Holly Lisle's Blog, page 94

Write A Book With Me took a beating the last few days. #wabwm

Migraine.

I don’t have much else to say. Yesterday I didn’t feel too badly, and I SHOULD have worked, but I’d been flattened by the most recent visitation of the migraine, I gave myself one day off to play.

I still have a migraine.

I’m getting back to writing, though. Tomorrow, I’ll get up with my alarm and get back to World Clinic.

My apologies for the absence.

Here’s the WARPAINT theme song video

Click this link to go to the MP3 Download of the song, along with earlier freebies.

The REALLY BIG VERSION is here:

http://hollylisle.evsuite.com/moment-warpaint-theme-song-hd-001/

The embed code button didn’t work, so on the chance that you want to add the video to your site, I gathered them up. Copy the code beneath the player size that will fit your space.

WordPress sometimes eats embed codes, incidentally.

Embed Codes:

1280 x 720 Copy and Paste between the lines

600 x 338 Copy and Paste between the lines

500 x 282 Copy and Paste between the lines

How To Think Sideways site redesign begins

I have had another brutal migraine. My creativity is at low ebb. I’m struggling for concepts. Writing World Clinic is beyond me right now.

So, since this also needed to be done, I started into the HTTS site overhaul.

My objectives are clarity of purpose and simplicity of use.

I figure getting the entire site fixed will take me about two weeks, but I got the initial stuff laid out and live today.

I’d appreciate a few folks to tell me (just reply here) where you ran into any problem areas.

It’s NOT done. But it’s mostly workable…

Answers on the Self-Pub Business Setup course

I found myself being asked a number of questions I’d already answered, so I’m going to post abbreviated versions of the questions, and my answers, here so people can find them.

The questions have helped me get a much clearer vision of what the course has to be—as well as allowing me to understand the limitations I will have to impose in order to create it.

Will the course be free?

No.
I don’t see a segment on copyright and obtaining an ISBN and library of Congress number for your book.

In the US, you already own copyright the instant you create your work. You can choose to buy ISBNs, (and I’ve done so), but if you use CreateSpace, you can get a free ISBN for your print book, and the only site that requires you to use them for ebooks is Apple, which I no longer am using or recommend (at least not if your time has value to you).

You get legitimate ISBNs at Bowkers: Here’s the link. https://www.myidentifiers.com/

But what you need to know on ISBNs, Library of Congress numbers, and considerably more you can find out here: http://www.thomsonshore.com/support-guidelines/publisher-resources/isbn-library-of-congress
Will you be covering promotion?

Yes. It appears to be the biggest item on the course wish list.
Is this material covered in (HTTS, HTRYN, HTWAS…)?

No. Nor will it be. My writing courses are designed to be universal—they are built around foundational principles of writing that apply to ALL genres, to ALL forms of fiction, and are designed to be useful to every sort of writer, from massive planners to pure pantsers.

The Business Setup course will not be universal.

This course will require that you use specific software—most free, a couple of items purchased. Everything I use will work for both Windows and Mac users, and I will take you through step-by-step walkthroughs in which you will first learn how to, and then actually DO, the following:

PROVISIONAL Course Objectives (Subject to addition if I come across things within the scope of the course that I forgot to mention).
USE Scrivener ($45 if you don’t already own it) to create an ebook template, format your book, create separate versions for print, Mobi, epub, and PDF for your own store AND for Amazon, Kobo, B&N (if available to you) and your own eStore.
CREATE a professional-quality book, and include site-appropriate self-promotional materials IN your books to help sell your future books as well as existing ones.
LOCATE and PURCHASE an appropriate royalty-free image for your cover art. (under $5)
CREATE a quality cover in both e-book (for ALL ebook versions) and wrap-around print format (designed to work on CreateSpace), install the cover art into each version of your ebook, using GIMP (free) as your image editor.

