Leah Raeder's Blog, page 4
November 4, 2013
Unteachable 99c sale, iPad Mini giveaway, and a Taboo Prize Pack.
Unteachable is on sale for 99c from November 4 — November 15. Go grab it while it’s cheap!
Taboo Prize Pack giveaway
In gratitude for the love you guys have shown me, I’m doing two massive giveaways. The first is a Taboo Prize Pack containing signed paperbacks of my favorite teacher/student romance novels. Unteachable is in there, too. ;)
Unteachable – Leah Raeder (signed)
A Different Blue – Amy Harmon (signed)
Taming the Beast – Emily Maguire (signed)
The Yearning – Kate Belle (signed)
The Adults – Alison Espach
Teach Me – R.A. Nelson
Innocents – Cathy Coote
This contest is open internationally.
iPad Mini Giveaway at Aestas Book Blog
You like shinies, right? Well, I’m giving away a very shiny iPad Mini at Aestas Book Blog. Plus more signed Unteachable paperbacks, because apparently I just hand those out like Halloween candy. Go click and enter, and read Aestas’s excellent review.
This contest is also open internationally.
Thank you
Finally, a massive thank you to all the book bloggers, reviewers, readers, and fellow authors out there who’ve read and talked about Unteachable. Thank you for the thousands of reviews, hilarious GIFs, shares, tweets, likes, and passion you’ve poured into responding to my book. You made this unknown author’s dream come true. This has been one crazy fucking rollercoaster ride, and I wouldn’t trade it—or all of you—for the world.
With all my ♥,
Leah
October 14, 2013
Mysterious teaser is mysterious.
Mysterious teaser? What does it mean?
October 4, 2013
Unteachable paperback is live! Also, interviews.
So, I kicked my lazy ass into gear and got the Unteachable paperback ready, and…hot damn, it turned out way better than I’d hoped. Check it out:
Order the Unteachable paperback here.
I’ll also be doing some signed copy giveaways. In the meanwhile, if you’ve previously contacted me about a signed copy, feel free to send a followup and we’ll work out shipping and stuff. ♥
New interviews
The absurdly hilarious Dahlia Adler has a brand spanking new interview with me up today. Want to know some embarrassing behind-the-scenes secrets? What song is playing in the final scene? How much booze do I really drink? Check it out.
And Jessica Cage has a brief interview with me…where I also talk about alcohol. Okay, so maybe I have a problem.
Speaking of which, I recently discovered honey whiskey. My life is pretty much over. Blame my enabler, Lindsay Smith, who either pushed me off the wagon or pulled me onto it, whichever one means “recklessly encouraged substance abuse” (and whose historical YA debut, incidentally, is available on NetGalley).
September 23, 2013
An open letter to Goodreads.
* * *
Dear Goodreads,
I have been a registered reviewer on your site since 2010, and was a lurker long before then. In July of this year, I became a Goodreads author when I self-published. When your company was bought by Amazon, I felt the same trepidation and dismay that many other GR users felt: we worried that Amazon's influence would corrupt Goodreads, a site driven by and for readers, and turn it into yet another marketing platform for authors. We worried that there would be no bastion of legitimate, non-commercial book reviews left aside from individual blogs. Amazon's relatively hands-off approach with GR had begun to soothe my fears about corporate parenting...until now.
This may shock you, but even though I'm an author, I still read all the time--as all authors should. And I rely on reviewers to guide my book choices. Reviewers like Steph Sinclair, whose reviews and shelves were deleted without notice. Reviewers like Emily May and Wendy Darling, who are now reconsidering their participation on this site.
And I rely on countless lesser-known reviewers who take the time to review the books they've read--people who review in the good faith that their contributions won't be summarily deleted without warning, or a chance to adjust to your new guidelines. Oftentimes I'm the first person to hit the Like button on a thoughtful, carefully written review that's been sitting in quiet obscurity on your site for years. Sometimes the reviewer replies to a comment I've made years after the original review, and we chat. That's an amazing thing. That's the ongoing conversation that is fiction.
And you guys just barged into that conversation and started slapping duct tape over people's mouths.
Look, deleting those reviews and shelves without notice was wrong. Period. That's not how you Community, guys. When you have a problem with the way the community is using your site, you talk to them about it. You begin a dialogue. You explain the problem and ask for solutions. When you implement a solution, you give users a grace period to adjust--to decide if they want to continue using your site, and if not, to back up their work and take it elsewhere.
You dropped that ball hard, guys. You owe the GR community an apology, and a promise to NEVER summarily delete our content again, if you ever hope to rebuild trust. Let the fact that you've lost some prominent reviewers for good stay your itchy trigger finger in the future.
