Holly Lisle's Blog, page 88

UGLY BABY free PLF-based workgroup is now LIVE

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As I promised, UGLY BABY, the free PLF-based workgroup—which will run for the next twelve months—is now live in the writing community and is open to all members. Sign in at https://howtothinksideways.com/ and get started.

There are two challenges I recommend you sign on for, and I’ll be putting up a BONUS VIDEO wash-rinse-repeat process for a free way to get your work out there and selling, doing Seed Launches as described by Jeff with my added quick turn-around for getting feedback you can use.

Write with joy, and kick ass in the next 12 months.

Holly

P.S. It’s free to all my site members. If you’re NOT a site member, that’s free too. Sign up for your account here:

https://howtothinksideways.com/join-us/registration/

P.P.S. Until Friday, we’re still on the old site. Folks sometimes have problems with the current account creation and sign-in process. If you do, go here: http://novelwritingschool.com/support/

I do all my own support right now, so you may have a wait, but I’ll get you in. — Holly

My bonuses: Last day for Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula

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If you buy Jeff Walker’s course through my affiliate link below, you will get the massive course and bonuses he’s offering, plus you will also get the following for free, FROM ME:

BONUS ONE: The UGLY WORKSHOP

My adaptation of the PLF course to work specifically for writers, put together from my working notes as I write both fiction and nonfiction and launch the work. But this is not WATCH and learn. This Is DO-AND-LEARN.

UGLY WORKSHOP includes:

Raw First Draft Mostly-Finished CREATE A WORLD CLINIC
My launch materials for the following upcoming launches: World Clinic, How To Write A Series Expansion: Modules 1-6, The Longview Series Stories 1-6, HTTS Walkthrough Completion. You’ll get these as JPEG and PDF downloads
My launch data: PDF downloads
My explanation (probably in really ugly video) of what I’m doing with each step of each launch and why
Live brainstorming—me, the other PLF owners on the board, and you—on getting YOUR launches and FICTION put together

http://productlaunchformula.com/instant.php?18601

BONUS TWO: The DO IT-USE IT CHALLENGE

If you put together an awesome product and a great launch, I will JV with you and mail MY list, promo your book on MY blog, and notify MY Twitter folks on your launch day.

http://productlaunchformula.com/instant.php?18601

BONUS THREE: DO IT-USE IT VETERANS’ LIST

Permanent, private, invitation-only email discussion list for members who, by the end of the 12-month workshop, have:

Published 3 projects (or more) that you create in this workshop. My bonus includes the step-by-step technique that will let you do this.
Built a 250 person double-opt-in mailing list (or better)
Maintained a 25% or better average open rate (this proves you’re meeting your readers’ needs by sending quality information)
Completeh three launches

At the end of 12 months, I’ll delete the UGLY WORKSHOP board, and the list will go live with ONLY the people who have used the course and done launches with it, so you’ll be working with other course veterans.

http://productlaunchformula.com/instant.php?18601

BONUS FOUR: UGLY-WORKSHOP-ONLY Live Teleconference with Jeff Walker and Me

You ask your most pressing questions about YOUR work. We’ll answer them.
And we’re going to be focusing on promoting fiction and other creative arts.

This is the LAST DAY. At 11:59PM Pacific time TODAY, the course closes for at least another year.

IF you want the course and want my bonuses, go now.

http://productlaunchformula.com/instant.php?18601

IMPORTANT: New PLF OWNERS, go to:

http://novelwritingschool.com/support/

the instant you join the course.

I NEED:

NAME: (Matches what you used when buying PLF)

BOOT CAMP USERNAME: (So I can put you into class)

EMAIL: (So I can let you know that you’ve got your bonus.)

Triage Two—The Site Move; What Will Change, How, and Why

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Ask your questions about this upcoming weekend’s site move here.

Here are the ones I already have answers for:

When will you shut down the forum and shop purchasing?

