Building my life and work in 2015: Books, sites, and more

Building my life and work in 2015

I have a BIG LIST.

It’s all the stuff I know I have to get done, all the stuff I want to get done, and the things I would love to do if I can figure out how to pull them off: It’s a combination of research and development, creation, completion, and presentation that summarizes what I know I want to accomplish right now.

It is subject to change—and mostly it changes by me adding a helluva lot of new stuff onto it, and removing very, very little.

I have a lot of people waiting for various things—from specific books to certain classes to particular website features—who are puzzled at how long it can take me to get to the thing they’re waiting on.

So I’m going to show you the whole WORK picture from where I’m standing.

This is my BIG LIST.

1) WEBSITES

Take the replacement site for HowToThinkSideways.com live in 2015. #1 PRIORITY.
Currently building working prototype out of existing elements, almost ready to hand off to Dan Allen, my developer, for adaptation, development, refinement, stabilization, optimization, and a fair amount of original programming.
Reskin, optimize, and improve navigation for HollyLisle.com. Probably will end up as a 2016 project.
Maintain this blog, and add new content regularly.
Get Stage One of ReadersMeetWriters.com live in 2015, using a variation of the stock platform Dan is building for me for HTTS’s replacement.At the moment, with a mere 58 people voting, the core elements for Stage One are going to be:
- Teambuilding with my matchmaking software,
- Reasearch, writing, and pre-revision assistance,
- Member-exchanged editing

This comes from the following break-out list:

Here is my (CERTAINLY INCOMPLETE) overview list of potential services for writers we can offer in ReadersMeetWriters.com:
RESEARCH

BULLETIN BOARD for requesting help from experts in specific fields or areas of expertise (like being male, or being female)

WRITING And PRE-REVISION ASSISTANCE

Segment editing (chapters or scenes) crowdsourced

Technical editing (research details) crowdsourced or Expert Editor

Story development editing (plot help)

Clarity editing (making sure each element of the story is understandable)

Mechanical editing—grammar, spelling

Plot-Hole and Continuity editing

Structural editing—chapter placement, pacing, conflict flow from scene to scene

Vocabulary localization (Aussie to American, American to Aussie… like that)

BULLETIN BOARD (for requesting services not listed)

EDITING

After-first-draft-revision single-reader story crits

After-first-draft-revision crowdsourced story crits

Post-final-revision single-editor edits

Post-final-revision crowdsourced edits

Post-edit single-editor copyediting

Post-edit crowdsourced copyediting

FORMATTING ASSISTANCE & SERVICE

Assistance with Scrivener

Assistance with (other platform of your choice)

Purchasable Professional Formatting

BUILDING WORLDS

Worldbuilding assistance for technical detail

Worldbuilding assistance for finding ways to pull conflict from worlds

Help with making maps

Purchasable built-to-order world

Purchasable built-to-order map

FREE TRAINING

How to write objective fiction reviews

How to do an objective critique of a piece of fiction

How to do an objecive critique of a piece of nonfiction

OTHER TRAINING?

FREE TESTING

Basic editing skills

Basic copyediting skills

OTHER TESTING?

TEAM-BUILDING (Match-making software)

Writer-Reader compatibility introductions

Beta Reader compatibility introductions

Crit-partner pairing

Brainstorming team pairing

Connecting writers with artists who like doing their type of art

Connecting writers with book formatters

Connecting writers with people with experience doing book launches

Connecting writers with editors interested in their sort of fiction

Connecting writers with with site builders/designers

(In this instance, fees would be paid by the service providers, not by the writers)

SPLIT-TESTING SERVICE (FREE to PAID, depending on the number and accuracy of results desired)

Split testing is taking 2-to-many variables (like different versions of a book cover) and having people click through the variable they find the most appealing, while recording clicks to see which elements work the best. I have very sophisticated software (Taguchi split-testing software) that can make this a fast, powerful process, if Dan can figure out a way to put a user-friendly front end on it.

