Category Archives: How To Think Sideways

Back! Survived my journey through Heck. #wabwm
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Margaret (my amazing tech wizard) and I have been working fourteen-to-sixeen hour days regularly for a while, and the last week has been dawn-to-pass-out with neither of us doing anything else.

But the end result as that the software she built for me that will allow me to offer all my multi-lesson courses in classrooms with all the goodies right in place and lessons delivered on a schedule…

…well, it works.

Our live test was 7-Day Crash-Revision Workshop, which accepted a small group of students on Wednesday, and a larger group on Thursday.

The software still has some rough edges—it can be slower than we anticipated in getting students into their classes—but she’s programming a fix for that now, and I’ve figured out faster ways to get to students with fixes for problems.

By the time How To Think Sideways Ultra goes live, it should be pretty smooth.

In celebration, I’m writing on Create A World Clinic today.

Don’t even remember my last word count.

But there will be words today. And on the weekend. That’s what I’m doing for fun before I start building the HTTS Ultra course into the classrooms next Monday afternoon. Because there will be words on MONDAY, too. :D

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Working on my focus with World Clinic #wabwm
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Had a couple of weeks where I took off, then lost my focus when I got back. Yesterday, I finally got my feet under myself, and today I want to continue that.

Objective, 1000 words on World Clinic. And then the rest of the stuff. At this point I’m playing catch-up with getting old courses back online, plus putting the new versions of HTTS and 7-Day Crash Revision into the new system, so I haven’t even been able to TOUCH my eventual work schedule.

But for now, I’m just working my list of to-dos, and putting the writing first.

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How To Think Sideways site redesign begins
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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…

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

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Vacation OVER! New story, bigger maps, and starting Create A World Clinic today. #wabwm
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I enjoyed my vacation, which is to say that I slept through the end of 2012, and woke up in 2013 feeling human again.

So over the last couple days, I put a novella I wrote years ago (REWIND, which is the precursor to C–The Secret Project) into Kindle and ePub format, and I’ll put that up on Amazon, B&N, and my site later today. I ENORMOUSLY expanded the Cadence Drake Minecraft map, and that’s already available for download. I made the Cadence Drake “Goodies Page” open to everyone without membership, and fixed the broken links and missing content. So you can get both the HTCB theme song and the Minecraft map there.

Margaret and I tested the software she’s been building for me that will allow me to offer HTTS as a complete sequential course again, while also allowing affiliates to offer it along with every other product in my shop from one link (something we’ve been working on for about two years now, so this is a BIG deal for me. :D ). She’ll install it into the live classroom for me in the next few days, and I’ll start rebuilding the course. This will take a while: How to Think Sideways is an enormous course with a LOT of pieces, and each piece has to be created as a separate product, tagged, and added to the appropriate page. It will be available as quickly as I can manage it, and when it is, HTTS LEGACY students will be able to upgrade for a small one-time price to get all their lessons in Kindle and Nook versions.

(This allows me to only have to build ONE version of the course, and moves Legacy students who want to be there into the new version, so they’ll be eligible for new-version upgrades. It also puts HTTS back into the queue as a live course to which I can add upgrades and expansions.)

But the big news today is this…

I’ve opened up the Create A World Clinic document in Scrivener, and I’m starting to write that now.

About time, too. :-/

So if you’re playing Write A Book With Me, this is my entry in the game.

I’ll post stats later. Right now, I want to get writing.

P.S. I have more news, but it’ll have to wait for another post.

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I’m officially on Holiday Hours #wabwm
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Getting the whole month of December off didn’t quite work out.

But I am taking off the rest of the month. I don’t remember ever having been this tired before, but I now have a chance to rest. Mostly. Sort of.

UNTIL MONDAY, JANUARY 7th, I’ll do Student Support on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It’s just me in there. Margaret is going on holiday, so it’ll mostly be me WITHOUT major techie backup, so big problems will be “as I can fix them” or “when Margaret gets back”.

On Monday, January 7th, I get back to work for real.

So what does next year’s work look like?

What Happens Next Year

First, I write CREATE A WORLD CLINIC. I have my outline in Scrivener, the first couple chapters are done already, and I’m FINALLY going to finish the thing. Starting in January.