Friday evening at 10 PM.
Will we be able to buy without using PayPal when the new site is up?

Yes. I’ll have both Stripe and Authorize.net.
How will I sign into my account on the new site the first time?

Type your email address or username into the “Lost Password” box (I’ll send out the link and post it here when it’s time). Create a new—or recreate your old—password, then sign in.Passwords will NOT transfer, so you’ll need to recreate them.

Heres’ the one I don’t have the answer for:

How long will the site be unavailable?

It could be offline for a few hours, or until late at night Sunday 22nd. Even if we don’t have everything done, however, it will be up Monday morning ET. I have my triage list of what HAS to be done before we can take it live, and that will be done first.

You may end up reporting bugs for a while after that while we shake down the rest.

Triage One—My Jeff Walker “Ugly Workshop” Bonus

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JUST ADDED: Jeff went live early. PLF is not available—and you can get his course, and MY bonus, Now.

Here’s the link

http://hollylisle.com/Jeff-Walker-NOW

Post questions about my Jeff Walker bonus here.

If you have questions about the course that I can answer, ask them, too—but remember, I don’t know what the price is going to be yet, have not yet seen the new version of the course, and my old version has become outdated, as proven by what I’ve already learned from the existing videos.

You’ll get a very solid idea of what the course offers from these three free videos—Video One, Two, and Three—where Jeff uses the process he teaches to present the course he’s teaching. You’ll come in on Video Three. If you haven’t seen the first two, click back to the first one and start there.

Remember that if you have not posted to this blog before, I have to approve your first post, so when you post, don’t re-post. I’ll get your post live as quickly as I can, and answer as soon thereafter as possible.

And because the link to the videos above is my affiliate link (which you must use to get my bonus), let me include my affiliate statement regarding Jeff Walker here:

My Affiliate Statement

Jeff Walker is one of THREE people whose work I recommend without reservation if you’re treating your writing like a business. If you write fiction, he is one of two. (Jimmy D. Brown is great for teaching you how to put together courses, but is not really applicable for fiction writers).

And after a personal invitation from Jeff, I became an affiliate.

Which means if you buy this course through my link, I will get paid.

I was recommending him long before he asked me to be an affiliate, because what I learned from him changed my life immeasurably and for the better.

I would continue to recommend him even if he dropped his affiliate program, and for the same reason. He treats his students with care and understanding, he gives a damn that you succeed, and his course is the best course on the Internet for showing you how to connect your work to the people who will love it.

Holly Lisle

Maybe it SHOULD be a pissing contest…

This started out while I was musing in the shower this morning about possible answers for mothers who are potty-training sons (thirteen years too late for me, but whatever), and became this cool thing that made me laugh in spite this morning’s brutal migraine… and also made me wish—if only briefly, and I’m embarrassed to admit this—that A) it was real, and B) I could play.

So I share with you now:

The Pissing Contest Urinal And Game System™

Click the image for the bigger, READABLE text.

The HTTS Site Update, Issues, and Changes

What’s Already Changed

Let me address this first, because this was the reason I went out hunting for new site software in the first place, and WHY I’m doing this now, instead of later.

Margaret, who has been helping me run the site for the past seven years, has been experiencing problems with her health for the last several.

However, for the last year or so, working on the site—which for her was supposed to have been just putting together plugins for me from time to time, and doing tricky bits in the databases when students needed to have their usernames changed—became a never-ending, gruelling push for both of us to get everything off the outdated and unsupported software on which I’d originally built classes, and into one big classroom I could keep up with.

I looked for ready-made software that did what I needed it to do, but at the time, there was nothing that met my needs. And I looked everywhere.  Bought a bunch of membership software that I tested, and that failed massively on one or several points.

I found the basic plugins I’m currently using, and Margaret started upgrading them to the course delivery needs of classes like How To Think Sideways, which is complex and getting moreso with every upgrade I add to it.

