My NC-17-rated adventures in New Adult.

FionnJameson · Jul 16, 2013

Haven't been able to post in a while, what with moving to Shanghai and all, but I thought I'd put in my two cents since I am A: a bit of a New Adult, B: read the genre and C: write the genre myself.

Honestly, I'm not a fan of the cover and would pass on it if I ever saw it in Amazon or any other online retailer. I'm not a fan of the neon colors and like the other posters here, I had no idea what I was looking at.

That being said, the NA genre is getting amazing readership right now, although I'm not entirely sure exactly how long it's going to last as a genre itself. I mean, you have Young Adult and then Adult. The advent of New Adult was just weird and made me feel like people wanted to differentiate their product by tacking a label onto it. I mean, you're a young adult and then an adult, right? *lol*

Anyways, good luck with your sales!

Megann · Jul 16, 2013

Leah just wish you good luck with this self-publishing venture. It seems to be heading for the right direction. It's a bold move you are taking by ignoring conventional wisdom regarding covers and going for something eye-popping and in completely different direction. That would have frightened me to bits.
Just want to add to the chorus by saying that cover really is amazing, but it does make me sad that a cover is such a big deal. What's inside is the only thing that should really matter.

hester · Jul 16, 2013

Leah, just wanted to wish you the very best of luck!

And if you don't mind my asking, are you going to self-publish Remnant? (I had the good fortune to beta the book, and it freakin' ROCKS).

In any event, you've got an eager reader here--can't wait for the book to come out!!

Polenth · Jul 16, 2013

I can't read your website properly either. What you do for the cover may turn out to be irrelevant if you get enough interest for other reasons, but the site really needs to be accessible. You're selling your writing, not your visual art.

frankiebrown · Jul 16, 2013

amergina said:
It's there. It took me a while, because the image is sideways... (so imagine the book turned 90 degrees)

Ohhh. I was having a hard time with the until you said that. I thought it was just a weird and pretty and colorful graphic design. I like it, but I agree with others who have said it doesn't say contemporary. It is pretty, but I didn't get it until someone explained it.

Edited to add: I do love the website though! How you can see the partial profile and the eyes and the colorful hair above the name. That would be a kick-ass book cover.

CAWriter · Jul 17, 2013

I didn't see this discussion when it started, and my comment is far off from the others offered so far. I wasn't going to mention it (as the book is done and all), but to be honest, I couldn't get past one detail from your blurb that derails the whole concept for me.

The law says one thing; my heart says screw the law.

Maybe in other locales this is different, but, while ill-advised and perhaps against school rules (thus the job being at risk), it isn't "illegal" for an 18 year old to be involved with another adult even if that adult is their teacher.

If I were reviewing the book, this one niggling detail would throw off the rest of the story for me. Otherwise, it's not far fetched as "everyone" in my high school knew about the English teacher and the on-going affair with one of our classmates.

Well done generating interest and reviews for the book.

Cranky1 · Jul 17, 2013

CAWriter said:
I didn't see this discussion when it started, and my comment is far off from the others offered so far. I wasn't going to mention it (as the book is done and all), but to be honest, I couldn't get past one detail from your blurb that derails the whole concept for me.

Maybe in other locales this is different, but, while ill-advised and perhaps against school rules (thus the job being at risk), it isn't "illegal" for an 18 year old to be involved with another adult even if that adult is their teacher.

If I were reviewing the book, this one niggling detail would throw off the rest of the story for me. Otherwise, it's not far fetched as "everyone" in my high school knew about the English teacher and the on-going affair with one of our classmates.

Well done generating interest and reviews for the book.

I guess that it depends on the jurisdiction:

http://law.onecle.com/texas/penal/21.12.00.html

Texas Penal Code - Section 21.12. Improper Relationship Between Educator And Student

Undercover · Jul 17, 2013

Absolutely amazing cover, Leah. Good to see you on the boards again. Sounds really interesting, good luck with it!!!

leahzero · Jul 25, 2013

Hi everyone! One week to go. NERVOUS!

Thanks so much for all the kind (and cautionary) posts. All of your opinions are helpful.

hester said:
Leah, just wanted to wish you the very best of luck! And if you don't mind my asking, are you going to self-publish Remnant? (I had the good fortune to beta the book, and it freakin' ROCKS).

In any event, you've got an eager reader here--can't wait for the book to come out!!

Awwww, thank you! <3 I will probably self-pub that at some point, but I'm going to wait and see how Unteachable does first. I'm not sure if I want to do it under my real name or a pseudonym.

