When discussing the rejection of the settlement agreement by Judge Chin, Scott Turow, the head of the Author’s Guild, had this to say:

“Regardless of the outcome of our discussions with publishers and Google, opening up far greater access to out-of-print books through new technologies that create new markets is an idea whose time has come,” said Mr.Turow. “Readers want access to these unavailable works, and authors need every market they can get. There has to be a way to make this happen. It’s a top priority for the Authors Guild.”

This is either deeply disingenuous or deeply ignorant. Mr. Turow, let me introduce you to Kindle Direct Publishing. And PubIt. And Smashwords. And iTunes Connect. These are places where authors can monetize their backlist. You’re right–the time has come for this one. In fact, it’s already here, which is why it is happening at an incredible pace.

So, how’d the Author’s Guild do on negotiating the royalty rate? Let’s see.

Kindle: 70%.
PubIt: 65%.
Smashwords: 85%.
iTunes Connect: 70%.

And the Author’s Guild got us…. *drumroll*

70%! Not bad, Author’s Guild.

Except, wait. That’s 70% of net. There are costs that will be deducted–like the cost of the transaction and financial services fees, so this is at least something less than 70%. Still, it’s not terrible.

But the terms that are most damaging to authors are buried after the royalty rate. Those are the terms that allow Google to set any price it wants, so long as it pays you the royalty on the List Price you have set internally. Yes, you can set your price to any price point. But Google has the right to discount off the price that you set.

Why is that worrying? Because in order to get Amazon’s 70% revenue, you have to let Amazon match prices online. So if Google had rights to your backlist titles, and you put your books up on Amazon, and Google lowered your price (as it was allowed to do), Amazon could match that price lowering. And if Google lowered its price below $2.99, Amazon would match… and you’d get bumped from the 70% royalty to the 35% royalty.

How much does that hurt? Just ask Lee Goldberg, who through a technical glitch had his prices on Kobo slashed to 99 cents, and therefore his prices on Amazon cut to $0.99 from $2.99. He’ll lose thousands in a week.

So if you were a member of the class of the Google Books Settlement, and you think there’s a chance you might bring out those backlist titles on your own, breathe a deep sigh of relief. If the Settlement had gone through, it could have cost you 35% of your revenue through Amazon forever.

One of the reasons I opposed the Settlement was because it makes no sense to set terms over electronic distribution forever when the landscape is changing on a monthly basis. We didn’t know what Amazon’s new terms would be when the settlement was negotiated. We don’t even know what its terms will look like in 6 months. But in light of the massively changed digital environment, if the Authors’ Guild truly represents authors, they need to back away from any settlement that purports to give an author’s backlist to a third party for the life of the copyright.

So look at what Goldberg is losing because someone is cutting the prices to his books: he’s losing thousands in one week because of an error. Now multiply that by the backlist of every author covered by the Google Books Settlement, times the number of authors, times the number of weeks until the work goes out of copyright. Add in corrections for decreased sales over time, if you want, but I think you see the problem quite quickly: This is a massive loss, and had the settlement gone through it would have required authors to preemptively set their prices on the Google Books Site so prohibitively high, to prevent Amazon from price-matching a discount, as to render the Google Books site useless.

Yes. It is time for DABWAHA. If you’re wondering what DABWAHA stands for, it stands for … I can’t seem to find it right now, and of course, I am hampered.

See, I am on vacation. My husband thought I needed to spend some time not working, so I didn’t bring my laptop. Or my iPhone. The only way I have to access the internet right now is my Kindle. I don’t remember my twitter password (it’s all saved on my laptop/iPhone) and can’t access twitter.

In any event, DABWAHA stands for something like the Dear Author/Bitchery W…. something. And I’m sure that that is not interesting or explanatory at all, so the short version is that it’s a really freaking awesome competition in which romance novels are pitted against romance novels.