Drip (the piece of software I needed to offer new BIG courses) is done and working. (Margaret built this, and it’s wonderful.) This is HUGE. It means I can do workshops with small class sizes and personal feedback, new bigger courses, and “textbook” classes for things like CREATE A CHARACTER CLINIC and the upcoming CREATE A WORLD CLINIC, where we’ll meet a few times in a single week, and I’ll crit your creations. Real assignments. Real deadlines. :D It’ll be fun.

Next year I’m bringing back the FULL, timed-lesson, everything-included version of How to Think Sideways. I have had a ton of requests to make the structured version with the walkthrough, all the downloadable stuff, the bonus course, and the community as a single purchase available again.

HTTS Direct will still be around, and still be a less expensive and unstructured alternative. HOWEVER, after the new year, HTTS Direct lessons will come off their extended introductory price. Individual lessons will be $5.99. The community + additional downloads option will remain available at the same price. When I have the Walkthrough finished, it will become available as a separate upgrade.

How to Write A Series will move to the new classrooms, and get the promised 6-lesson extension.

I’ll write THE EMERALD SUN.

How to Revise Your Novel will move to the new classrooms.

I’ll start WISHBONE.

I’ll begin doing some live (online) workshops.

These are not in sequential order, and I’m not putting dates on any of this. I’ll just work through the list, and get as much done on it as I can, take next December off (jumping up and down on this one), then pick up wherever I left off in January of 2014.

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Amazing Apple Turnaround: We’ll Accept HTTS Lesson 6…WITH The Links
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Happy Apple

Happy Apple

4:41 PM EDT. My husband, kid, and I are out, and my phone rings. It’s San Jose, California calling, and I don’t answer calls from unknown numbers.

Don’t ask me why I answered this one. I did, though, and it was a representative from Apple calling.

He told me he and others had been over How To Think Sideways Lesson 6, and that, to quote him, “We made a mistake.” He said that on review, he and others had seen that the lesson was entirely within their TOS, that my use of the links had (as I stated) not been there to sell individual products, but to demonstrate a useful technique that taught my students a writing skill.

And he noted that they did not have the lesson WITH the links anymore, but if I would care to re-submit it, Apple would make sure there was no problem with its publication on their platform.

I thanked him, and told him I would be happy to put my work back up on Apple.

And I am.

IT’S GOING TO TAKE ME A COUPLE DAYS. The rest of this week is booked solid, and I’m going to have to re-download iTunes Producer and get it set up again. (Yes, I deleted it from the computer.)

So figure, best case, the first lessons of HTTS (as well as my other work on the iBookstore) will start coming online again on Monday. I’ll get everything up as quickly as I can after that, but uploading each lesson requires significant time and attention to detail on my part. I’ll try to have the whole course available by Monday, August 13th.

Thank you for your support and comments.

I don’t know how this came to Apple’s attention. I’m glad, however, to have the problem resolved, and to once more be able to offer my work on the iBookstore.

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Apple Made Its Decision. My Turn.
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Rotten Apple

Rotten Apple

Apple rejected How To Think Sideways Lesson 6: How To Discover (Or Create) Your Story’s Market.

Not because of links to Amazon this time.

Because of content.

Lesson 6 includes my “Amazon River” technique, in which I show students how I use a couple of useful bits of Amazon’s website software and the Amazon database to figure out how to find alternative genres for their books if they aren’t having any luck selling it in the genre they wrote it for. I’ve successfully used this technique to place both TALYN and MIDNIGHT RAIN.

This is not just essential information for writers publishing or hoping to publish commercially—it’s also the fastest way for self-pubbers to find potential new markets for their existing work.

And there is no other website in the world on which you can do this as quickly, as completely, or as successfully.

So now it’s down to me.

I cannot sell PART of the course on Apple. So How To Think Sideways will not appear on the iBookstore. Neither will How To Revise Your Novel.

But I also will not deal with this sort of head-up-ass behavior from a distributor. You don’t tell someone “The problem is the live links,” and then, when that person has complied with your change request and removed the live links, turn around and say, “No, no. The problem is the CONTENT. You can’t mention Amazon in your lesson.

This is not professional behavior from a professional market.

And cold moment of truth here—you cannot write a writing course that includes information on publishing and self-publishing and NOT mention Amazon. It’s the place where your writers are going to make about 90% of their money.

So I’m pulling ALL my work from the iBookstore today. I apologize to iBookstore fans. I tried. Hard.

But I’m done.