This is the ONE place where the course diverges from what I actually use. I use Adobe Fireworks, but that’s $300 all by itself, and my objective is to keep your one-time business setup expenses right at $100 for everything.
PURCHASE a website and domain name if you don’t already have one. You may choose your own host, but I will recommend mine because of its excellent security and customer service. My host also includes your chosen domain name for free when you sign up. The domain is unentailed (YOU own it, not the host), so that you may take it with you if you later transfer to a different host. HOWEVER, a website is NOT a one-time purchase, but an ongoing expense. It is the ONLY mandatory recurring expense you will incur in setting up your business.

It is NOT the only RECOMMENDED one (more on that in the self-promotion bits).

INSTALL WordPress (free) on your own website if you don’t already have it, and learn how to use its basic features.
SET UP a free, highly configurable WordPress theme that allows you to configure your website to include a blog, pages for teaser chapters and other reader goodies, and your shop.
SET UP necessary Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Legal Page, Affiliate Legal Page, and other required pages (DISCLAIMER: I can show you how to set up your pages, and where to find information on what you need, but you are wholly responsible for making sure you have the correct pages for your business and location.)
INSTALL your estore plugin INTO your WordPress theme and build a working shop from which you can sell products and receive Payment through PayPal. (Other payment options are also available.
CREATE a sidebar shopping cart, a bookstore front page, an individual product page, your download, and at least one neat freebie—a free “sample chapters” PDF with links back to your site and shop.
SETUP and LINK your CREATESPACE book to your website to allow readers to purchase the print version.
CREATE discount coupons for both the ebooks and print version of your work that you sell from your site.
OPTIONAL: Purchase and install software for an affiliate program. (This purchase is ABOVE the $100 setup cost for required software.)
SETUP pages for and run your affiliate program, including creating Affiliate Links
WRITE quality self-promotion content for your weblog and site pages.
ACQUIRE MAILING LIST and AUTORESPONDER service, and insert working signup forms on your site.

Aside from natural traffic from search engines to your site, a mailing list is the core self-promotional part of your business. Better than Facebook, better than Twitter (this I know absolutely), probably better than Goodreads.

If you hope to have a viable business, rather than operating on luck alone, you’re going to have to have one. BUT in this instance, I’m going to simply teach principle of mailing list and autoresponder creation and management. Why?

Because I use Aweber, which is superb. But Aweber is neither free, nor cheap. The minimum monthly outlay is $20. So I’ll show you what to do, and explain what to look for in an email provider, and give you a raw list of providers, for which I can offer no data beyond links.
WRITE quality self-promotion content for your mailing list and autoresponder.
LEARN what I’ve found out about Twitter and Facebook, and determine how or if you want to use them.
I have no data yet on Goodreads. I just joined a few weeks ago, I found the time to do some minimal setup on my account, but I have not yet reviewed or recommended any books. This is one area of the course that will be modified once I have something to go on.

If I decide to pursue commercial publishing, but later want to self-publish, what rights should I keep?

This one’s a freebie. Hang on like hell on steroids to e-rights. If the bastards have e-rights, having the ebooks up on one site means your book is still in print, and nothing will ever revert to you again, nor will you see another dime from that work

Voice of pissed-off experience here, remembering contracts from ages ago where editors and agents were all saying, “Oh, e-rights aren’t important,” and idiot me believing them.

When will this be available?

I’m in the brainstorming process.

If I can get a small group of folks together to spend every day for a week with me as we actually build their sites, I could probably offer the open-enrollment version pretty soon.

I’d have to do the prep checklists and probably the initial workshop in my evening “off” hours, because I have existing commitments to finishing Create A World Clinic, the How To Write A Series Extension, and the HTTS Walkthrough.

But now that Margaret’s completed drip and we have it working, I’ll be able to start doing a few live projects like this one, then adding them to the shop.

I don’t know when yet, though. First I need to be able to clearly see WHAT.

I want to do this, but why can’t I use (insert free weblog service here)?

The issue here is simple. You can’t set up a store on Blogger. In general, terms of service on the free blogging sites forbid you using them for commercial purposes, which ALSO means you’d be in violation for promoting your books with sales links from those sites.

If you’re going to have a business, it’s going to take some money to start. Not a lot. But some.