Trial by Desire is one of the nominees. You can vote for it on March 16th, from midnight Central Time to noon Central Time. But here’s the thing: Trial is up against His at Night by Sherry Thomas. I’m not sure I would vote for myself over Sherry Thomas, and so I’m having a hard time working up an appropriate trash talking routine, especially typed out painstakingly on Kindle.

So go and vote in the DABW…something for…someone!

ETA: Having searched twitter for “@courtneymilan” I see that Sherry Thomas is threatening to audit me, assuming that I would threaten to sue her. Dear Sherry: suck it! (Also do you know how hard it is to spell Sherry on a Kindle?)

Today is Valentines Day, and that means you will find Courtney…spending the evening alone, since Mr. Milan is working the night shift tonight. (BIG frown.)

But! I’ve updated my page of signings on my website, so if you live in Southern California or New York, you can mark your calendars many weeks in advance of my appearance.

More importantly, on February 23rd, 2011, I will be at the Smart Bitches online Book chat. (I’ll post the link to the direct chat on the 23rd). The chat starts at 9PM EST/6 PM PST, and I’ll be joining the merry throng at 10/7 to answer questions and the like. Maybe I will have a glass of wine with the chat, and then you can see what Courtney is like when she has no filter!

Shudder in horror. Shudder in a great deal of horror.

Hi. It’s been a busy last few weeks, and I promise I will resume regular blogging soon, as soon as I manage to get rid of this nasty cold.

I know the question on everyone’s mind is this: when is Mr. Milan going to post his review? I don’t have an answer to that. He wrote a review a week ago, but… it was filled with spoilers. I mean, filled with them. I was aghast. So I’m making him redo it, and sadly, Mr. Milan has to work. (I say “sadly” because this takes him away from vital activities, like reading and writing reviews and doing my laundry. But this helps keep my dog in dog treats, so I suppose it is necessary.)

In the meantime, I’ve heard many a tale of woe from people about not being able to find Unveiled in various bookstores. If you haven’t heard, things in publishing and bookselling right now are…well, to call them “unstable” would probably be a little kind. Let’s just say that some elements of publishing and/or book-selling appear to be poised for imminent doom. And while I’m not naming names, if you read publishing news, you can probably tell who or what appears to be on the border. *cough*

BUT.

In any event, I have heard that it may be harder to find Unveiled then usual. (In fact, it has been harder for me to find it, too.) This is actually true for a lot of books that were released this month, and not just Unveiled, so this advice goes for any book you want to read and can’t find. So here’s how you can deal with this:

1. Go to the information desk at the store that doesn’t have the book, and request that the store order the book in. This will take somewhere between a few days to a week to deliver. I know this is a pain in the behind.
2. Order the book online. There’s Amazon, but I also suggest Borders, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s, or ordering through your local romance-friendly indie (check Indiebound).
3. Buy the e-book. There are a ton of buying choices here–kindle, nook, and kobo are the obvious ones, but there are also indie e-book sellers (All Romance Ebooks, for instance, has Unveiled available for $3.50 for the next 3 days, and I am a big fan of Books on Board).

Right now, everyone’s still sorting out distribution as best as possible. If I had my way, this book would be available everywhere in mass quantities. But then, if I had my way, there would be a thriving bookstore on every corner. Clearly, I am not having my way.

There’s a lot of doom and gloom in the publishing world, and it’s easy to get caught up in the bad news. But I really believe that no matter what happens, people will still want to read good stories. And nothing I have seen in the last few years convinces me that this will vanish.

After much browbeating on my part, Mr. Milan has finally picked a winner. Through ways that are mysterious and masculine, he read through all the entries, laughing from time to time, and finally has said that the winner is:

Laney, for: “In America, you go to war. In Victorian times, war comes to you.”

But wait! There’s a random winner, too. And the random winner is… Rene! Rene and Laney, send your snail mail addresses to courtney@courtneymilan.com.

For those of you interested in winning other things, this quarter I’m giving away a prize pack of six debut historical romance authors, all awesome in their own right.