Her health and the workload got worse. At a point where I realized neither of us was ever going to be free of keeping the NEW software up with things like WordPress upgrades and the changes those require, I started looking for different software again.

This time I found ONE piece of software that actually met every single one of my extensive requirements straight out of the box. I got it.

Margaret helped me set up the DEV site, but then stepped down. Her health and the workload were too much of a conflict.

She’s going to get back to her writing and work on her own business, and I’m delighted for her.

What This Means

You’ll note my mention of how Margaret did tricky bits with the databases. 

Like changing usernames.

Putting multiple user accounts created by one person into single accounts.

I don’t do this.

And neither does the new software.

And I’m not going to be replacing Margaret.

I’ve found software that does what I need as it stands, and I’ve decided that if I need something that it doesn’t do, I’ll do without.

As much as Margaret needed to get out of the site maintenance business, I need to get out of the “having cool new ideas for software that doesn’t exist yet” business.

I’ve hired forum moderator and database expert Watson Davis to move the existing databases into the new software, but this is a one-time thing.

If you have multiple accounts, I can fix this for you BEFORE we move onto the new software. Margaret created a tool for this.

Create a ticket at the help desk, give me all the details about your multiple accounts (except for passwords—I don’t need ‘em, and you must NEVER tell anyone your passwords), the courses you’ve purchase, your usernames and email addresses including your PayPal email address, in case I have to connect disconnected classes to, and anything else that will help me find you and get everything you own in one place.

I cannot do anything about usernames.

If you have pre-existing (meaning they already existed before I sent out this email) multiple accounts and one of them has a username you like, and another one has a username you hate, I can, UNTIL WE MOVE TO THE NEW SOFTWARE, move all your courses into the account with the username you like.

This is not an opportunity to create a new account with a different username and ask me to move you. I won’t. I can’t.

I’m buried in the site move. I cannot do anything else until I get us onto the new software because only Margaret is familiar with the existing software, she is the only person on the planet who can do customer service on it, and she’s not in good enough health to do that.

So if WordPress or PHP move to a new version before I can get us moved, or if something breaks, we’re going to end up stranded.

 

The Inconveniences

The forum and shop are going to be closed for a day prior to the database move, so that no posts disappear. There’s no other way we can do this.

The site with the new software is going to be locked down for up to two days  while we do the upgrade, and then the live test payment processors, purchase-to-class linkage, and other critical infrastructure to make sure people get their purchases when they pay for them. We’ll keep this as short as possible, but I have to know people will get what they’re paying for before I re-open the doors.

Right after the new site goes live, there’s going to be a period of time (as short as I can make it) where the forums are not connected to their correct classes. There is no way to connect them until the databases move, and once we move, I then have to go through the new forum, find each board, and connect the board to the right classroom. Until I do this, you won’t be able to reach the forum. There are a LOT of boards and sub-boards. This will take time.

With many classes, there are individual discussion topics connected to the classrooms. HTTS is a major example of this, but so is Mugging the Muse. Each of these links has to be reset.

All of the forum links will change. This means most of the links in most of the courses I’ve ever done will break. I have a plugin that should help me find these broken links and forward them to the correct new links, but this will take Mark and me time.

 

Most of the links on the site are going to change. If you’ve been relying on bookmarks, you’ll probably need to go through and delete a lot of them.

This will be annoying, but the dust will settle, and everything will start working smoothly.

The Good Stuff

I have my older son Mark helping me set up the new site.

He’ll be staying on part-time, adding pages for new courses, setting up new books and classes, connecting forums, forwarding links, and picking up student support/customer service where he can, which will free me up to write more.

More books. More stories. And more upgrades, courses, classes, and workshops.

For me, this will be the biggest change. I’ve never had someone work on the website front-end with me before.

For you, the biggest changes will probably be the addition of Stripe (US/Canada only) and Authorize.net (most places), both of which process credit cards, which means you no longer have ONLY PayPal as an option.