CAWriter said:
I didn't see this discussion when it started, and my comment is far off from the others offered so far. I wasn't going to mention it (as the book is done and all), but to be honest, I couldn't get past one detail from your blurb that derails the whole concept for me.

Maybe in other locales this is different, but, while ill-advised and perhaps against school rules (thus the job being at risk), it isn't "illegal" for an 18 year old to be involved with another adult even if that adult is their teacher.

If I were reviewing the book, this one niggling detail would throw off the rest of the story for me. Otherwise, it's not far fetched as "everyone" in my high school knew about the English teacher and the on-going affair with one of our classmates.

Well done generating interest and reviews for the book.

Thank you! The story takes place in Illinois, and the criminal code is here: http://www.ageofconsent.com/illinois.htm

In Illinois, it's a felony for a teacher to have sex with a student. However, the law expressly covers only minors, those age 17 or below. Adults age 18+ are not covered.

Of course, if any teacher in Illinois were found to be having sex with an 18yo student, they would be instantly fired and probably never teach again.

And that is a plot point.

---

So, updates a week before the pub date:

No response from Joni Mitchell's estate yet. I'm preparing alternate text without the lyric. Sadface.

Also, apparently I'm officially an author now, because I've been pirated. Yarrrr. One of the reviewers I entrusted with an ARC put it up on a pirate site. The funny thing? I've done lots of editing this past month, and I narrowed down this specific copy of the book with these specific edits to a specific handful of people. All of 'em are going on the blacklist.

I sent DMCA takedown notices to all the sites involved.

And finally, I blogged about my decision to self-publish and my journey trying to get traditionally published here: http://www.leahraeder.com/2013/07/23/why-im-self-publishing/

If you were curious what happened with my previous two novels (as some of you are betas! <3), it may interest you.

Thanks again, everyone. Next Thursday is the official release. *terror*

swvaughn · Jul 25, 2013

Good luck! Here's hoping you come out of the release gate strong and sell like crazy.

juliatheswede · Jul 25, 2013

Good luck with your book, Leah. Just read about your journey to self-publish and it was very informative and interesting.

Krista Street · Jul 25, 2013

This has been a great thread to read. I wish you the best and look forward to reading your book!

It sounds like you really know a lot about the publishing (and self-publishing) world, as I've learned a few things I never knew from the above posts. I'm interested to follow your journey and hope you do well.

As for the one hot topic - your cover - I agree that I'm not a fan of the sideways thing, but I had no problem seeing right away that it was a woman turned 90 degrees. Although it might be better to align the title/author name with the picture so when people turn the book to read the title the image becomes apparent? Other than that, I've never been one for traditional covers. Eye catching is better. As for whether or not I buy - I read blurbs on books, and if I like the blurb, I buy the book, even if I don't like the cover.

Lastly, I agree with the 18 year old "illegal" comments posted. It sounds like you've done your research, so while being 18 might result in the teacher being fired, it also struck me as not being "illegal." Those kind of details bother me when I read books (and honestly that one point would very well be the deciding factor to NOT buy your book), and I doubt a lot of readers will bother to go look up individual state laws to see if it's accurate or not. My guess is that most will see it as a gross error on your part. It's an easy fix though - simply remove the part where you say it's illegal!

Anyway, good luck, and like I said - I'm looking forward to following your journey!

leahzero · Jul 25, 2013

Edit: Duh, somehow I missed this--yeah, you guys are referring to that law bit in the blurb. Well, the state isn't mentioned in the blurb, and in some states a relationship with an 18yo student IS illegal. How could it put someone off reading if they don't even know what state it's in? And if someone is that well-informed about those specific laws, wouldn't they know that some states are far stricter than others? And considering that there's a scene in the book where the main character looks up the criminal code and finds out that what they're doing is technically legal, because she hadn't previously known if it was or not...I don't think it's a huge deal.

Also, one of the book bloggers who reviewed for me is actually a schoolteacher in Illinois, and I've talked to her quite a bit about the book. She didn't blink at the blurb, so...

leahzero · Jul 27, 2013

Quick update!

The piracy got totally out of control, so I decided to publish a few days early. Uploaded around noon; took about 5 hours to process.

I'm now live on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E6VENSE/?tag=absowrit-20

BTW, I ended up taking the advice above and rewrote the "law" bit. Thanks for the input, folks.

Here goes nothing.

merrihiatt · Jul 27, 2013

Good luck!