• Elizabeth Essex’s The Pursuit of Pleasure is a wonderful book about a woman who marries a man who is going to die for freedom, and then has the bad fortune to fall in love with him. I meant to post about this book when it came out, but it came out right in the middle of sudden-death deadlines and a couple of other things that completely ate up my November and December. Trust me, this book is wonderful, and the prose is elegant. I loved it!
• Tiffany Clare’s The Surrender of a Lady. Tiffany definitely pushes some boundaries with this one. It’s set in a harem in Victorian times, and it’s as much about emotional freedom as it is about sexual freedom.
• Vicky Dreiling’s How to Marry a Duke. A long, long time ago, Vicky and I finaled in a writing contest together with two unpublished manuscripts. We started talking. I told her she was going to sell her book, even though I hadn’t read it. I just felt sure it was true. And it was! Now that her book is out (it just came out yesterday), I can see why it sold. The premise is unbearably cute–think “The Bachelor” in Regency times, and the execution made me laugh.
• Ashley March’s Seducing the Duchess. A gorgeous book about two people–married–who each do something that is absolutely unforgivable to the other, and then have the ill luck to fall in love. It was a deeply emotional book, filled with angst…and yet it was also funny, too, which pretty much makes me excited.
• Grace Burrowes’s The Heir. Another gorgeous book about a man who falls in love with his housekeeper. The language is exquisite, the romance is hot, and I have to say–this is just between you and me–I love a scene where people know how to use their hands, and this book has lots of them.
• Jeannie Lin’s Butterfly Swords. One of my favorite new authors. I started writing a post about Butterfly Swords months ago–I still have a draft saved–I couldn’t figure out how to express my adoration in a few hours. I have to actually write this out at some point, even though I’m unforgivably late. It’s like a martial arts movie crossed with a happy ending.

Six debut historical romance authors, wildly different in tone and setting and place, and all excellent. If you want them, you have to enter my website contest.

This is a short post about something kind of cool.

Don’t you love the corset that Margaret is wearing on the cover of Unveiled?

Well, the maker of the corset tweeted about it! It’s a Gabrielle corset, from Starkers! corsetry in Toronto, Ontario, in a peacock blue satin.

How cool is that?

There is not much to this post but this:

Trial by Desire made Publishers Weekly‘s list of Best Books. This kind of floors me–I can think of so many other books I would have chosen in my place–but I’m just thrilled to be there.

The other romance books on the list are Meljean Brook’s The Iron Duke (which I adored), Jo Bourne’s The Forbidden Rose (ditto), Eileen Dreyer’s Barely a Lady (haven’t read it, but will have to correct that), and Grace Burrowes’s The Heir (which I don’t think is out yet–but it’s definitely on my list).

I’m so, so honored to find myself on that list–particularly since it includes some of the books that I loved this year.

One last thing: a huge shout-out to my agent, Kristin Nelson. This is the third year running when she’s had an author (and the author of a mass-market title, no less!) land on the list of 100 best books: Sherry Thomas and Gail Carriger in 2008 and 2009. So go over and send her your congratulations on her three-year streak!

This is a post about me:

First, look! (Or, rather, listen!) There’s a podcast with me talking about Trial by Desire. I started to listen to it, but then realized that I couldn’t stand the sound of my own voice. I don’t think I sound like that. Do I sound like that? But maybe you will like it! (I know, I know, a ringing endorsement.)

Second, I’ve been told that Proof by Seduction is an RT Reviewer’s Choice nominee for best first historical. Whee! How exciting is that? How exciting? If you are me, it is very exciting! Thank you, RT!

Third, and finally, something not about me: the winner of Pull by B.A. Binns is… BellaF! Bella, send me your snailmail contact, and I’ll get this book right out to you!

There’s a massive thread of painful death over at Dear Author about the geographic restriction problem.