Bare minimum, you’re going to have to own your own website. That’s $7.95 a month or thereabouts, depending on where you go. Most places, you get a significant discount if you prepay by the year. Figure $80-ish dollars.Wordpress is free.

The estore software I use is a one-time purchase of $50, free upgrades for life, EXCELLENT customer service and support), and set up correctly, it’s easy for customers to use.

Scrivener (writing, editing, formatting AND publishing software) is $45. One-time purchase, most upgrades are free, EXCELLENT customer service and support.

Kindle charges, but only when you sell.

B&N charges, but only when you sell.

Kobo charges, but only when you sell.

And PayPal charges, but only when you sell. If you pass a certain monetary threshhold, you have to upgrade your account and pay a monthly fee—but if that happens, you’re making enough money through them that the $20 bucks or so is worth it.

I know there are a lot of by-the-month rent-a-shops you can hook into, but the way I build, you OWN everything with no monthly outlay but the website. Writing is NOT a business where you want to speculate on whether you’ll make enough every month to pay credit card merchant fees, monthly paid cart service fees, and other things.

When you are living on your fiction OWNING rather than RENTING will save you during lean months. Your business with MY set up will keep your monthly expenses for the ENTIRE business to under $8/month without an email provider, and under $28/month with Aweber.

Would you share the name of your estore software provider? I would appreciate the opportunity to check them out.

Tips & Tricks eStore
Why aren’t you including (X SOFTWARE) in your course?

I wouldn’t be able to teach this, because I don’t USE (X SOFTWARE)

I use exactly what I’m teaching you to use (with the image editor and mailing list/autoresponder service already noted out).

I use what I use because it is is a on-time expense (and a small one at that) and because after testing numerous other alternatives, from free to >$1000 price tags, the solutions I offer are the ones I have found that work best for a writer sustaining herself on a self-publishing writing income, cause the fewest headaches, offer the smoothest workflow, and produce the desired results.

I’m not going to be teaching what’s possible. I’m going to be teaching what I know works. The difference is immense.

The purpose of this course is not going to be to teach writers how to theoretically build a business at some time in their futures.

The purpose of this course is for writers to HAVE their own complete, working business on graduation day.

Holly

P.S. For others who might consider doing so, please understand that posting your affiliate link for a product you recommend on a site you don’t owe is both ungodly rude and a form of spam.

ANY site owner decides the content of his own site, and I removed and marked as spam the post from the person who did it in my previous post. — HOLLY

Possible “Writing Business” course, and World Clinic progress #wabwm

The new course concept

I mentioned this yesterday on the Write A Book With Me forum, in response to a writer’s question about publishing.

I had done some initial brainstorming on setting up a short-story to self-pub workshop. In my initial concept, it would have been 11 weeks from basic 10,000 word story start to fully functional writing business. (Scrivener formatting, Ebook self-pub, Kindle, Nook, PDF, CreateSpace, and WordPress estore setup, INCLUDING product setup, covered)

Story planning. Live brainstorming session.

Here was my initial thumbnail sketch:

Story start. 3500-word assignment, and how to get it written.
Story middle. 3500-word assignment, and how to get it written. My crit on your story start.
Story ending. 3500-word assignment, and how to get it written. My crit on your story middle.
My crit on your story ending and overall. How to revise.
Story revision, titles, final crits.
Formatting your print book. Live practice.
Formatting your ebook versions. Live practice.
Creating your cover art. Live practice.
Setting up your products in CreateSpace, Amazon, B&N, and your own shop.
Reviewing, self-promo, ongoing process of building your writing business.

HOWEVER, one of the comments related to my thumbnail description made me realize that’s unnecessarily complicating what I think would be a straightforward course: How To Set Up Your Writing Business

Which would be THIS part, which I could do (and the student could keep up with, in six [gruelling] lessons:

Formatting your print book. Live practice.
Formatting your ebook versions. Live practice.
Creating your cover art. Live practice.
Installing and setting up your own WordPress-based bookstore
Setting up your products in CreateSpace, Amazon, B&N, and your own shop.
Reviewing, self-promo, ongoing process of building your writing business.

