outtakes…

When my agent first sent Proof by Seduction out to editors, it started with a scene between Gareth and Ned. I had played with the concept of ditching that initial scene, but had never quite figured out how to do it. On the one hand, I wanted to get rid of it because I felt as if it were like starting off playing a symphony with a variation, rather than a theme; on the other hand, getting rid of it would have ruined some of the symmetry that comes later in the book.

When HQN acquired the book, my editor had some ideas for how to tighten up the manuscript, and ultimately, that first scene disappeared. But since the book has apparently been showing up on shelves, both real and virtual, for about a week now, and as its official release date approaches, I thought it might be nice for everyone to see how it originally began…

Here you are: the original first scene of the book. Think of it this way: Gareth meets man-eating elephants, and lo, they are herbivores.

Antidisclaimer: Books I give away

Here we poke, disturbingly, behind the grotty scenes of a romance author’s blog, and ask this question:

“Courtney, where do you get the books that you give away?”

Good question. Sometimes when you see a book being given away on a blog, the truth is that the source of the book is either the author or the publisher. Authors receive a number of free copies of her book–I get 48, which is enough to fill a box that if dropped at precisely the wrong angle, could break your toe. We could leave these books on our shelves to look pretty, but (a) all our shelves are already full with books written by other people; and (b) they don’t do any good sitting on our own shelves, because an author is not precisely her target market (Although, admission: I bought a shocking number of copies of my own book–which makes no economic sense at all).

Despite this, as a general rule, I buy every book I give away. (The only exception to this was Sherry Thomas’s Not Quite a Husband; of the two copies I gave away, Sherry bought one copy and I bought the other.) I do this for two reasons:

1. I want to support other authors who I think write cool books.

2. If I’m talking about a book, by implication I think it is worth spending money on. It’s a way of keeping me honest: As a romance author, the prevailing community norm is that authors don’t talk critically about other books. So how can you trust that I mean it when I say I like a book? And that’s easy: you can trust me because I’m willing to put my own money–for the book and postage–on the line.

The only books I (probably) haven’t paid for are my own–my publisher gives me free copies–and even then that’s not guaranteed, because as I mentioned earlier, in defiance of all economic rationality, I buy my own book. Often.

Disclaimer to this antidisclaimer: I am writing this post because three separate people e-mailed me and said, “Oh, you’re giving away a copy of my book! Let me give you one of my author copies!” To these very nice offers, I said, “Pfft.”

I’m fairly certain…

I have the best friends ever.

Tessa Dare and a bunch of other people have teamed up to create the 12 days of Proof by Seduction. This was done entirely without my knowledge; I was holed up in an undisclosed location attempting to write while they plotted the whole thing. Apparently this will involve a song, with 12 verses (are you scared? I am scared!), and autographed giveaways from a ton of historical authors (Eloisa James, Julia Quinn, Anna Campbell, Sherry Thomas, Elizabeth Hoyt, Sara Lindsey, Julie Anne Long, Carolyn Jewel, Victoria Dahl, Jennifer Haymore, and of course Tessa Dare herself).

So, frequent Tessa’s blog. And watch Twitter. Or something. I wish I knew what was going to happen, but right now, you know as much as I do.

Also, I have some other things that will be going up on my site in the next few days, so keep an eye out for them!

Be vewwy, vewwy quiet!

Apparently, Amazon has copies of Proof by Seduction in stock. Order it now, and get it by Christmas…

Also available: Victoria Dahl’s awesome Lead Me On.

I will, of course, let you all know when I find it in stock other places. Also, thanks for the timing, Amazon! The slimy-baby post was supposed to be weeks away from official release. Now everyone will know about it when they can actually buy it.

Edited: Barnes & Noble shows that Proof is shipping as well; and Powell‘s has it shipping in 1-3 days.

In which Courtney solves RWA’s problems…

…and yet oddly, nobody feels like thanking her. 😉 (Edited to add: this is supposed to signal that I’m being tongue-in-cheek, and my goal is not to say “This is the answer!” but to start a dialogue; but obviously some things don’t come across in clear text.)

RWA has announced that it will be holding a special board meeting to decide how to deal with Harlequin’s announcement that it will include a vanity press going forward. I’ve been thinking about this, up and down, right and left, on and off ever since the announcement was made, and I’ve come to a handful of conclusions, which I now share with you (and which I will eventually pass on to RWA’s Board just as soon as everybody’s done shooting holes in it).

Since this is long and boring, it is after the jump, so that those of you who don’t care about RWA and vanity publishing can breathe a sigh of relief and go on your merry ways.

Continue reading →

It’s a baby!