Full disclosure: I sold Harlequin world rights, including translation rights, for my books, and they have done a phenomenal job of getting my book out there–and if you want to get an idea of how awesome take a look at this, which isn’t even a complete list–but even though I have been extraordinarily lucky in having a publisher that exercises the rights I’ve granted them, there are geographic delays involved and different pricing levels in different countries, and I’ve heard from readers that this is frustrating.

For those who don’t know, the geographic restriction problem is this: Historically, authors sold rights to territories. You would sell your U.S. publisher rights to publish your book in the United States, a U.K. publisher rights to publish in the U.K., and so forth.

In a world of print books, this just makes sense. It would make no sense to sell a US publisher both US and UK rights, because the US publisher would have no way to publish the book in the UK: no sales force to get the book into bookstores, no warehouse to store books when sent over to make sure they arrived on time, and so forth.

The end result, of course, is that some books would not be published in some territories. English-speakers who happened to live in Thailand would have to resort to expensive importing schemes. But the number of such sales lost would have been small, not sufficient to justify producing a book in the country of choice, and so publishers and authors shrugged–you can’t win every battle.

Enter e-books, and this stops making economic sense. In a world of e-books, you don’t want to slice things up by territory. You want to slice them up by language, so that the book is available in English, everywhere, at the same time, at the same price.

The problem is that we’re still locked in to the old system. Why did cowry shells work, in some parts of the world, as currency? Because people accepted them. And what would someone do if you tried to hand them some useless bits of paper in exchange? Well, they wouldn’t think much of it. And, in fact, if everyone else used cowry shells, you can’t walk in and say, “Hi, everyone, I’d like to buy your goats, and here are these AWESOME things called dollars.”

This is true even though paper currency is more efficient and easier to transport and less subject to being crushed when a goat steps on it.

Some of this problem is caused by authors. Authors want to maximize the amount of money we get, and so authors may only sell a publisher US rights. If the publisher sold the book to someone outside the US, they’d be in violation of their contract, and they don’t want to do that.

Some of this problem is caused by publishers. Some authors do sell publishers rights to world English–and the publisher won’t sell the book outside the US territory, because they know that (1) they can only effectively use the rights in the US (and by “effectively” I mean “both print and digital”); and (2) if they want to get the most money for what they’ve purchased, they want to resell those rights to a publisher in another territory; but (3) they will not be able to resell the rights to a territory if they do not give that other publisher exclusive rights in that territory. So a publisher with world English rights may choose not to release a book worldwide because it believes it will make more money if they try to get someone else to release it in another part of the world.

It’s even worse than I’ve made it out to be because the global consolidation of what used to be national publishers has locked publishers into the territorial divide by contract.

I could not insist in my next contract that Harlequin release the digital version of my book for a worldwide audience simultaneously. Or, at least, I could insist on it–but Harlequin almost certainly could not comply with my demand, even if they really, really wanted to.

I’m interpolating from available facts, but this is my basic idea of how Harlequin works. I sell world rights to everything to Harlequin S.A., a Swiss corporation. Harlequin S.A. then licenses my book to the various foreign arms of Harlequin, one of which is Harlequin Enterprises, Limited, a Canadian corporation–who produces the US edition. I am guessing that these foreign arms are in fact separate corporate entities, and that they are held together in the complex web of “Harlequin, Mills & Boon” by contracts that dictate territorial scope.

If Harlequin Enterprises, Limited, decided that it wanted to release e-books worldwide, it would probably be in violation of contracts it has with Mills and Boon over in the UK as well as Mills and Boon Australia. I’m guessing, but I suspect that there are very firm anti-poaching rules written into these agreements.

I suspect the same thing is true with the US and UK branches of Simon and Schuster, and HarperCollins and so on and so on.

At this point, if you sell your books to a major New York publisher, one that has foreign arms, they are probably bound to respect some foreign publisher’s territory by contract. And so even if you sell your publisher the right to release your book everywhere, simultaneously–they won’t exercise that right, and they probably cannot do so without breaking contracts already in place.