Previous Posts in This Discussion

Same morning, three hours later…

All my self-pubbed books are now out of the iBook store. The work by me that is still there is commercially published, and I cannot do anything about its presence or absence.

But, for writers, especially those involved in or considering self-publishing, I can no longer recommend Apple as a professional distributor. Requiring no links to a competing website was borderline…but I complied because I wanted to keep the courses available for students who could not get them any other way.

Requiring the removal of actual lesson content, however, is unacceptable. No, it isn’t censorship. Again, only governments have the armies that allow them to censor.

It is simply an unbelievably stupid business decision, since the people buying the lesson would have to pay for it BEFORE they read the content, and would not abandon Apple because of the content.

The big markets that meet my standards for good distribution practices for self-publishers are now down to Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.com.

I don’t yet have anything up on XinXii.com, so cannot yet report on the quality of service of the site. It does have an interesting “Pay on Demand” feature that kicks in once you’ve hit their sales threshold.

I’m backlogged getting lessons set up on my own site, Amazon, and B&N, but will start testing XinXii.com once I catch my breath.

I’m deeply disappointed by the loss of Apple as a viable market. I know a lot of folks hate the company. I loved it, though—and recent decisions on this issue as well as the issue of sandboxing in the next OS make me realize it’s working hard at making itself a company I won’t be able to support.

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Things Don’t Look Good for My Future With Apple
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This is the follow-up post to Uncrippling the Lesson.

As I said I would, I paid my book packager to create a separate version of How To Think Sideways, Lesson 6 that did not include links to Apple.

I uploaded the corrected version.

A couple days later, I got this message:

Dear Holly Lisle,

One or more assets from your submission, How to Think Sideways: Career Survival School for Writers, need to be replaced:

Ticket #: 1438977
Ticket Type: Book Asset
Apple ID: 541126811
ISBN: 9781937533304
Vendor ID: 9781937533304
Please note that the changes in this ticket were not executed. The ticket has been returned to you for additional corrections. Please make all of the changes requested below.

Full book asset:

Competing Website(s)
Rejected Reason(s):
Competing Website(s)

Notes:
Jun, 29 2012, 12:13PM – Apple:
Book file contains links from competitors: Amazon, in the chapter Q&A 6, under “Question 9″
Jul, 18 2012, 4:54AM – Apple:
The following ticket task(s) have been updated by the feed: Full epub
Jul, 18 2012, 4:54AM – Apple:
Epub internals validation passed
Jul, 18 2012, 1:21PM – Apple:
Please Note: The original change request was not fulfilled. Your changes were not saved. Previous issue was not addressed. Please review your file before resubmitting it. Thank you.

Problem is, the changes WERE executed.

And I tested and uploaded the corrected file again, just to be sure. It’s still blocked with the “Fix this first” ticket attached.

I’ve contacted Apple through their producer customer service. Best case, I’ll hear back from them Monday, and this file and Lesson 13 will be cleared, and I’ll be able to continue adding the rest of the course. In the best-case scenario, it may take longer than Monday.

Worst case…

…between Lesson 6, which Apple has rejected three times now (in spite of the changes it requested having been made), and Lesson 13, which is still unavailable, though with no error message to let me know why, I’m going to end up having to pull the course off of Apple permanently. I cannot offer just SOME of the lessons.

So for those of you who are die-hard iBookstore fans, I’m preemptively stating here: “I have done everything I am willing to do to fix this.” If Apple does not want my course content, or the content of some of the lessons, on the iBookstore, I CANNOT fix that.

And if I have to pull the How to Think Sideways course from the iBookstore because some lessons do not meet whatever criteria Apple has set that are beyond what I can fix (MEANING I will NOT rewrite ANY portion of the lesson content itself), I will not waste my time trying to get How to Revise Your Novel accepted. Nor will I offer my novels there. Nor will I continue to make available those courses that have been deemed acceptable. Such of my presence as I am capable of removing, I’ll remove.

(I have no control over my work offered by other publishers.)

If that means you’ll no longer buy my work, I’m sorry. I’ll note that DRM-free epubs of the course are available from my own shop, and they will work on your iPhone and iPad. If your issue is buying things from Amazon, you don’t have to. If your issue is punishing me because I am not willing to jump through hoops beyond those through which I’ve already jumped…

…well, you wouldn’t have gotten anything useful out of the course anyway.

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