Again, I’d have to do the first run-through live, which would mean a TINY class size and a pretty high price tag for the first few students, with whom I’d be doing live-online instruction. The students would finish with a book or short story live on their own sites and the big sites (as well as any others they decided to pursue independently), and the process for putting the rest of their work into print.

But I’d be able to record the class and set it up as a lessons / worksheets / demo videos / forum discussion class that as many people as wanted to could take.

The sole prerequisite for this would be that the student had a finished, revised manuscript on hand.

My question is this: Is this something enough people want to do that it would be worth my time to pursue? Do you have any questions about building your own writing business (EXCLUDING TAX STUFF) that I haven’t included?

Yesterday’s progress

1746 words on World Clinic.

Since I’ve only had three hours sleep, and have a migraine, I’m not anticipating anything like that today.

Two projects at once: World Clinic and 7-Day Crash-Revision

I’m doing Create A World Clinic in the mornings, and working with Margaret on the HowToThinkSideways.com site in the afternoons, where I’m doing “Testing & Breaking” (my specialty) on her lovely software, and at the same time setting up a new version of 7-Day Crash Revision as a way to learn how to use the software while at the same time creating something useful.

We’re going to talk about prices soon—in the current economy, especially when I expect it’ll get worse, I’m going to be doing some special low-priced courses with the focus on getting writers ready to put their work up on Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and your own sites, to start supplementing incomes.

The revised, updated, and expanded 7-Day Crash-Revision Workshop is going to be the first of those. It was originally designed exclusively for writers who were already selling, and who were getting requests from editors for a complete turn-around on an editor’s revision needed back in one or two weeks.

I’m expanding the course to include short story revision and self-publishing, and have taken into account that probably a lot of folks who take it will have:

Never revised anything before,
Won’t be able to afford the full 22-week How To Revise Your Novel course,
Will be using it to do a first revision on a novel, for which—I’ll be blunt—it is not designed.

I cannot teach anyone in three lessons spread over seven days the same material I can teach in twenty-two weeks.

But I can teach you how to find and fix some big problems in seven days—and even if you’re nearly broke and using 7-Day Crash Revision to fix a NaNoWriMo novel (this is essentially a revision Worst Case Scenario) you’ll have something better when you’re done than you had when you started.

The course will be very helpful for self-pubbers who are breaking into print with shorter fiction. (I recommend the 10,000-word novella, because you can sell one for a dollar or two, write them relatively quickly, and start building your name with them.)

I’m adding some printable worksheets, a couple of tiny printable demos, and the course will be available in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats (exclusively from my site). You’ll have seven Workshop Members Only Daily Progress Boards and a course discussion board. And permanent membership in the course. Price will be $14.99, and should you decide later to take HTRYN, 100% of your purchase price will be cut from your HTRYN price.

Anyway. That’ll be available in another week or so.

And yesterday I got 840 words on World Clinic. I’m averaging about a thousand words a day, so am satisfied with my progress.

And with that, time to get to work.

The Course Objectives for Create A World Clinic

These are from the INTRODUCTION. (Again, first draft, may be buggy as hell. I just finished writing them and have not checked.)

Course Objectives

By completion of Create A World Clinic, you will know and be able to effectively use the following:

The Three Building Blocks of Worldbuilding

The Dot World.

You’ll be able to identify and build Dot worlds and recognize the situations for which they’re a complete solution to your story problem—as well as those for which they’re only an appropriate starting point.

You’ll also build several Dot worlds.

The Line World.

You’ll be able to identify and build Line worlds, recognize when, along with Dot worlds, they’re the appropriate and complete solution for your story problem, and understand the story needs that will require you to add more extensive development.

You’ll also build several Line worlds.

The Tube of Toothpaste World.

You will be able to identify and build Tube of Toothpaste worlds without overbuilding them, and will be able identify the situation where your story will need this expanded development.

You’ll build at least one Tube of Toothpaste world.

The Three Universe Types for Writers

The Container Universe.

All single stand-alone stories, including single stand-alone novels, live inside container universes. So do some story and novel series. You’ll understand what defines a container universe, and when it’s appropriate for the story or stories you want to write.

