Have done the copyedits. Have fixed typos and clarified a few things. Have redone the font, made it all pretty for print, and now Holly Lisle’s Create A Language Clinic has passed muster and is now available for purchase.
In a few days, a revised PDF version will be available for download from the shop, free to anyone who purchased it previously. It will take me that long to get everything switched around.
Shawna—LOL. That was a weird mistake on my part. To me, CCC is Create A Character Clinic. Create A Culture Clinic is either C3-II or WB-II, in order to avoid confusion. However, the obvious acronym for both of them is CCC. I tried—I really, really tried—to come up with a different same for the culture clinic, but there is no other word in English for culture that encompasses all the characteristics of a culture, without adding or subtracting a few critical elements.
I’m so happy you like the feel of the clinics. The hands-on, messy art-class approach was exactly what I hoped to share from the way I work—the fact that if you just get in there and start doing things (and your process has direction), something wonderful and mind-bending and powerful will happen.
I’m also thrilled that your librarian was interested in the books, and sorry they aren’t available in a wider format. As noted elsewhere, I can’t afford small-selling nonfiction sales numbers on writing books to tank my fiction numbers, which means that for now I’m stuck self-pubbing the nonfiction. If I ever become bulletproof fiction-wise (JK Rowling is bulletproof), I’ll do everything in my power to get them into the hands of a professional publisher.
Yessum, I was referring to the word count… I’d noticed that it went up to 8,000, and since the last I’d seen was 2,000, I was encouraged. And curious if it was going to beget any more unexpected children (like the Language Clinic) or if it might surpass that 30,000 goal. That list of topics seems huge. Beyond huge. Thank you for the Lulu lesson, though. (grin)
Lulu seems to have its uses… but it seems most effective for books of limited interest…
I really wish your Clinic books were available in the regular manner. I was talking with my local librarian about them, especially the language clinic. It’s really a refreshing change from the typical writing book, IMO… and it, and what you’ve said about the other books you plan, and even thinking about the horse one you’ve added to your shop… it made me realize there is a huge potenetial subset of writing books that simply don’t exist yet.
And now I’m sitting here, having said that, and I can’t figure out how to put into words what the difference is. Maybe a part of it is the hands-on feel… sort of like comparing a messy kindergarten art class, where you just get in there and DO it, (and enjoy it) as opposed to a book that drones like you’re student 503, way in the back of lecture hall… and not anything like a high school lesson, read this, do those exercises, and you’ll get it, at least well enough…
But that isn’t really all I mean, either. I have to head out the door, soccer game, now, so I can’t muddle over it any more now. But dang it anyways, hopefully you know what I mean. Different, in a refreshing, positive sort of way.
Has the Language Clinic been substantially altered? Enough to warrant a re-read, I mean?
BTW, I believe shawna was referring to the word count graphs in the sidebar…
Hi, Shawna. Don’t get too amazed by the numbers.
In the four months that CCC has been available in paperback form, its rank has risen to 4,596. In that time, it’s sold twenty-five copies. Total.
Language Clinic’s rank is currently 15,450, which looks pretty impressive, too. What you have to realize is, that rank translates into a sale of three copies. Total.
So there are 10,854 books on Lulu that have sold between three and twenty-five copies. There are 4,595 books on Lulu that have sold twenty-five or more copies. And ALL THE REST of the hundreds of thousands of books on Lulu have sold three or fewer than three copies.
The books are in paperback because a few people asked for them in paperback, and I found a way to bring them out in that format. But the format is expensive, and people much prefer the e-mail versions.
Wow, look at the numbers on the Culture Clinic… yay! Just curious, though… does it look like it’s going to get too big for its britches, too?