By the time I get to the end of every book, I absolutely hate it, more than you can possibly imagine, and I can see no reason why anyone else would ever want to read it.

It is in this lovely vein that I then must work at promoting it. I have to tell other people why they must read it. An admission, because I am feeling honest. I’ve been working on promotional stuff for Proof by Seduction in which I tell you how much I love and adore my book. But it’s all a pack of lies. I don’t love my book.

Some people say they love their books as if they were babies. Maybe there’s some truth to that, because there’s a moment in every infant’s life when it has just wet its diaper for the fourth time in thirty minutes, not that it matters, because somehow it wormed out of the diaper, which it left in a wet mass on top of the stairs. It’s crying at the top of its lungs. And despite what appears to be a general tendency towards immobility, the baby has still managed to climb out of its crib, open three intervening doors, and is now splashing in the antifreeze out in the garage. Also–dear God, what is that thing in its mouth? You have to be kidding me. It’s not a–oh. Yes. Yes, it is.

Mothers, you know what I am talking about. (I do not have children yet, but I have a dog, which is almost the same thing, and this story also perfectly describes my younger brother at one year old.) This is the moment when every mother, whether she admits it or not, wants to shriek, “Please! Anybody! TAKE THIS CHILD, I will give you twenty dollars! No, thirty!”

This is what I think about when other people say that their books are their “babies.” I hate my books with an undying passion, even if part of me feels some kind of grudging kinship and responsibility. If anyone asks me in public, of course, my books are all little angels and I adore every fat little dimple on their collective chins. But in private, my books are that baby, covered in antifreeze, oddly diaper-less, leaving a trail of terrifying baby-slime in their wake.

So. Ahem. Who wants to buy a copy of Proof by Seduction?

Many, many winners

So… giving away more books than you can shake a stick at, to more people than you can shake three sticks at, who are each asking for a different subset of books (some of which you can and cannot shake sticks at) requires precision. And spreadsheets. And random.org.

Nonetheless, I have persevered! Here are the winners:

  • Kris Kennedy’s The Conqueror: zjlht
  • Susan Gee Heino’s Mistress by Mistake: Pamala Knight
  • Michelle Monkou: Lynz and Sylissa Franklin
  • Lynn Raye Harris’s Spanish Magnate, Red Hot Revenge: RKCharron
  • Kelly Gay’s The Better Part of Darkness: Julie K
  • Jennifer Haymore’s A Hint of Wicked: Lyoness2009
  • Debra Mullins’ To Ruin the Duke: Pearl
  • Justine Larbalestier’s Liar: Pamala Knight (who is lucky in random draws!)
  • Sarah Rees Brennan’s The Demon’s Lexicon: Monica
  • Carolyn Jewel’s Indiscreet: Stephanie H
  • Lori Brighton’s Wild Heart: Chelsea B.
  • Tessa Dare’s Goddess of the Hunt: PeggyH
  • Annette McCleave’s Drawn into Darkness: Amy!
  • Tracey O’Hara’s Night’s Cold Kiss: …Pamala Knight (for a third time)
  • Helen Scott Taylor’s The Magic Knot: Gavia
  • Sherry Thomas’s Not Quite a Husband: bookwormchris
  • Victoria Dahl’s One Week as Lovers: Chelsea B. (again!)
  • Mary Balogh, Nicola Cornick, and Courtney Milan’s The Heart of Christmas: Paige Ray
  • And finally, last, Courtney Milan’s Proof by Seduction. I only mentioned one copy, but you know, I must have meant three? 🙂 The winners (plural) are: azteclady, Laughing Yoga Mama, and KathrinH.

So you’re a winner! How do you collect? Easy–send your snail-mail address to courtney@courtneymilan.com. If I don’t get your address by Christmas, I’ll give your copy of the book away on Twitter. I will send out the copies of Proof by Seduction ASAP; some of the others might take a little longer to go in the mail.

Whew. Now I need to go recover!

Giving away lots of books

So… we are nearing the end of 2009. 2009 was a very long year, in that I started 2009 with a book sold, but not yet on the shelves, and I will end 2009 with a book sold, but not yet on the shelves. In the meantime, however, there were many, many other lovely books that ended up on the shelves in 2009, and I thought it would be cool to end this year by giving away some of those awesome books, as well as (ahem) a Certain Copy of a Certain Book that will not be out on the shelves until 2010.

Here’s the way it works: I will list all the books I am going to give away. If you want to be entered to win some of them, tell me which ones. If you want to be entered to win all of them, tell me that too. If you want to be entered to win almost all of them, well, that’s fine by me, too! Just to specify: EACH of the bullet points below is eligible to be won by a SEPARATE PERSON. You will not win all of the books unless you are randomly drawn in each of the separate 20-plus random drawings.