But the greater problem remains: is this policy change actually helping anyone?
Abuse and bullying should never be tolerated on a community site, no matter which direction it flows from. But just like author Nathan Bransford in his spectacularly ill-informed post, you are misinterpreting legitimate criticism and cataloging as "bullying" and "abuse."
I think we can all agree that a shelf like "author-should-be-raped" should never be permitted on this site. But I have yet to actually see such a shelf. It seems that when shelves like these actually pop up on GR, the mods remove them quickly, as they should. However, there's a lot of hearsay from overly sensitive authors who misinterpret shelves (and GIFs, and star ratings) as personal threats, and I believe that's what's driving your decision to disallow author-centric shelves and reviews.
Well, I have a huge problem with that, Goodreads. Because as a reader, I have zero desire to contribute financially to misogynists, homophobes, racists, pedophiles, and other reprehensible human beings. And your new policy disallowing discussion of authors' real life behavior is preventing that. I want to be informed if the author whose book I'm considering purchasing supports causes and ideologies that conflict with my values. I don't care if the author thinks that's "mean." A public figure--as all authors are--is subject to scrutiny. It is not "bullying" to call out a public figure who promotes hateful causes. It is not "abuse" to point out that a reactionary author attacks her reviewers. That's public information about a public figure, and it is relevant to those interested in the author's books.
Your new policy is also really vague and hypocritical. Does it apply to living authors only? What about deceased authors? You do realize the literary canon is pretty much full of racist, sexist, privileged Dead White Dudes, right? So can we no longer discuss Joseph Conrad's racism in context of Heart of Darkness? Or John Updike's sexism? How about T.S. Eliot and Roald Dahl's anti-Semitism? What about the fact that Walt Whitman faked his own reviews? And geez, you may as well delete Mein Kampf from the site right now, considering it's nigh-impossible to discuss it without referring to its author, aka The Worst Human Being Ever. (Oh, shit. I just called out an author. SORRY, HITLER.) (Not actually sorry. Fuck Hitler.)
Are you starting to see the silliness of your policy change yet?
Goodreads, what you've done is being seen by many people as catering to offended authors at the expense of readers. Listen to the messages above (and those on social media, and blogs, and everywhere on the internet this week): your users feel betrayed. We feel like you're promoting an Us vs. Them mentality that will only further divide the community, and exacerbate the small pockets of hostility that exist between authors and reviewers. Yes, by all means, when actual bullying and abuse occurs, handle it. But you need some SERIOUS perspective adjustment on what actual bullying and abuse entails. Because right now you are starting to sound more and more like a certain "anti-bullying" site that, ironically, is itself an instrument of bullying. Who will need STGRB anymore when Goodreads itself fulfills their role?
Please note that I have used inclusive pronouns here: we, us, our. Because even though I'm a "published author" now, I was first and foremost a reader, and that is primarily how I continue to use this site: I read and review. And you are systematically making it less and less useful for that.
I believe Goodreads should remain true to its nature as a site driven by and for readers. You do not need to cater to me as an author. I don't want you to, your advertising and author programs honestly kinda suck, and I don't think you can successfully serve both groups. Please reconsider this change and your overall direction, and remember what made you the great site you are, and may yet remain:
Readers.
Sincerely,
Leah Raeder
September 19, 2013
Further reasons why authors + reviews don’t mix.
It happened again: an author butted into a discussion of his work on the Book Smugglers blog, resulting in the reviewers getting called “bullies” for daring to tell him their own interpretations were valid.
There are -illions of reasons why an author should never intrude into critical discussions of their work, and all the obvious ones—breaching social boundaries, chilling effect on discussion, abuse of power, etc.—have been covered ad nauseam elsewhere. But here’s one that often gets overlooked:
When an author imposes their intentions on readers, it strangles the work.
See, the storyteller’s maxim “show, don’t tell” doesn’t just apply to written text. It applies to the author’s conduct in real life, too. The book does the showing. Any defense, refutation, explanation, or other interference from the author is telling. The book, if it is a good book, will do the showing all on its own. A good book doesn’t need its author to tell the reader how to interpret the story. A very good book is open to multiple interpretations. The author has their own personal interpretation, which may be of interest to certain readers, but that viewpoint should never be imposed on any public critical discussion where the author has not been expressly invited to do so.
Why? Because an interpretation from the author has the ring of the Word of God, and it can easily shut down a lively discussion full of opposing viewpoints. When the author removes the mystery of their intentions, readers tend to stop devising their own interpretations of events, instead accepting whatever the author says because, well, they’re the author. What was once a living text that was debated and attacked and defended then becomes fossilized. Sure, some intrepid readers may refute the author’s explanations and hatch their own, but typically an author’s intrusion into a critical discussion has a deadening effect.
