Greetings, Holy Worlds and the dear friends that inhabit it! It's my great pleasure to bring before you today a proposition that has been making the rounds amongst the admin. All of the forum leaders are excited about the prospect, but at Elanor's request we wanted to lay the proposition in front of you all, the community, before it's legally signed in blood. We're opening the floor for your honest opinion and open discussion, so read what we're proposing, consider it, and then discuss away!
A bit of backstory:
Most of you know me, but for the few that don't, I'm a longtime member of Holy Worlds. I joined about 5 (plus?) years ago, back when the forum was just entering its first baby boom, if you will. I was first an HRM, then a moderator (still my favorite role
), and then an ML. I was one of the major leaders of the sci-fi side when we had separate forums. All of my books were born and raised here. I would not be published if it weren't for the friendship and efforts of the community.I took a break from HW and moderating a few years back to get my personal life sorted out, but I wasn't a total loser during my sabbatical--I started an interior formatting business. At first it was just a "friends and family" pastime through my blog, but as business grew do did my dreams. Then I got married to a man who has business sense and dreams equal to mine, plus the computer knowledge to make it happen. Together we turned my hobby into a business, Penoaks Publishing. We now offer a full array of book services for independent authors. This year we'll be adding even more services as well as hiring our first outside help. Within three to five years we plan to be a full-service publishing company with our own office space and printing press, although we'll always offer services to indie authors.
Why is this important? Because Penoaks Publishing has accepted an offer to acquire Holy Worlds.
Now there's a world of possibility within that statement, which is what has all the admins scheming with excitement. But in the meantime, I'll try and employ my marketing skills and keep it succinct...
What this means for Holy Worlds:
*Penoaks will sign papers saying that we legally acquire all of the names, websites, and other entities relating to Holy Worlds. No money will be exchanged.
*Penoaks will assume the financial responsibility of maintaining Holy Worlds. We will fund the hosting and domain, pay the taxes, register necessary copyrights and trademarks, etc. No longer will there be a question about who owns what or who's paying for what, and Penoaks will not be asking any of the current leaders or admins to contribute money.
*Meanwhile, Holy Worlds will continue to operate as its own entity. A "board of directors" will be established that will control finances, forum management, etc. internally. This will be entirely separate from Penoaks' management, and people will not be required to be involved with Penoaks to hold a position on Holy Worlds (although, of course, there will be people like me that "work" at both Penoaks and Holy Worlds).
*The current forum leadership will remain in place, and the forums will continue to run as they are now--although a lot of new opportunities, improved forum function, etc. will be available in the future! But for the meantime, everything will run as it always has.
How this benefits Holy Worlds:
*Holy Worlds financial and tax concerns will be completely taken care of by Penoaks.
*I will work with the current circle of Marcher Lords to restore HW and get it thriving again.
*My husband will work with the current tech team to fix HW's "back end" and bring us new features.
*And, best of all, in the next year or two we can finally realize our dream of turning Holy Worlds in a publishing company dedicated to Christian spec fic. Penoaks has the publishing resources and expertise needed to run the book creation end. Holy Worlds will become a dedicated "imprint" of Penoaks explicit for Christian spec fic, although again, all positions on the publishing arm will be run by people dedicated to Holy Worlds and not just Penoaks.
*With a publishing arm and a bigger selection of indie resources, Holy Worlds can grow into a respected, established voice for Christian spec fic, which will in turn attract more writers to the community.
Hopefully this gives you a taste of what can come from this relationship. Obviously this will all take time to implement, and everyone will have a lot of questions and concerns. To briefly summarize what will happen, though...
What you can expect in the next few months:
*Penoaks will sign papers legally acquiring Holy Worlds' assets. Again, no money will be exchanged.
*A new "board of directors" will be formed of myself, my husband, and all the existing MLs. This new board will start working together to write a company charter for Holy Worlds. This charter will designate everyone's roles and responsibilities as well as lay out clauses and exceptions. This charter will cover everything from "What happens if Penoaks dissolves?" to "Who has the final say in which forum projects are approved?" This will place safeguards in place as well as clearly define who is responsible for what. It will eliminate a lot of the confusion and unclear structure of authority that caused a lot of problems in the past.
*The tech team will start rolling out forum changes and updates we prepare to move Holy Worlds to our company server.
*This could take several weeks to fully implement. Once everything is on solid ground, new projects will start rolling out, publishing will start to grind its gears in the background, and new roles will be open to community members who want to dive in head first!
Again, this is just a brief summary to give you a clear idea of what's on the table, as well as hopefully answer the most obvious questions. As stated above, this has not been signed in blood yet. Elanor wanted us to bring it to you all before it was made official. So please, start discussing!
From my husband and I, we are absolutely thrilled by this prospect and very excited about the possibilities it holds. This answers many prayers--not only our prayer that we would have the opportunity to move into publishing full-time, but also my personal prayer that I might be involved in restoring Holy Worlds. I hope this excites all of you, as well.
*happy spazzy dance* Can't wait to see all the amazing things God is going to achieve through this. For the first time in years, I'm actually excited about HW again. 
