Updates On "Prisoner!", and "Lalitha".

Well, first of all, I made The Lost Years:  Helen & Lalitha  a free download, and then I made Prisoner no longer free, but priced at 99 cents.  (I think it is one of my best stories, and easily worth more than the price I've set.  But stories that sell on Smashwords are, I believe, priced very low, and that's what readers are looking for.)

Immediately, of course, Prisoner stopped selling; in fact nothing has sold for the last few days!  The message is clear: I may give away my stories, but I may not try to sell them.  (On the other hand, there are a few steady sales on Apple Books, and Barnes and Noble, for which I'm grateful.)

Lalitha, meanwhile, priced to move as a free download, has not sold a single copy, which is frustrating for me.  I think that story, which is not an essential part of the Sharon story, except for establishing essential background for the character Sita, is nevertheless a lovely, romantic story on its own, with several fascinating characters, even though they're essentially adults.

Prisoner, which was downloaded enthusiastically, is certainly a great story, but it is set in a fantasy universe, and the characters are in their late teens.  I wonder whether that's the secret of the popularity of Prisoner?

Meanwhile, I commissioned an artist to supply for me a cover for Lalitha, and she delivered a few hours ago.  The main illustration for the cover is shown here.  It depicts the unofficial 'wedding' where Helen and Lalitha are informally married according to a Hindu rite.  I'm pleased with how Lalitha has been drawn, but in the story Helen has been a worker in housing construction, something which I did not make clear to the artist.  Still, I do see Helen and Lalitha in the artwork, and I think it is just perfect.  Whether it will help to make the book more attractive, I cannot say!

Kay

"Prisoner!", and Other Stories

My story Prisoner! is now being given away for free on Smashwords, and all the other books are being sold for 99c or a little more; as a result, only Prisoner is selling!  I'm a little annoyed, and I'm also not annoyed; it's complicated.

Prisoner! is an interesting story, because of the voice of the narration.  In a nod to the historical flavor of the story--not that it is historical, or even fictionalized history--it has a sort of dispassionate, matter-of-fact tone to the narration; perhaps this works really well.  The emotional relationships emerge well into the story, and there is a sort of objective flavor to most of the sex that is there.  (There is very little graphic sex.)  The main character is essentially a female security guard of the bronze age, who develops feelings for the princess whom she is assigned to guard.

If any of my blog readers have read it already, you will know the story, those of you who have not read it, well, what can I say?  It is as well written as any of the other stories, and better-written than most, really.  And, of course, it is being given away at the moment: 2019.  In fact, it has been given away for most of this year.  Unfortunately, none of the other books are like it; the story whose tone comes closest is Alexandra, which is set at a time when the civilization is like the late 19^th century / early 20^th century.  It is in the distant future, but technology has regressed, and so scientific knowledge is somewhat primitive.  However, Alexandra was an early effort, and I was not as experienced when I was writing it.

There is another story set in a bronze-age universe: Jana.  It isn't ready for publication, but I had put up episodes from it on this very blog; the last few episodes were mere summaries of the story.

Well, it seems common sense to change my strategy, and do two things: (1) charge for Prisoner, since if its sales take a dive, it will have no implications for the sales of any of the other books; (2) select another loss-leader, e.g. Helen at Ballet Camp, or Helen and Lalitha.  Ballet Camp is a sort of goofy piece of writing!  It is unlikely to lead anyone to follow it up with reading any of the other Helen stories.  Helen and Lalitha, in contrast, is a very strong story, with characters who are very real to me, and three-dimensional.

You know, literary coaches are always telling inexperienced writers to cut the fat in their writing.  Take out anything that isn't absolutely necessary.  Kill any inessential characters, and so on.  Well, I did this for Lalitha, and you know what happened?  I killed the vitality from the thing.  The interaction between Helen and Lalitha, which was one of the greatest events in Helen's life, and in Lalitha's life as well, which cast an immensely long shadow on their histories, just stands there, like a ruined castle.

In India, Helen fails to do anything consequential to prevent Lalitha's marriage to someone she does not love; in fact the ten years Helen spends in India (which is a little implausible, because certainly someone in Helen's family would have tried to find out where she was) is totally wasted; it accomplishes absolutely nothing.  Well, life is like that; some years only succeed in making you older!  (That's certainly true for the past three years of my life.)  On the other hand, Helen does become fluent in one Indian dialect, but that fact never has any bearing on what happens to Helen.

I'm not very motivated at the moment, so I'll get around to changing the pricing on Prisoner!  and Lalitha sometime, possible next week.  Because of the prices I have chosen: 99 cents or less, I cannot put these books into the promotional plans that Smashwords sets up for the Holiday Season.

Well, happy holidays anyway!  I strongly believe in enjoying holidays to the fullest, even if you don't believe in any of the mythology!  Don't let the bastards grind you down!  Broadcast love to everyone, even those rotten conservatives!  Nobody is at their best when they've got their backs to the wall.

Love,

Kay