Cover art

Story Sentence (Protagonist vs. Antagonist in Setting with Twist)

Story Blurb

First paragraph

PROMOTION (Getting people to discover your books)

Website crits (crowdsourced)

Website crits (professional)

Content assistance (crowdsourced)

Content assistance (professional)

Website building assistance (crowdsourced)

Website development and purchase (professional

Book launching (crowdsourced)

Book launching (professional)

THE BOOKSTORE

Writers sell their work, readers give OBJECTIVE reviews, writers can offer in-book (intangible, like PDF) bonuses and have them delivered from my site, or tangible bonuses that can be delivered with their own.
Built-in affiliate program to help writers and their TRUE FANS get the word out.
My fee is not 70% but 35% rate for any price from .99 to $1.99, so I at least break even on the .99-books after processing fees. for books from $2.00 and up, my fee is a 25% flat rate. Authors have no top limit for the 75% royalty.

2) COURSES (a sublist of maintaining HowToThinkSideways / HollyLisleOnlineWritingSchool.com)

Complete the expansion of How To Write A Series
Complete the walkthrough for How To Think Sideways (with The Emerald Sun)
Do the walkthrough for How To Revise Your Novel (with TalysMana)
Begin monthly live 3-day writing workshops on the new writing school site

3) SPECIAL GROUPS (A sublist of HTTS / HLOWS)

Work with Ugly Baby, Workshop and Launch
Work with The Yarnlings Mastermind

4) EXISTING FICTION

Get the following books copyedited and into print:

Midnight Rain
Last Girl Dancing
I See You
Night Echoes
Talyn
Minerva Wakes

5) NEW FICTION

Complete Bashtyk Nokyd Takes the Longview
Write final three stories in Longview Series.
Write Cadence Drake: The Wishbone Conspiracy
Complete Talysmana (revision, edit, publish only)
Write Moon & Sun: The Emerald Sea
Write Cadence Drake: Episodes 4-10.
Write additional Moon & Sun if readers support the series.
Write Dreaming the Dead
Write Redbird
Write Black Dog
Write The Ghost Romances 1-4
Write the Eight Mapped-out Paranormal Suspense stories.

So. That’s the BIG LIST.

Does not include my personal life. Does not include getting sick (which I still am, but I’m getting over it at last), or family emergencies, or kicking back with my husband and seventeen-year-old son. Does not include staying in touch with my two adult kids.

This is just my work list.

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Posted

January 1, 2015

Writing Life

Holly

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Comments

24 responses to “Building my life and work in 2015: Books, sites, and more”

Marie

November 8, 2015

Hi Holly I was wondering if you ever got to finish ‘The Emerald Sea’?

Reply
1. Holly
  
  November 13, 2015
  
  Not yet. WordPress has been in the process of destroying my existing writing site for the past two years, and I have been in the process of fighting to keep it alive for that long.
  
  I’m now just over two weeks away from launching my first class from the new site. It’s going to take me probably another six months to get everything on the new site the way I want it, at which point I’ll get back to writing full time.
  
  The Emerald Sun is on my list of books to write, but it isn’t my next fiction project.
  
  Reply
Hassan nasralah

March 22, 2015

I have been re-reading hawkspar since I first picked it up in 2009 about 4 times a year. It is inspirational. I would have loved to have seen more of the citadel and interactions between the various oracles and seru! I am dying to be able to purchase “Redbird” within my lifetime. SOOOO many questions I have! I love your work! You’ve made a lifelong fan out of me!!!!!

Reply
1. Holly
  
  March 23, 2015
  
  REDBIRD remains on my to-do list, and the line in front of it is getting shorter. I now have an awesome programming guy who is making it possible for me to gradually step back from running my sites so I can just write and talk to my readers and fellow writers, and do maybe a live-online 3-day workshop every month.
  
  That’s my goal—so hang in. REDBIRD is coming, and I’m getting to her as fast as I can. 😀
  
  Reply
Dan Allen

January 21, 2015

For 2016, one of my goals will be to enhance this comment system, so typos can be corrected. As in, I have only *3* goals for 2015.