You’ll also build out the core stubs of a container universe.

The Knowable Universe.

Both knowable and infinite universes are the exclusive domains of series writers, but not all series writers will need either a knowable or an infinite universe. So you’ll learn to identify the writing goals and story objectives that will require you to develop a knowable universe for a series world.

And then you’ll build out the core stubs of a knowable universe.

The Infinite Universe.

Finally, you’ll learn to identify the writing goals and story objectives that will require you to develop and infinite universe for a series, and you’ll build out the core stub of an infinite universe.

The Four Reasons Writers Worldbuild

Worldbuilding for Story Ideas

If writers consider worldbuilding at all, writing for story ideas is not usually something they consider. Yet it is the #1 reason to worldbuild. You’re facing a blank page with a blank mind and no enthusiasm; you’re at the beginning of a new scene and searching for strong conflict; you’re struggling for characterization to distinguish a bunch of cookie-cutter characters; or, you can’t locate a plot with spotlights and bloodhounds.

In this section, you’ll worldbuild your way out of each of these problems quickly and easily.

Worldbuilding for Story Fixes

Even writers who worldbuild regularly almost never realize that sane worldbuilding is the fastest and most effective technique for: Turning dead thirty-page novel starts into living, working novels; getting your characters out of corners into which you wrote them; coming up for a compelling ‘what happens next’ when you’ve gone blank; and, when all hope is gone, finding the way to save the life of one character you desperately do not want to kill. (Sometimes.)

You’ll learn how to do all of these things, and more.

Worldbuilding for Continuity

Many writers who worldbuild—or who know of worldbuilding—consider it a valid technique for making sure they can get their characters from Point A to Point B in the amount of time they said they could.

But you can also build clear, visual timelines, track character and story changes, correct developmental errors you created in previous books of series WITHOUT having to rewrite earlier books, AND get your folks from Point A to Point B with a number of different worldbuilding techniques. Some are plain. Some are fancy. One made me crazy.

But I got two complete novels (at this writing, one—Warpaint—is in print, and one—The Wishbone Conspiracy—is in development) out of the single-question worldbuilding fix I did for one worldbuilding mistake I made seventeen years earlier.

Worldbuilding for Immersion

This is the main reason most writers can think of for building worlds. You create world details, and describe them, and readers read your descriptions, and fall in love with your world. So writers tend to create tons of unnecessary and pointless details, and miss honing in on the ones that are useful for active description.

So you’re going to learn how to leave out the clutter, and create just those details that really matter. It makes keeping track of what you’ve built much easier. It saves you unbelievable amounts of time. And you’ll get better books.

Write Your Sample Story

Finally, to make sure you can apply the concepts taught here, you’ll use my walkthrough to write one six-scene short story, using the techniques you’ve learned in this course to get from start to finish.

You’ll end up with a first draft story that will need revision and editing (which are both beyond the scope of this course)…but if you do the walkthrough, you will have a completed piece of work you can then revise, edit, and submit. Or self-publish.

Progress on World Clinic and 7-Day Crash Revision #wabwm

Pretty decent day yesterday, in spite of the persistent headaches and intermittent icepick migraines.

Got 1380 words on Create A World Clinic, and did some additional organization and structuring to make sure it will be easy to use, and got a lot of the backend built for the 7-Day Crash Revision Workshop.

“Building backend” is setting up pages, doing course layout for clarity and ease of use, setting up every single download as a button…things like that. I’m building documentation and a checklist at the same time, so the next time I do it, it won’t be so difficult. Putting together this little course is teaching me the process ahead of setting up HTTS Ultra.

Still have to build all the worksheets for 7-Day Crash-Revision Workshop. I’m adapting it from its original form be a little broader in scope, and it’ll be 100% upgradeable to HTRYN for folks who need the full in-depth process.

Onward.

A flower for Margaret

Use this link to go to Margaret’s creativity game.

As requested, I scrawled a three-minute flower on the back of an envelope.

I’m not sure where she’s going with this, but her exercises and games tend to be interesting.

I THINK I know what she’s working toward here. But I’m interested to see what results she gets.

