This is a long post which has nothing to do with Ellora’s Cave, and everything to do with Courtney Milan. It’s like I remembered that I actually run a business or something…?
The whiplash version of this post: I’ve hit several milestones involving large numbers, The Duchess War is free, I’m playing with pricing, I will have a short story up in the first-ever RWA anthology, my next book will be a New Adult contemporary romance, and the first book in the Worth Saga will be out next May.
Want more details? Follow me below the jump.
First: I wrapped up The Brothers Sinister series this year–meaning I now have three complete series out there, an accomplishment that seems surprising and vast. I cannot imagine myself having another three complete series, ever, and yet unless things go weird, it will probably happen. Somehow in my head I still see myself as at the beginning of my career. Obviously, I need to adjust that internal expectation.
Here’s my personal adjustment. By my count, I’ve published the following:
This Wicked Gift – 28,781 words
Proof by Seduction – 90,304 words
Trial by Desire – 90,508 words
Unveiled – 99,930 words
Unlocked – 27,707 words
Unclaimed – 89,217 words
Unraveled – 93,525 words
What Happened at Midnight – 35,273 words
The Lady Always Wins – 18,547 words
The Governess Affair – 32,597 words
The Duchess War – 97,113 words
A Kiss for Midwinter – 37,635 words
The Heiress Effect – 102,404 words
The Countess Conspiracy – 91,440 words
The Suffragette Scandal – 95,491 words
Talk Sweetly to Me – 34,119 words
Total: 1,064,591 wordsÂ
In other words, sometime in 2014, without my quite noticing it, I published my millionth word of historical romance. Also sometime in 2014, without my quite noticing it, some reader bought my millionth book. These are both momentous things, and I wouldn’t have been able to do either one without the readers, librarians, and reviewers who have enjoyed my books and told others about them.
So, thank you all so much.
I have the best job in the world and you can’t imagine how happy I am about that, and I’m looking forward to the day that I can announce that I’ve published another million words of historical romance.
And that leads me to…
Second: I can’t think of a better way to thank you all than this. I’ve made The Duchess War free right now, and you can get it at these places: kindle | iBooks | nook | kobo | google play | smashwords | all romance ebooks.
It will remain free through the holiday season. If you’re in the UK and you want to get this free on Amazon, please report it available at a lower price on the Amazon page, and hopefully Amazon will get with the program already.
Third: I’m tweaking pricing (er: to clarify on average, it will go slightly up) over the next few months. I have pretty much convinced myself that I’m going to start pricing full-length novels up to $4.99 as a general rule, and possibly (still arguing with myself on this) novellas up to $2.99. But, because I want to reward people who get in early, I’ll be launching full-length books at $3.99 for the preorder period and for the first few days, and the novellas at $0.99.
If you want to make sure you don’t miss that early bird bonus, sign up for my new release email list. I always respect your inbox. You can easily unsubscribe, I only email when there’s a new release, and I never give away emails to anyone else because that’s rude.
Speaking of new releases…
Fourth: I have a short story coming out in RWA’s first ever anthology. A Right Honorable Gentleman is short (about 7,000 words) but I really, really like how it turned out. You can read more about it here. It’s coming on February 12, 2015, and it will be in an anthology with 18 stories in total–over 100,000 words of story–ranging from contemporary to paranormal to historical to LGBT–for the low price of $4.99. I hope you like it.
But speaking of other genres…
Fifth: As it turns out, a million words of historical romance is a lot of words. I’ve mentioned in the occasional interview that I have ideas for books that are not historical romances. I mostly haven’t written them for a lot of reasons—there’s an obvious and clear demand for my historical romances, and given a choice between writing a book for which there is an obvious and clear demand, and writing a book in another genre for which there is not an obvious and clear demand, practicality and general business sense dictates that I write the former.
This isn’t a problem. I love writing historical romances. I don’t think I will ever stop writing historical romances.
But…
I have been working on the first book in my next series, and the major problem I have had is that after a million words of historical romance, I need a break. It won’t be a long break. It won’t be a permanent break. But you deserve to have me give you books that I am excited about writing, and I deserve to be writing something I am excited about. After several months of trying to get excited about something that I need a rest from, I shifted gears and started to work on a completely different project, one that I’ve been mulling over for years. I’m extremely excited about it.
You? I don’t know if you will be excited about this book at all, and you don’t have to be, and it has been honestly freeing to write with the expectation that everyone will hate this book. The book is called Trade Me, it will be out at the end of January, and you can read more about it here. I hope I’ll have the first chapter up soon, and you can judge for yourself whether you want to be excited, too.
Finally, sixth: So when will the Worth Saga start? Now that I’ve taken a little time off, I can better judge. You’ll have the first book in May of 2015. I feel fairly confident about that.
Congratulations on all of this!
Yeah! I’m so excited about Trade Me. I’ve been sending you subliminal messages to write something contemporary so I could read you explain stuff in modern slang and make modern, metaphorical connections! I feel like you’re Santa answering my Xmas letter, and I don’t even celebrate Xmas.