BigRed · Jul 27, 2013

Best of luck, Leah. We'll be watching and cheering from the sidelines!

leahzero · Jul 28, 2013

Cracked the Top 100 in Romance > New Adult today. Not bad for an unannounced early release, IMO.

Cranky1 · Jul 28, 2013

leahzero said:
Cracked the Top 100 in Romance > New Adult today. Not bad for an unannounced early release, IMO.

Congrats!

Noah Body · Jul 28, 2013

leahzero said:
Cracked the Top 100 in Romance > New Adult today. Not bad for an unannounced early release, IMO.

YOU GO, GIRLIE!

Nonny · Jul 28, 2013

I actually really like the cover. Then again, I also like Lisa Frank, and the style is sorta reminiscent.

I don't quite get the SF feel that some people do; it looked more like YA to me. It's a very striking cover, though.

Congrats on the Top 100! May I ask if you're going Amazon only or plan to have the book up at other distributors? (I have a Nook, so buying stuff through Amazon requires some extra steps in order to read it on my device.)

sarahdalton · Jul 29, 2013

Ranked #1351 overall? That's amazing for a first book! Congratulations.

ETA: I've just had a quick glance over at Goodreads, and I think you've done a really good job at marketing this. From the reviews it looks like you've managed to write a book that stands out from its genre and breaks a formula, and you've done the same thing with the cover. It's really hard to do that in an over-saturated genre. Really well done. I think your book is going to take off!

leahzero · Jul 29, 2013

Nonny said:
Congrats on the Top 100! May I ask if you're going Amazon only or plan to have the book up at other distributors? (I have a Nook, so buying stuff through Amazon requires some extra steps in order to read it on my device.)

For now, yes, Amazon-only. But I'm not enrolled in KDP Select, so I don't have to be exclusive to Amazon. I want to wait and see how it goes before I commit to anything.

I am pretty certain I will not be doing a free period (kinda useless for standalones/authors with only one book), so I'm not sure I'd get much benefit from KDP Select.

sarahdalton said:
Ranked #1351 overall? That's amazing for a first book! Congratulations.

ETA: I've just had a quick glance over at Goodreads, and I think you've done a really good job at marketing this. From the reviews it looks like you've managed to write a book that stands out from its genre and breaks a formula, and you've done the same thing with the cover. It's really hard to do that in an over-saturated genre. Really well done. I think your book is going to take off!

Thank you! Yeah, the overall rank has been hovering around 1000-1300 and slipping in and out of the Romance > New Adult Top 100. I haven't yet had a big push from a prominent blogger, so I'm expecting it to crack the NA Top 100 for good once it does.

And yes, the whole "being different" thing seems to be a blessing and a curse. I'm still getting occasional reviews that don't like it for being different (and that hate/don't get that cover

), but overall it seems pretty positive.

swvaughn · Jul 29, 2013

Wow, look at you go! Super congrats!!

juniper · Jul 29, 2013

I read the blurb on Amazon - you did a great job of writing that. Concise but enticing. Voice of the MC comes through on it.

I understand why one reviewer said he was expecting a college student, not a high school student. Because you say: "The summer I turned 18 ..." - most US high school student aren't 18 when they *start* their senior year. I turned 18 in the winter of my senior year and I was one of the older kids in my class. Many didn't turn 18 until the spring. Some graduated at 17 (without being put ahead a grade).

I realize you had to make her 18 for the legalities of the relationship. So, not sure what you could have done otherwise. :Shrug:

That would be my only quibble. The cover is striking and eye-catching, off the norm but as others have said, that could be an advantage for you.

Good luck! Seems that you're off to a great start.

An aside: I wonder if releasing YA books in the summer gives an advantage over releasing them during the school year? I wonder how much "fun" reading students do during the school months, when they might be doing mostly assigned reading?

ETA: If you add it to Smashwords I can download it for my Kobo e-reader. I don't like reading off my computer or phone much so don't use the Kindle app.

Spell-it-out · Jul 29, 2013

Best of luck on the early release Leah, and great to see such good reviews already.

My NC-17-rated adventures in New Adult.

Fionn: 0/Year: 24

New year, new avatar.

Mushroom

Simplify.

practical experience, FTW

I got it covered

The colors! THE COLORS!

adrift

Got the hang of it, here

The colors! THE COLORS!

The colors! THE COLORS!

Writing! Writing! Writing!

Write to live; live to write!

The colors! THE COLORS!

practical experience, FTW

Entertainment Ronin

Serve no master but your ambition

The colors! THE COLORS!

adrift

Always curious.

I'm gonna give all my secrets away