did this video because Daniel and I have argued the pronunciation of Varrin into the ground. Pleased to announce . . . I was right. My only issue is with Ssrisk and only because I have a lisp, so it it sound like Thrithk when I say it! Okay, not really so dramatic, but I frown anytime I had to say it, LOL.
Hahaha aww I’m sorry! I didn’t even think of that! I’ll try to name fewer characters in future books with S sounds 🙂 As for Varrin … how did Daniel think it was pronounced? My aunt calls him Vah-reen, because she’s French … is his close to that?
No his pronunciation was Var (pronounced like car/bar/star). Every time he said it I would laugh and tell him he said it wrong, but he’d just say that’s how he saw it written. I told him the double “r” should’ve been a hint. Oh well. I win!
I’ve also heard Varrrr-in. I think it’s just that different people have different ideas of how things are pronounced For example, I say al-mond, whilst my friends say all-mond. Actually, that’s a bad example. Clearly I am correct!!!
Loved your vlog. Great idea to show readers how to pronounce the names of your characters and you’re just adorable 🙂
Hahaha thanks. I realized I forgot a couple of names after I posted it, but … ah well. Gotta keep a little of the mystery alive, right? 😀
Good forum posts. Kudos!
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