Yay!! I can’t wait for the new series.
I’m ridiculously excited to read a Courtney Milan contemporary. Also, I just noticed how the color of your name changes on refresh of the blog. Snazzy!
Are you sure it’s a New Adult–I didn’t see a mention of the hero being a cage fighter in the blurb. 🙂 Looking forward to your take on this sub-genre.
Congratulations! Mike and I (Mr Milan’s uncle and aunt) are very proud of your accomplishments. Writing is NOT for the faint of heart!
One million books sold. Congratulations! And thank you for the hours of reading pleasure.
I am SO EXCITED for a Courtney Milan contemporary! I’m not normally a historical girl, but I make an exception for you because, well, you’re YOU. But a contemporary to look forward to? :squeals in glee:
Congrats on the million word (and book) milestone! I’ve liked a few contemporary romances, but I’ve only loved Megan Hart’s erotic romances. (Do those even qualify as contemporaries?) I trust you, though, and I’ll read whatever you write, even a New Adult with a billionaire MC, something that would normally send me running for the hills.
Congratulations on all your milestones–holy cow, a million words and over a million books sold.
That kind of leaves a reader speechless, frankly.
As for Trade Me, I keep telling myself I’m not a first person or New Adult kind of reader, and then a good writer comes and knocks me off my ass…umptions. 😀
Congratulations on your milestone and self-publishing success.
Congratulations. What an amazing milestone. Looking forward to the NA.
Congratulations on your success! I haven’t read Historicals for many years, but once upon a time, my shelves were cramed with Pirates and their fair captives. I’m looking forward to trying The Duchess War. If you can make me love a breakdown of a legal battle, your books should be awesome! I’m searching for a good definition of the YA or NA genre as it differs from others. If you have the time, I’d love to read your perspective as an author.
Congratulations, Courtney, on reaching such awesome milestones! I’m a huge fan of your historical romances, but I’d love to read your new contemporary romance. Keep up the good work! You’re an inspiration.
Congratulations on the millions milestones. 🙂 And I’m pleased to see the special on “The Duchess War”, because having read the entire series over the last three weeks I am about to go and Kermit-flail on my blog about it.
However, I’ve just been over to Kobo to pick up links, and get a “no longer available” error for both “The Governess Affair” and “A Novella Collection” when I follow the link from your website. Neither book shows up on Kobo if I search on your name as author, even though they’re there on Smashwords and Amazon. (This is from a UK IP address.) Er – help?
Price-matched on Amazon UK now. 🙂
der, i just clicked on this link in a friend (julia)’s lj, cos it said that you write f/sf & i’ve something of an interest in this… (see notes on or in some of the diarybits on my website). will go on looking (from time to time) unless requested to refrain from so doing. love, point.
Amazing news all of them! Congrats for your million of words & millionth book sold. I’m more a contemporary reader than a historical one so therefore I’m very interested in this opportunity to read one of my favourite authors in my favourite genre, but-.
This is a kind of deja vu for me. B/c that’s what I though & felt when another of my favourites wrote her first contemporary and I was soooo disappointed.
So this time I will try to keep calm and not to have high expectations.
Those are tremendous milestones and I am happy to have read every single one of those million words. I don’t know if I will love or hate the new book either, but I know I will buy it the second it becomes available and continue to recommend your books to everyone who will listen (whether given away for free or not).
Congratulations! I guess that means you not only wrote a million words but I read a million of your words! I’ve never taken the time to tell you how much I appreciate your books so I’m doing it now. You have an amazing talent. I’m looking forward to reading everything you write in the coming years!
congratulations on your milestones
Congratulations on the million-word mark! The pricing The Duchess War at $0.00 definitely worked for me. I’ve been meaning to try your books for awhile, especially since I recently started self-pubbing stuff of my own (something I really wanted to do because it had been two years since my last trad-published book came out), and once I sped through that I went out and read two more books in the series and one of the shorts in, oh, a weekend. Ha! Here’s to an enjoyable and profitable million more words–and I hope you enjoy the fun project as you take a well-deserved break.
1,064,591 words! That’s quite an accomplishment. My accomplishment? I’ve read every one of those 1,064,591 words and thoroughly enjoyed them all. Thank you.
I love your work and I first found it because The Governess Affair was free. I have then proceeded to buy ALL OF YOUR BOOKS this past year. I’m glad for you, that you feel you can up the price, and I will just have to make sure to buy all your books fast, so I can afford them ^^
I bet you I bought your millionth book!! I absolutely love your syntax and grammatical correctness. Being a non-mathmatical person, I realized something needed to be important so words are my drug. Thanks for feeding my addiction!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Is that enough exclamation points to be more than the sentence?)
When is Trade Me going to be available on Amazon? I have read and greatly enjoyed all of your previous books. I was wondering about this one, but the excerpt convinced me I really want to read it.
Now I have read it, I have only one thing to say.
Excellent.
To amplify a little more, these were the only two fictional billionaires I ever encountered who are actually convincing. I could believe these people are responsible for a company worth over $500 billion. Bravo.