I have an exciting new announcement!
For some time now, I've gotten a lot of emails and comments asking me to include more male to male action in my stories. In fact, there seem to be many of you who want this. At the same time, I know that many of you don't want this.
So how do I make all of you happy?
Well, I've been thinking about it and I decided that the best way to make everyone happy would be to issue two versions of my stories. The first version, under the normal red labels, will be stories like they've always been which will deal with male to female interaction. There may be some threat of male contact, depending on the story, but the overall story will always been male to female.
At the same time, I will issue another version of each story that focuses more on male to male contact. That doesn't mean there won't be male to female contact as well, depending on the story, but there will be significant or exclusive male to male contact. These will be issued under blue labels with the words "The M/M Version".
My next story ("Dress Coded"), which I hope to publish this week, will be the first with two version.
As an aside, I will also soon announce a pink label, which will be more sentimental and less-humiliation focused stories... another big request.
Hopefully, this will make it easier for everyone to find what they like in my stories.
Thoughts?
Love,
Ann
21 comments:
Sounds interesting! Hope that'll work out well, sounds hard to make two different versions.
I think it will solve the problem because I really get a lot of emails going both ways and obviously one version can't make both groups happy. We'll see how people respond.
In terms of making two versions, it is difficult, and it will get more difficult depending on the story and the number of character changes. Some characters need to be completely re-written, scenes changed, scenes added, etc. I think it worked though on the new book (Dress Coded). I think both are good. (It will be out in a few days.)
Sounds like a lot of work on your end, but it does help if people want to have a good idea what they are getting into.
Is it truly going to be the story you wish to tell though, if after you've completed it, you turn around and gut it, swap things in and out, and still try to keep something that is akin to the original?
Hi Dee,
It is definitely more work, but it solves a problem that I keep running into over and over and over. I think people will be happy to have a better sense of what they will get and being able to choose what way they want to go.
In terms of being a story I like, I hope to stay fairly close to the same plot in both versions. I guess how much it changes will depend on the individual story. This first one didn't involve any complex changes because the story wasn't a M/F love story that had to be undone. It's about a character's evolution from normal boy to feminized boy and it was relatively simple to shift his evolution. By comparison, the next one I want to write is a love story between two characters. So it will need much more significant changes.
All that said, I found something interesting in writing the two versions of this story. I found that I felt a great deal of freedom to write each version because I wasn't trying to split the baby, so to speak. I could simply focus on one version or the other, and that made it easier to write the critical scenes that I often agonize over.
Wow, interesting approach, hon. I did something similar with my Alpha Transformation / Alpha Surrender story, but can't say I've seen much of a return on the investment in time and effort.
Instead, I've taken the step of establishing a different pen-name for stories that don't fit with the 'Sally' brand. It's a hassle to have another persona to manage, but I'll give it a few books and see how it goes. It does give me some freedom to indulge and be a bit wild with my ideas, which is nice.
Hi Sally,
I'm not sure if this will be worth it or not at this point. I hope so, but we'll see. This is easily the biggest thing I get emails about (both ways), so I thought it made sense to try to do something. But I don't know if people really will be interested.
At one point, I actually did create a second persona to try to write different books but I found it too hard to maintain.
It's so hard to be slaves to a muse, while wanting to make readers happy, isn't it? :)
I have another 'Sally' story I'm working on where I want to do the dual/twin versions, so I'm not completely giving up on the idea. As for the new pen-name, I've promised myself I'd give it 6 months and 3 stories before making a call. It's only been 2 weeks, and I'm getting some good engagement, already have a fan, and I'm seeing decent KU pages read.
I'll be really curious to see how well it works for you, given your considerable history and reputation. I'm pulling for you! :)
Sally, It is! I have so many ideas I still want to write!
That's great that you're seeing good engagement. My other persona did well, but it drove me nuts trying to write for two accounts and I stopped. I wish I could move those books over now, but I don't want to confuse people.
Thanks! And thanks for the kind words! I'll be curious too.
Hi Ann,
I've not commented on here before, but this has finally convinced me to stop lurking and say something! I've been a fan of your work for a while a now, but I'm not too into the whole humiliation thing - a 'pink label' version of your writing that focuses more on the sentimental side of things sounds great. I hope it pays off for you, and keep up the fabulous work!
Hi Zeal! Thanks for commenting!
That is the second most requested thing I get: books without humiliation. And indeed, I have quite a few stories I'd like to write that are more sentimental. I'm actually really excited about this idea. :)
As with the M/M issue though, there is this problem of what people expect and of people being upset that the book they bought isn't what they wanted. I think that creating a new "Pink Label" set of books that are more sentimental will make people happy and will make it easy for people to know what they are buying when they pick a certain book.
Thanks again for commenting!
Truly might not enjoy a story as much knowing there was an alternate made with sexual/romantic relationships of different orientation.
Anon, It's possible people will feel that way. I guess we'll see. But keep this in mind. In many ways, this isn't any different than issuing a director's cut or a reboot. And the benefit of doing this is that people who want male to male contact, and people who don't, both get what they want and neither needs to buy a book unsure of what they will get.
Hi Ann
To be honest I enjoy and prefer your existing style (F/M) but I am also a person who likes to try something before I make a decision on it.
So I am looking forward to reading both versions and making a decision then.
Hope it goes well and you get from it what you want as a writer.
Regards
Hi Demian!
Thank you for your kind wishes. :)
I'm glad you're interested in both versions and I hope you will share your thoughts when you've read them both. That said, let me warn you that for this book ("Dress Coded"), the two stories are very similar. There are perhaps only 3000 words that are different out of the 32,000 words that make up the story because of the nature of this story. That's not to say that the stories aren't different, but I'm not sure that reading both will be that rewarding. The next one (the one I'm working on now -- "The Intern") will be much more dramatically different between the two versions.
Not sure this does work with ALL story-lines or peoples' interests. For example many here may like scripts on Female supremacy and/or sex role reversals or power exchange between Female and male... definitely like one comment above there could be feeling that such re-edited version is purely manipulative.
Hi whyguys,
It wouldn't work in terms of those things because those are plots/setting and would require whole new books. In other words, there's no practical way to take a story and convert it to sex role reversal or female supremacy without completely re-writing the story from scratch. It can be done with M/M v. M/F, however.
And it certainly isn't manipulative. This is something which brings up very strong opinions on both sides, and this is just my attempt to give both groups what they want.
Haven't you done this before? I seem to recall that one of your earlier books was published in two versions. Or perhaps it was another writer?
Anyway, it sounds interesting even though it may mean I have to buy two books instead of just the one :)
Robi
Anne Michelle...
Actually we are saying the same thing. I merely posited that it would be impossible to take original Female supremacist or sex role reversal themes and make them male-male. I was not asking you to take male-male themes and force them into a template of female-male, which is what i may or may not have taken as your original intent.
whyguys, It sounds like we are. :)
And just to be clear for whoever reads this, each version will stand alone quite nicely. This isn't just some global replace "she" with "he." The M/M version is re-written to focus on M/M themes.
P.S. whyguys, thanks for all the comments you leave. I always enjoy those! :)
Robi,
I tried this very early on with "More Than He Bargained For" with a cuckolding ending. It wasn't something I wanted to do consistently though, so I dropped the idea and I put the alternate ending and the regular ending in one book and that's the one on my homepage now.
I'm glad you're interested in both versions, but please let me warn you that these two versions are not that different. Most of the book is identical (especially the first half) for both versions. The next book (The Intern) will be much more different. So if you're just curious about the two version thing, it might be better to wait for the next one.
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