I’ve decided to remove one link entirely as redundant, remove the other two with an explanation of why the links aren’t with the demo, add a link to the website for a simple download, and be done with it.
My corrections are off to my ebook formatter, and the download page is already live.
You’re welcome to take a look if you’d like.
http://howtothinksideways.com/lesson-six-missing-links/
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Dear Holly,
I’m not sure where to post this question, and I hope this is appropriate. I’ve just finished your “Mugging the Muse,” which worked wonderfully well to get me out of a slump and get excited about my career and prospects again. What I wonder is — have you written any advice on handling your international sales? Is there anything special to know?
Hi, Jacintha,
All of my international sales have been done through agents. I’m solid on how to do things in the US, but I have not written anything on this subject because I simply do not know.
Holly
After serious consideration, it occurs to me that I need to Think more. Thank you.
Hi, Holly.
I’m sorry, but I don’t know where else to ask this question, as the HTTS forum is read only for me.
I’m buying the HTTS series lesson by lesson, and in Lesson One I ran into this: “If you were paying close attention to the Month One movie…” but there was no previous link to the Month One movie. (I’ve checked both the mobi and the PDF version to see if I’ve missing something.)
The download page at the end of the lessons also mentions a student needs to have Quicktime installed to view the movies.
As I’m a lesson-by-lesson HTTS buyer, should I ignore the references to the movies, as I’m not allowed to view them either?
Thanks for your help. Please email me if you need my purchase credentials.
Hi, Wednesday,
First, the best place to ask is Support. Look at the header bar on the top right, click the Support link, and create a ticket. (Next time.) This time I’ve got you here.
Second, when you logged into the free classroom to get your worksheet downloads, you should have seen the upgrade option for the supplemental material and handouts beneath the link for your worksheets.
The original HTTS Course sold for $440. It included lessons, techniques, videos, an enormous number of handouts, and the live community. Video downloads, large handouts, and community and site maintenance are expensive.
The HTTS Direct course is designed to get you the information to write your book at the lowest possible price. To do this, and not to spread the cost of the course across people who would not be using all of it, I pulled the parts that are expensive for me to provide, and bundled them separately.
I’ve made sure you will be able to write your novel with just the parts of the course in the HTTS Direct version. If you want the extra downloads and the lifetime community membership, there’s an extra $60 charge, payable either in one lump or over six monthly payments.
Dear Holly,
Congratulations on fiunding this solution.
However, may I make a couple of suggestions:
1. Perhaps you need to state that the removal of the links was required by Apple due to their unwillingness to tolerate links to sites they consider to be their competitors
2. You may wish to consider consulting a lawyer about whether Apple’s actions constitute unfair restriction of your trade, or whether they may be unlawfully anti-competitive in their nature and intent
If either is true, then logically, you would be entitled to compensatory damages.
As an Australian, I have no idea whether US Law would render these action unlawful, but I suspect it may.
Good luck!
The notice that Apple required the removal of the links is in the text of the lesson. 😀
As for making this a legal issue, no. I would consider that a frivolous misuse of the courts. Businesses have the right to determine which products they wish to sell and which they wish not to sell. I wish to reserve this right for myself, and have no desire to fight against it for someone else because it proves inconvenient for me in this instance.
I consider this a self-correcting problem. Apple will either realize its own actions in keeping its market closed and tightly controlled are the reason it has such a small market share, and open things up, or its market share will continue to dwindle to the point that jumping through Apple’s hoops to get books on there will become an unprofitable waste of time for most producers, and they’ll take their work elsewhere.
Cool, Holly! It’s a great solution and I’m glad we helped you find it. Not that I think I was much help.
Might I add that I’m grateful that you put these issues out to all of us so that we can avoid these pitfalls as well!
I downloaded the PDF to test it out, and while the first link works fine, the second takes me to the Google homepage. It works fine when I copy/paste it into my browser, just not when I click on it directly. I don’t know if this is just an issue with my browser or with the link itself, but it might be worth having people test.
I’m having the same issue with the second link using an iPad 2 and iBooks.
This worked the same way on my MacBook. I have no idea why, since I don’t use Google as my default browser. Usually, when I hit a bad link, I’m taken to Verizon (my provider) but this time, it was Google.
Drat.
(I should have specified that I was working from a computer running Windows 7, and opened the link using Google Chrome.)
Well done and glad we were able to help!
Kate
I love workarounds. I don’t always love that they’re necessary.
I like ’em when they work. I did everything I could to make sure this one was as hassle-free as humanly possible.
Almost exactly what I was going to say Deborah so I will ‘ditto’ your comment 🙂
Well done Holly!
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