How many books am I giving away? I am giving away more books than you can shake a stick at! (For reference purposes, you can shake a single stick at 20 books; any more books, and you will need at least two sticks; 40 books, and you will need three sticks, as well as the three arms, unless you can shake a stick with your mouth.) Here’s the list:

  • Kris Kennedy’s The Conqueror. A medieval debut, and a Golden Heart finalist. This copy is signed!
  • Susan Gee Heino’s Mistress by Mistake. A fun, light-hearted Regency. Also winner of the Golden Heart in Regency Historical.
  • Two double-packs: Michelle Monkou’s Only in Paradise and Gamble on Love. Michelle Monkou is the current president of RWA, and I figured she was under a little stress now, so I bought a handful of her books.
  • Lynne Raye Harris’s Spanish Magnate, Red Hot Revenge, a lovely story about a Spanish Magnate who wants revenge. Although given the time lapses in the book, I think it should have been called Spanish Magnate, Ice Cold Revenge. We all know revenge is a dish best served cold anyway.
  • Kelly Gay’s The Better Part of Darkness. A vivid, gritty urban fantasy in which Heaven and Hell have been discovered on separate planes of existence (although the inhabitants of both are as uncertain about God as we are), and Charlie Madigan has come back from the dead. Also a Golden Heart finalist; Charlie is a heroine who kicks ass while still being truly, desperately, humanly imperfect.
  • Jennifer Haymore’s A Hint of Wicked. An emotionally compelling Regency, in which Sophie, the heroine, has finally moved on and remarried after her husband’s death at Waterloo, only to have him return from the dead.
  • Debra Mullins’s To Ruin the Duke, in which a duke discovers that an imposter has ruined his good name and sets out to clear it. This book has been autographed by the author.
  • Justine Larbalestier’s Liar, a young adult book about a pathological liar who may or may not have committed murder, and who may or may not be telling the truth to the reader.
  • Sarah Rees Brennan’s The Demon’s Lexicon, a fabulous debut about a dude named Nick who likes knives, and dislikes people (except his brother). I want to gather Nick up and hug him tight, except I suspect that if I did that he would stab me with a knife. Unless his older brother, Alan, happened to be around. This copy has been signed by the author, who is full of awesome.
  • Carolyn Jewel’s Indiscreet, an awesome romance, set in the Regency, which just so happens to also be set in Turkey.
  • Lori Brighton’s Wild Heart, a phenomenal debut about a man who survived a horrible attack in India, and has to learn to tame his own feral soul (with a little help, of course!)
  • Tessa Dare’s Goddess of the Hunt, a debut novel that wandered into a meadow, merrily picked up starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Library Journal, and then fell in a river, and when you asked it, “What on earth are you doing?” it said, “Is it working?” Yes, Tessa, yes! It’s working.
  • Annette McCleave’s Drawn into Darkness, a phenomenal, complex urban fantasy in which the hero’s job is to gather souls after death. Then he’s set to watch the heroine’s daughter…. This book won the Golden Heart in paranormal romance.
  • Tracey O’Hara’s Night’s Cold Kiss, about a vampire-hunter who begins to fall for a vampire. Another Golden Heart finalist.
  • Helen Scott Taylor’s The Magic Knot. American Title winner; Golden Heart finalist, and very cool story where the heroine is an accountant who is drawn into a magical world of fairies. (I have a soft spot in my heart for people who are accountants, even if they do only become cool when faeries reach out to them.)
  • Sherry Thomas’s Not Quite a Husband. Set mostly in India, the heroine, Bryony is one of the most repressed and yet emotionally wounded heroines I’ve met. I would like to hug her very tight, but I’m already hugging Nick and Nick would be Really Bad for Bryony. Leo, warm, golden, and open, is much better for her.
  • Victoria Dahl’s One Week as Lovers. If I could hug both the hero and heroine, I would, but my arms are already full (see above). I just love Victoria Dahl, and this book is no exception. I read it in a jolting cab and it was so good I couldn’t put it down even though reading made me motion sick.
  • The Heart of Christmas, an anthology with stories by Mary Balogh, Nicola Cornick, and Courtney Milan. These stories are about Christmas, and so they are even relevant to the time period! Shocking, I know. Mary Balogh and Nicola Cornick are marvelous authors. I know absolutely nothing about this Courtney Milan chick, so read her contribution at your peril. I hear it’s rather perilous. Peril aside, this book has been signed by Courtney Milan.
  • Courtney Milan’s Proof by Seduction. This is not a book that has come out in 2009, and so it does not belong. Nonetheless, I am inserting it here anyway. I have nothing to say about this book, except that if you win it, I will put it in the mail on December 14th, which means you will get to read it before January 1. Can this possibly be a bad thing? No. No it cannot. This book has also been signed.