My focus this time is on making the site easy to navigate, and very easy to join and use.

 

All products will come with permanent on-page downloads (including ebooks).
You’ll be signed into the forums that go with your classes when you sign into the site.
If you’re eligible for discounts (if you are an HTTS ULTRA or HTRYN student, for example), these discounts will show up for you automatically on the page, as long as you’re signed in.

The Date? The Site Downtime?

I have a hard date I’m shooting for, but I don’t want to say it until I know I can hit it.

It won’t be this month.

But as soon as I can make it happen. I’ll send out emails when I know for sure so you’ll know when the site will be unavailable.

Customer service/student support is on a different site and will not be affected by any of this.

Meanwhile, write with joy.

Holly

I’m giving away a bunch of my WRITING courses. #free #writing #courses

I’m doing a WRITING-COURSE GIVEAWAY PRIZE DRAWING as part of my release of How To Revise Your Novel on the new classroom.

This includes the GRAND PRIZE: Full free membership in all three of my BIG courses—How To Think Sideways: Career Survival School for Writers, How To Revise Your Novel: Get the Book You WANT from the Wreck You WROTE, and How To Write A Series.

Here’s how to enter the drawing.

Sign Up For Free "101 Worst Mistakes Writers Make In First Draft"
Confirm your email address: You’ll go to the download page immediately. Download your Special Report.
Create Your Free Membership and check your email to confirm your email and create your username and password.
You’ll go to the Classroom Hub .
Click the links shown in the video to reach the sign-up page.

No purchase necessary to enter or win. You MUST be eighteen or older to participate. Void where prohibited. complete rules are here (opens in new tab).

The Adventure Of Creation: Think Sideways Writers Anthology, Is Live #readers

I am delighted to announce that The Adventure of Creation: Think Sideways Writers Anthology is live on Amazon.

I was delighted by the quality of the stories: by their breadth, variety, voices, and skill. I enjoyed every single one. And I highly recommend this anthology to folks who like my work.

I’m not in it (except to write the foreword) but these are writers who made me laugh, put a lump in my throat, constantly surprised me, and kept me turning pages. Once you meet them, you’ll want to find out what else they’ve done, or are doing.

PRINT: http://www.amazon.com/The-Adventure-Creation-Foreword-Anthology/dp/3956810007/

KINDLE: http://www.amazon.com/Adventure-Creation-Sideways-Anthology-ebook/dp/B00E3FQT94/

Winners of the First How To Think Sideways Anthology Contest #fiction #writing

My fabulous How To Think Sideways Boot Camp moderators came up with the following wonderful idea, here quoted from Katharina Gerlach’s post on the forum:

I have been thinking about an anthology with the best stories from Holly’s students for a while. Now, I contacted Holly and she agrees that this is a good idea. Since she’s momentarily extremely busy with setting up the new site-software, I will be in charge for a while.

The rules are as follows:

Holly set the theme. It is The Adventure of Creating
Every student of Holly (Short Courses, HTTS, HtRYN, HtWAS) can enter his/her best story.

Any story may not be longer than 2500 words max.
You can choose the genre (disclaimer: since Holly hasn’t had time to approve a genre-list yet, we might not accept some genres. This is Holly’s choice)

This was a no-entry-fee anthology. I wrote a foreword, judged the entries, and set aside money for the prizes:

$100 for first place
$50 each for second and third places.

Katharina (Cat-Gerlach on the boards) did the cover art and the award images, which winners can use on the covers for their stories or story anthologies, as well as on their websites.

The anthology will be published on the 24th of July 2013.

I judged the entries, and it took me three rounds of judging, with the first round judged on a point system in which each story could earn points for Characters, Conflict, Setting, Twist, Theme, and Technique.

I’ll note that the thirty-five stories chosen by the editors were sent to me in “blind” format—in other words, I had no idea who had written them—and about two thirds of the entries were only a point or two away from perfect scores by the time I’d finished my first round. The editors, Cat-Gerlach, Texanne, Pearannoyed, and Marti-V, had done a magnificent job of choosing from the many, many stories submitted.