The 2nd goal for 2016 is to move the box where comments are typed to the top, or the newest comments to the bottom, so the place where we type is as close as possible to where it will appear. My brother’s site has a cool way of letting you edit right in the page. I wonder if that can be applied to the stuff you are planning!

Reply
Dan Allen

January 21, 2015

Holly, this is fantastic and inspiring.

My brain can fit only 3 items at once, so I have only goals for 2015:

1. Implement 5 main pages for the replacement of HowToThinkSideways.com, including the content management system that makes them fun and efficient to use them.
2. Replace 10 websites currently run by a certain chain of car dealers,so they can run them in-house, instead of outsourcing. Their outsourcing bill for websites is about $450,000 for the year.
3. Keeping this item open, so if something comes up, I can do it.

Reply
Thea van Diepen

January 13, 2015

I had a thought about the things offered on Readers Meet Writers: You have on there the possibility of purchasing worlds. What about just languages? I keep wanting to make more languages than I need, and I know that creating languages or jargon or whatever is difficult for some people.

If this ends up not really being a need, that’s fine. But, if it is, I’ll be more than happy to help fill it.

Reply
1. Holly
  
  January 13, 2015
  
  Offer it. The things folks need vary by individual—and if there’s one person who can build languages to order to fit specific cultural or story needs, there’ll be another somewhere who would happily pay for this service.
  
  Reply
Angelika Devlyn

January 6, 2015

Happy New Year, Holly!

I agree it is indeed a long list – but exciting! Once you have written this down and shared your goals with the world (as you have) you have in effect committed yourself, which will move you to accomplish more in 2015 – hopefully more than you thought feasible.

Good luck. Though I am sure hard work and dedication has a lot more to do with it 🙂

Reply
Julian Adorney

January 4, 2015

Wow, this is quite the list!

I have two questions:

1) I’d love to be more involved with readersmeetwriters.com, but I have been all over the site and I can’t find the poll. Is there a link?

2) Are you planning to write all the stories in #5 this year? I probably wouldn’t ask anyone else, since it looks like a 4-5yr list, but you have a track record of doing things amazingly fast. If not, what stories are you prioritizing? I for one would love to see Dreaming the Dead and Moon and Sun #3 both become a reality.

Reply
1. Holly
  
  January 5, 2015
  
  Hi, Julian,
  
  The link to the poll is now in the Hub on ReadersMeetWriters.com (Should have put it there sooner)
  
  It’s the big white box at the top of the notices. 😀
  
  AS for all the stories in #5—no. 30 full-length novels there. That’s way more than five years.
  
  And doesn’t include any short fiction other than the Longview stuff, which, when finished, will add up to one LONG novel.
  
  Reply
  1. Holly
    
    January 5, 2015
    
    Oh. And my priority list for stories is, in order:
    
    LONGVIEW SERIES
    Cadence Drake: The Wishbone Conspiracy
    Moon & Sun: The Emerald Sun
    Talysmana
    
    Beyond that, it’s up for grabs.
    
    Reply
    1. Julian Adorney
      
      January 9, 2015
      
      Good to know. I’m looking forward to all of those!
      
      Reply
Elise M. Stone

January 4, 2015

Wow! And I thought _my_ list for this year was overly ambitious!

I was buried with publishing a new book toward the end of 2014, so didn’t see the survey or any of the things you were thinking about doing. The ReadersMeetWriters site looks awesome, but I can’t imagine getting all of it done in 2015. I’m also intrigued with the idea of the bookstore. While I’ve had success with putting all my work in KDP Select this year, I’m leery of that as a long term strategy. What with B&N being a total disaster and Apple not understanding how to make a bookstore open to everyone and needing discoverability tools so books can be found, I’d like a viable alternative to selling books online.

Wishing you lots of luck and good health for the New Year!

NOTE: I had to use Firefox to post this because in Chrome the darker brown box headed “Legal” and “Holly Lisle’s Writing Updates” overlaid the bottom half of the comment box as well as the Post Comment button.

Reply
1. Holly
  
  January 5, 2015
  
  Oh, gawd, there is no way this is one year of work! I would die trying this in one year.
  