You can play, too. Be sure to read her directions. I used pen rather than pencil because, A) I have a ton of pens on my desk, and I’d have to hunt through the kid’s school supplies to find a pencil, and B) I don’t like pencil anyway, because it permits erasure and second thoughts, while at the same time erasing the past.

But on the chance that what she’s planning actually requires pencil, my biggest reason was that I’m working, and all I have on hand and convenient are pens.

Some quotes from Create A World Clinic

I’m plugging along this morning, getting good stuff.

Thought I’d share a couple snippets. NOTE: These are raw first draft, un-spellchecked or edited, and may contain typos or worse. THESE ARE NOT FINAL DRAFT.

First, the Definitions

Worldbuilding is the creation of a setting or settings that will contain a story, plus the essential elements needed to tell the story well.

…and…

A fictional world is the setting or settings that contain a single story, and the essential elements the writer uses to tell it.

…and…

The SANE process of worldbuilding is to do as only the work you absolutely MUST have, and to do it only when you need it.

…and finally…

For a writer…

…The purpose of worldbuilding is to quickly create the section of a living, breathing universe you need to add depth to the part of the story you’re writing right now.

Then, the Problem

I keep saying every writer, no matter the genre or the story type (from short story to mega-novel monster series) needs to worldbuild, and writers keep not believing me.

But what I say when I say worldbuilding, and what they envision, are two totally different animals. So, another two snippets, each of these a bit longer.

What I Believed for Years

For years, I was utterly convinced that massive, comprehensive, complete, all-done-in-advance-of-writing Tolkein-style worldbuilding was the only way I’d managed to get published in the first place, and that it was the step in the process that allowed me to write books. That I had to have it.

I told people this, too. There I was, with my thumb in my mouth and my security blanket over my head, saying, “My security blanket is why I sold the Arhel series and the Secret Texts series and the World Gates series, and all the stand-alones in between.”

It wasn’t the stories. Couldn’t have been that. My editors bought my work because of the indigestible backstory that damn near killed every one of the ones I sent it to.

Of course they did.

You can mistake the thing that’s killing your writing for the thing that’s making it work.

And make no mistake: My worldbuilding was killing my writing. I’m a really fast worldbuilder, but even at high speed and working long hours, I’d spend months building everything I thought I needed before I put together a synopsis to send to my agent—who would then shoot me down, and rather than just fix the story, I’d fix the world first, and then fix the story.

AND…

How I Ferreted Out the Truth

I knew my books were selling, so I could prove that I was writing salable fiction. That was my point of known truth.

I believed my work sold because of all the worldbuilding I did before I started writing.

But one day, I tripped over the contradiction, and it was this: I absolutely never used all or even most of the worldbuilding I did, and much more than half of my work from any pre-novel worldbuilding orgy ended up unusable because of the better ideas I had while I was writing. Sometimes, all of that pre-novel worldbuilding went down the tubes. Once. Even twice.

Therefore, my Tolkein-style completist worldbuilding was not what sold my books.

So what I’m teaching is not Tolkein-style completist worldbuilding. I’m teaching the sort of worldbuilding that actually DID help me sell my novels, and that routinely has readers saying, “I finished this series with the impression that Matrin was real and that, given the chance, I could find my way in it: this is what I call impressive worldbuilding,” and from another reader, “I discovered that she was able to flesh out her world while advancing her story and introducing her characters. Well done,” and “But Lisle’s true strength lies in her world-building. Talyn’s despair at seeing her people’s culture being thrown up in flames is our own, because by then, we are able to appreciate its beauty and rarity.”

I’m a solid writer overall. I plot well, I write cleanly and coherently, I do good conflict and I understand story, and know how to tell one.

I have two great strengths, though. One is that I can make my worlds live in readers’ minds. The other is that I can dissect processes, and explain and demonstrate how I do them.

In Create A World Clinic, I’m doing the two things I’m best at simultaneously. I suspect this was part of why I kept putting this book off. I knew all along that once it was finished, it was the one on which all the others would be judged.

So I have a lot at stake writing this one.

And with that… onward.