Leah Raeder's Blog, page 5

I cracked the Kindle Top 100 in New Adult!

So, wow, you guys are all fucking amazing. Everyone gets a gold star. Unteachable has been hovering between the 1000-1500 ranks in the Kindle Paid Store, and it has repeatedly cracked the Top 100 in Romance > New Adult. And this after releasing early, without any major fanfare. I’m seriously humbled.

The comments I’ve been getting from readers are making me all gooey inside, too. I’ve had incredible conversations with people from all over the world who’ve read and loved my book. Here’s the thi...

Early release: Unteachable is live.

So, due to certain rum-guzzling, eyepatch-wearing types, I decided to move up the publishing date for Unteachable. It’s now live on Amazon. Check out the extended excerpt via Look Inside.

The blog tour will continue as planned. Just wanted to cut off those scurvy sea-dogs.

Thank you times a million to everyone who’s helped, supported, tolerated, humored, and enabled me. I love you all in the grossest, most embarrassing way possible.

Why I’m self-publishing.

Three years ago, I never would’ve thought I’d be writing this post. This is a long story. Click here for the tl;dr.

First book, first agent

In 2010, I finished my first “real” book, a zombie thriller. It was a blend of literary and genre fiction featuring both teen-something and 30-something characters, which put it firmly into Demographic Neverland, AKA We Don’t Know How the Fuck To Market It. But Zombie Thriller landed me an agent, and in my absurd optimism, I thought, Thank god, the hard par...

Unlikable heroines and women hating women.

Dear Author asks, “Why are we so hard on other women?” Jane Litte thinks two major factors are at play: over-identifying with a female character and familiarity breeding contempt. When we over-identify with a character of the same gender, Jane says, we tend to judge her more harshly because we hope that we wouldn’t make the same mistakes in her position:

When it comes to romance books, if some female character does something that nets a bad result, we are impatient with her because we hope tha...

Facebook fan page up!

If you do the Facebook thing, I’ve got an author page set up for my books. Please go over and give it a like: Leah Raeder Books on Facebook.

What makes you abandon a book?

Goodreads does some awesome studies with all the metrics they collect behind-the-scenes, and this time they’re analyzing why people abandon books.

The biggest factor that makes someone abandon a book is being slow and boring (46.4%), followed by weak writing (18.8%).

I can put up with all of these to some extent, except the author being committed to doing something I hate (which is why I’m boycotting Ender’s Game, due to homophobic douchebag author Orson Scott Card). It’s usually a combination...

First book blog review of Unteachable is awesomely quote-o-rific.

Major thanks to Midwest Galley Girl, who stepped up to the plate and wrote the first official book blog review of my upcoming NA contemp romance, Unteachable. Her review is chock-full of tasty quotes to give you a feel for the book. And it makes me blush to quote this, but man, such a flipping awesome compliment:

If you’re not familiar with the HIGHLIGHT function on your Kindle, you need to get acquainted with it when you read Unteachable. Raeder describes herself as lyrical and I nod to that...

“Strong women” and sexist language in YA.

Old post, but new to me: Rebecca at Crunchings and Munchings has a searing essay on why the language we use in fiction matters:

I feel like there was absolutely a moment in my life (early high school) when I wanted to be strong and self-sufficient and was encouraged (by my boyfriend at the time; by well-meaning guy friends) to think of my strength (and tastes—in music, movies, humor) as being in spite of being female rather than a natural part of it. It is such an insidious form of sexism beca...

New site is live.

Howdy, Happy 4th, and welcome to my redesigned website. No, you’re not on drugs—those colors are real. (Well, you might be on drugs. In which case those colors probably look really fucking sweet.)

So, I’m Leah Raeder. I write pretentiously lyrical fiction of various genres, in particular New Adult. What is New Adult? NA Alley puts it rather well:

Typically, a novel is considered NA if it encompasses the transition between adolescence—a life stage often depicted in Young Adult (YA) fiction—and true adulthood.

Protagonists generally fall between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six, though exceptions may apply. NA characters are often portrayed experiencing: college, living away from home for the first time, military deployment, apprenticeships, a first steady job, a first serious relationship, etc.

My upcoming novel Unteachable is a New Adult contemporary romance that straddles the border between YA and NA. I’ve always been the square peg that refuses to fit in a round hole, and NA is perfect for people like me: in-betweeners, genre-benders, crossers-over. Far from being a marketing gimmick, I think New Adult is the inevitable acknowledgment that YA is too restrictive a category, while Adult is too broad and generic. NA combines the best of both.

Speaking of Unteachable, I’ll be doing a book blog tour in August, hosted by Itching For Books. Expect giveaways, interviews, guest posts, and other assorted madness.

Unteachable goes on sale August 1, but you can check out Goodreads for pre-release reviews and quotes.

Thanks for stopping by. Sorry* if all the pink made your brain bleed.

* Not actually sorry.

UNTEACHABLE Book Blog Tour - August 12-23

Howdy, folks. I'll be doing a book blog tour this August with giveaways and other cool shit. Click the image below for more details.