Like I said, this is interpolation: I have not, in fact, ever seen a contract between Mills and Boon and Harlequin Limited or HarperCollins Australia and HarperCollins US, but I can infer their existence on the basis of behavior.

In other words: Even if I wanted to sell something other than cowry shells, my publisher has probably entered into contracts that bind them to sell in units of cowry shells.

This is lock-in: a situation that may not be best for anyone today, but because of the way things arose historically, we’re stuck. At least for now. At some point in the future, when global e-books take off more than they have done now, the contracts between sister arms of publishers are going to start to disintegrate.

None of this problem is caused by readers, and they’re the ones who get stuck in the middle and slapped around and told they can’t buy books they want to buy.

This is definitely a failure. It encourages piracy. It leads to lost sales. It means that people who want to read books can’t. All of those things make me sad.

But I can’t fix this by making demands in my contract. My agent can’t fix this by making demands in my next contract.

I could fix this if I published with an epublisher that releases worldwide. I haven’t done that because I know that I will reach more readers if my books are in print.

And that is my decision–and I do take the responsibility and the blame for it, because it does leave some people out–but I know that I would get as much frustrated e-mail from readers who couldn’t find my book in Barnes and Noble and the grocery store as I would from readers in Thailand.

Brief Edit: Okay, we’re really up now!

Pull by B.A. Binns is one of the most powerful Y.A. books I’ve read all year.

David, the protagonist (you notice I don’t include his last name), is dealing with a lot for a kid in his senior year of high school. You see, a few months ago, his dad murdered his mother. His father’s in jail, and David himself, as the eldest in the family, has gotten the job of keeping his family together. Without the money he makes from an after school construction job, his sisters and he would have been split up around the globe, sent to distant relatives, many of whom don’t really seem to care about the family.

So David finds himself the man of his family, when he’s not even a man himself. And David does not know how to deal with what has happened to him. He changes his last name. In part, so that people at his new school (one that’s in a poor part of town, instead of the wealthier area where his parents used to live) don’t recognize either his skill at basketball or his father’s name. But in larger part, he doesn’t want to keep his father’s last name–just as he doesn’t want to visit his father in jail, doesn’t even call him “father” anymore.

But David’s suffering from post traumatic stress disorder as a result of the murder. And he’s struggling from a lot of things that feel absolutely real: He doesn’t want to go to college, doesn’t enjoy school, and does like girls–and as much as he likes them, he also blames them for the way they make him feel.

David is never a comfortable character, and he won’t make you feel comfortable (especially if you, like me, wince at the thought of someone not getting an education). And that, I think is what makes this book so raw and powerful. It is simply too easy to believe that David is real. To buy into what is a complex mix of teenage anger and angst and hope and self-hatred and arrogance all at once–and even though those things sound contradictory, when David lets you know how it is, in his short, terse, no-nonsense style, it’s real.

His character is so strong, so powerful, that even through (especially through) his terse denials, you can feel so much. I got more raw emotion from one of David’s curt “I don’t cares,” delivered at the right time than I do from most books.

And just to give you a taste of what he’s like, this from the first few pages of the book, after David has just had a traumatic flashback in the middle of gym class when the sound of the basketball hitting the court reminds him of a gunshot wound:

The gym teacher’s whistle sounds, the shriek knifing through my ears. He runs over from the sidelines where he’s been talking with another man while the inept group of students practiced passing the ball. His pale face holds wide, worried gray eyes. You’d think he’d never seen a guy downed by a basketball before. Probably hasn’t been teaching in the inner city very long. Probably still has ideals and intends to do some good or something.

Probably needs to get the hell out of my space.

And that’s David for you.

Like I said, this is not a comfortable book. But the day I got it, I was up until 1 AM reading, even though I had a 6 AM flight the next morning, and I got up half an hour early just so I could finish.

This book is seriously, utterly, powerfully compelling. And so I’m giving away a copy to one random commenter.