The following stories had perfect scores in the first round:

After the Fire – Zoe Cannon: Enraptured
Hitting the High Notes – S.J. Driscoll: sapphire
Innocence – S.J. Driscoll: sapphire
Knitting – Debbie Zubrick: WhatsForDinner
Restoration – Rabia Gale: Lady Q
Spoilers – Laura Thurston: Artemis
The Cafe – Faith Boughan: dark_phoenix
The Definition of a Superhero – Taven Moore: TamiMoore
The Forest King – Amanda Tompkins: Green_Eyes
The Wish – Martha Verlander: marti-v
West’s Prelude – Molly Felder: felderm
Whisper – Michele Zugnoni: mnzugnoni

These twelve stories went on to the second round, where I judged by the subjective test of “greatest relevance to anthology theme.”

The following five stories made it into the third round of judging:

Hitting the High Notes – S.J. Driscoll: sapphire
Innocence – S.J. Driscoll: sapphire
Restoration – Rabia Gale: Lady Q
The Definition of a Superhero – Taven Moore: TamiMoore
Whisper – Michele Zugnoni: mnzugnoni

I loved all five of these stories. Any one could have been the first-place story based on quality and entertainment value. However, as part of the contest rules, I’d decided that the first place story should have the first story slot, the second place story should have the coveted “anchor” spot at the end of the anthology, and the third-place story would have the slot right after the contest winner.

The job of the first story in an anthology is to bring in the reader.

The job of the second story in an anthology is to give a reader an idea of the range of tone and content within the rest of the anthology.

And the job of the anchor (or final story) is to convince the reader that he wants the NEXT anthology in the series.

Based on that, I read through the final five stories several times, having a hell of a time deciding. I finally got there, though. Here, in reverse order, are the honorable mentions and the winners.

Honorable Mention: Hitting the High Notes – S.J. Driscoll: sapphire
Honorable Mention: Innocence – S.J. Driscoll: sapphire
Third Place: Whisper - Michele Zugnoni: mnzugnoni
Second Place: The Definition of a Superhero – Taven Moore: TamiMoore
First Place: Restoration – Rabia Gale: Lady Q

Winners will receive their prizes via PayPal. You’ll be privately contacted by me before I send your prizes so I can confirm your PayPal address.

Finally, there is no guarantee that there will be a second anthology:

Authors will be paid pro-rata for their stories out of sales.

I donated the prizes out of my own pocket, so the anthology doesn’t have to earn that back first.

But the anthology does have to gain enough of a readership to make the amount of work it took to create it worthwhile for the writers and moderators involved, in terms of both public exposure of their work, and to a somewhat lesser extent, financially.

If you would like to participate in a similar anthology contest next year, or to support continuing HTTS Boot Camp anthologies, please purchase The Adventure Of Creation: Think Sideways Writers Anthology when it comes out on July 24th. And please pass on the word to fellow readers.

I’ll send a reminder with links when it goes live.

Flash Fiction Anthology Update: Three Windows

So, anyway, got into the office at 6 this morning, knowing I had a long day and a ton of work ahead of me. And I sat down with another of my flash fiction stubs: This one was Three Windows: A woman trapped in a room with three windows must choose one from which to escape.

I set my timer, ended up with a 535-word first draft in a bit under 30 minutes, then in 45-minute revision, pulled out a bunch of words, including the first ending, and came up with a new ending that I love.

I have two stories to go to finish the collection, and four remaining stubs to choose from:

The Short War, The Bear’s Bargain, Time Out, and When The Night Light Went Out.

Pretty sure When The Night Light went out will be my next story. No clue which of the other three will call to me.

I’m also trying decide on the title for the collection now.

The Princess’s Coconuts, one of my favorites stories in the collection so far, in is the lead in that regard.