  This is my BIG LIST.
  
  There are THIRTY full-length novels on this list, just for starters. (When it’s finished, the Longview Series is going to be the equivalent of a BIG novel, so counts as one.)
  
  This list is all the stuff I know right now that I want and need to do. No time delimiters here, no schedule, no promises.
  
  This is my work. WHEN I’ll do it is done by the following method:
  
  Set priorities.
  
  Make a short list of the most important things right now.
  
  Work one day at a time.
  
  Reply
Katharina Gerlach

January 4, 2015

I’m still awed at how many things you’re jugling, but when I looked at my own list, I realized it’s getting closer to the length of yours as well. I’m catching up on you. 😉

All the best for 2015. Hopefully this will be our breakout year (and I’ll be one person to fully support the Moon&Sun series. I’m even offering to translate it into German if you want me to).

Hugs from over the pond,
Cat

Reply
Claudette

January 3, 2015

I can’t even imagine trying to get half this much done in one year, Holly. If I get my extremely shortened list completed for the year, I’ll feel proud. If you get half of this done, you deserve a trophy for survival.

My hats off to you, girl. I can surely wait for each component to get installed. Sometimes a lower pace gets a person further in the race. 🙂

Reply
1. Holly
  
  January 5, 2015
  
  Claudette, I can’t imagine getting half the stuff on this list done in one year, either. The thirty full-length novels alone are completely outside my reach. In my fastest and most desperate year, I wrote four.
  
  This is probably a significant part of my next TEN years.
  
  Reply
  1. Holly
    
    January 5, 2015
    
    Maybe fifteen.
    
    Reply
Johanna

January 3, 2015

Your list is amazing, full of wonderful projects I look forward to seeing. Just please remember to do what drives you, and don’t let people complaining to you make this work feel like a chore. Make yourself happy first and foremost, and your readers will benefit from your passion. I worry about you, sometimes. I feel like you take on so much, and then I hear about you getting sick, or having the ice pick migraines. Take care of yourself! You are an incredible person who gives so much. We want you to be well 🙂

Reply
Genissa Bornong

January 3, 2015

Wow, Holly! That’s quite some list! I’m sure you’ll have a fabulous year with your determination 🙂

Reply
Amy

January 2, 2015

Damn. And I was feeling overwhelmed by _my_ list. Thanks for sharing this. Reminds me I have no excuses.

Reply
Mildred Holmes

January 1, 2015

I just saw the voting poll today. For some reason I was unable to log in. Figured I’d wait as that usually helps. Got switched to the new forums yesterday.

Wasn’t sure if the poll was still open for voting. However, I had planned on voting for the three-prerevision writing, and exchange editing. Matching service was something I thought about. Though considering I only got through about half of the list on the page, I wasn’t sure exactly where I was at.

I do have a list of skills that I could offer. Been working on that for my business plan.

Tried to buy one of your classes-the crash revision and things kept getting mixed up because my card is expiring this month. So I have to wait patiently for the new card to come in. Wishing I had a staff person or two to help me. I’ve applied for and been accepted at a Writer’s Workshop which has played havoc with some of my plans.

Just a bit to let you know I understand exactly where you’re coming from. So, I wait patiently while you and your trusty sidekick get things sorted out. I do have enough of the mini courses to help me through.

Reply
1. Holly
  
  January 2, 2015
  
  Until I manually close these polls, they’re open for voting. This is a case of me needing the BEST information I can get, not the fastest.
  
  So more people carefully going through the list, thinking about the things they personally need first, and going in and voting thoughtfully, based on their own needs, is much more useful to me that having a big rush where everyone rushes in and picks the first thing that looks good.
  
  And until we start building this, which is going to happen in part this year, (because I’m going to HAVE to build ReadersMeetWriters.com) in sections to keep development costs doable, every poll I set up will remain open.
  
  I will close each poll WHEN we start building that element. In this case, I’ll close the poll when I’m sure that I’m going to be able to meet the largest number of needs in the first round of building.
  
  Reply