You have until December 13th at noon, PST, to enter this contest. Go forth and spread the word!

Ways to win a (purple) debut…

Right now, I know of three ways to win a copy of Proof by Seduction.

1. Enter Tessa Dare’s website contest. Tessa is giving away a copy of:

All three books are debuts, and all three books are purple! Go, little purple books by debut authors, go!

2. Enter Sara Lindsey’s website contest. Sara is giving away a copy of Proof and Bev’s Sinful Surrender as well. Continue on going, little purple books! (Also note that Sara’s own debut, Promise Me Tonight, will be out in February–but alas, it is pink. 🙁 It’s still full of awesome, though.

3. Enter my website contest. This December, I’m giving away a copy of Proof by Seduction, my anthology, The Heart of Christmas, and a $25 gift card to Borders, so you can go by yourself and purchase all kinds of purple debut novels (or novels of any other color, even though we all secretly know that purple is the best).

This list, however, is not exhaustive. In the upcoming weeks, I’ll be giving away copies on twitter and on my blog. I also have a huge number of books piled on my dressing room table (some signed!) to give away to celebrate a year of incredible debuts (not all of these debuts are purple, but they are all delightful!) from authors like Jennifer Haymore, Kris Kennedy, Kelly Gay, Susan Gee Heino, Lori Brighton, Sarah Rees Brennan, and Tessa Dare–so watch this blog, and wait for December 10th.

Your power in publishing

One of the things that has seen much debate in the last few days is a handful of sentences on the (now renamed) Harlequin Horizons website, which stated that editors would be watching products from the Harlequin Horizons line, with an eye towards inclusion in the “traditional” Harlequin imprints for manuscripts that enjoyed particular success. I can’t find that line on the new website of DellArte press, and much ink has been spilled (or rather, many pixels have been arranged?) into attacking that particular line, both as a positive (if it’s true, why not disclose it?) and as a negative (holding out hopes and dreams that are unlikely to be fulfilled).

I don’t want to talk about the pros and cons or whether it’s misleading or what have you. My reaction was slightly different, and it went like this: I was a little taken aback by the implication that someone would be doing you a favor for publishing you once you’d proven yourself a commercial success. Commercial publishing, like just about every other for-profit business, doesn’t generally make its money off of doing people favors.

New writers, I think, train themselves to think about publication as a gift from the gods, and so a statement along the lines of “if you prove your commercial success, we will include it in our traditional publishing program”–to a new writer, this signals the heavens opening up and glory shining down upon you. Someone might think that this is akin to a lowly worm being crowned.

But if you have a proven commercial success, no matter who you published it with, you are not in the position of beggar at the publishing industry’s table any longer. Whether you published originally with DellArte or Westbow Press; whether you release it for Kindle, or do it yourself entirely with Lightning Source, whether it is produced by Dorchester or Harlequin or Pocket–it really doesn’t matter. No traditional publisher is going to walk away from a commercially viable project that they believe will make money just because you self-published first with Lightning Source instead of LuLu. They care about the success, not the source.

(They may walk away from the project because no editor wants to champion it; or because it’s too similar to something else they have in the works; or because they don’t have the expertise to market that kind of work. But those are separate questions.)

And so my beef with that line is that it encourages people to continue to think of themselves as beggars after they’ve proven themselves to be businesspeople. Have you made a success of yourself with self-publishing? Have a little more chutzpah. You deserve it.

If you’ve proven your ability to be a commercial success, especially through the vagaries of self-publishing, you opened up the heavens, you found the glory, and yes, someone will want to publish you. Not as a gift or as a reward, and certainly not because the publishing industry likes wasting its crowns on worms, but for one reason only: they believe they can make a profit off of you. And you should not respond to positive overtures as if those offering them are strange and distant aliens come to uplift you to success; you should treat them as business partners, and you should choose to work with someone who you think will do the most to help expand your commercial success.

If you’re a commercial success, you’re not a beggar. You’re not a worm. You’re not beholden to anyone for their transcendent grace. (Neither are you a god descending from on high to grace them with your magnificent presence either; don’t get carried away.) Remember that it’s a symbiotic relationship, and if you’re a proven commercial success, you have as much to offer the publishing industry as it has to offer you.

Act like an equal, because you are one.