Plus, it just kinda makes the author look like an insecure douchebag.
This is the exact same mechanism that is at play when fledgling writers are told, “Show, don’t tell.” If you tell the reader exactly how to feel or think about something, you’re destroying the magic of reading: the exercise of imagination. If you tell readers how to interpret what they’ve read, you’re destroying the magic of social reading: comparing and contrasting one’s thoughts with others.
Many writers have a knee-jerk reflex to “correct” readings of their work that don’t align precisely with their intentions. Maybe it’s the rabid control freak lurking in our dark little hearts. I’m not above it. I feel a private twinge of dismay when I read an interpretation of my work that conflicts with my intentions (unless it’s favorable, obviously; writers will take any credit for unintended genius). But most of the time the unexpected interpretations amaze and delight me.
When readers have wildly diverse reactions to a character or event or theme in my writing, I know I’m doing something right: I’m not telling them how to think or feel about that thing. Secretly, they’re doing the work for me. They’re using their imaginations and personal experiences to supply their own meaning to those story elements. They’re enriching my work with their own reactions.
That’s alchemy, people. Book (lead) + reader (solvent) = gold.
So, when authors who should know better barge into critical discussions of their work and let their fussy little fingers fly in an ill-advised exegesis about their True Meaning etc. etc., they are not, in fact, enriching the social reading experience. They’re scorching earth. They’re killing a living discussion. They’re reducing the potential artistic richness and aliveness of their novel.
That, personally, is my greatest fear as a creative person. Not harsh critiques—they’re inevitable—but my work dying, whether from neglect or, as above, from too much handsiness and the inability to let go, to let it become its own living entity, forever beyond my control.
I propose that we call such behavior helicopter noveling.
September 1, 2013
Reading is an act of faith.
One of my Goodreads friends is currently suffering the slings and arrows of a Badly Behaving Author, so I angry-typed this long polemic about why authors should never respond to reviews, and how reviews are a sacred space meant for readers, and negative reviews rarely hurt sales and may even increase them and blah, blah, blah…but it all boiled down to one thing, and that one thing is so fucking important, it’s the only thing I want to talk about at all.
Reading is an act of faith.
A reader open...
August 18, 2013
I’M IN A GLASS CASE OF EMOTION.
This is really the most appropriate GIF for today.
First up, the ridiculously awesome Natasha, who runs the equally awesome Natasha Is A Book Junkie blog, gave Unteachable six freaking stars. Excuse me while I mop myself up off the floor. Lady, you humble me. So very much
Natasha is doing a giveaway of Unteachable this week. 3 copies up for grabs—click below to enter!
And the brilliant Emily May of The Book Geek also reviewed Unteachable as part of her NA Experiment…and loved it.
It’s pretty fuc...
August 12, 2013
Blog tour starts today. Win an ebook & gift card!
The Unteachable Book Blog Tour starts today! Enter the giveaway at any blog stop below. Prizes are a copy of Unteachable and a $25 Amazon Gift Card.
August 12
Book Whirlwind — Review
Smokin’ Hot Book Blog — Review & Dream Cast
August 13
Nocturne Romance Reads — Guest Post
Reads and Thoughts — Review & Dream Cast
August 14
Book Freak — Review
The Serial Reader — Review
Sweet Southern Home — Guest Post
August 15
Moosubi Reviews — Interview
YA Books of Witchcraft and Wizardry — Review & Favorite Quotes
The Bi...
August 10, 2013
Two weeks later… (Also, blog tour coming up!)
Today marks two weeks from the early launch of Unteachable. The attention it’s getting is pretty mind-blowing to me, so let me take a moment to say: thank you to everyone who’s read, reviewed, and talked about my book. Seriously, thank you. It’s a pretty controversial novel, and I’m amazed that so many people are connecting with it. The kind words and thoughtful reviews are overwhelming.
I can’t begin to explain what kind of emotional rollercoaster (RELEVANT METAPHOR) these past two weeks have...
August 2, 2013
Unteachable: Top 25 New Adult, reviews, giveaway, and Nook news.
Wow. Unteachable has been chilling in the Kindle Top 25 New Adult for three days straight. Holy shit, guys. I could never have done this without all you awesome Goodreaders. Siobhan will be baking cookies for everyone.
Reviews & giveaway
Thank you to Totally Booked for their excellent review. Gitte and Jenny loved it. You ladies rock.
Cydney at Seeking Book Boyfriends posted a kickass review, too, and this one has a giveaway!
Also check out Aestas Book Blog’s awesome, thoughtful review.
Nook & Sma...
