Category Archive

LOSING IT

SIGNED LOSING IT #2

Here’s the second of two posts where you can bid to win a signed copy of the U.S. Paperback version of LOSING IT in an effort to raise money to help Patrick McCartney raise money for his cancer treatment.
The Auction will remain open through MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4TH 11:59 PM EST. The prize will go to the highest pledge. 
The book doesn’t release until February 26th, so you’ll receive your copy after that. Your copy will not be signed or sent until you’ve followed through on your pledge to donate. 
Leave your pledge and a contact email below in the comments. 
Thank you in advance! You guys rock! 

SIGNED LOSING IT #1

Here’s the first of two posts where you can bid to win a signed copy of the U.S. Paperback version of LOSING IT in an effort to raise money to help Patrick McCartney raise money for his cancer treatment.

The Auction will remain open through MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4TH 11:59 PM EST.

The book doesn’t release until February 26th, so you’ll receive your copy after that. Your copy will not be signed or sent until you’ve followed through on your pledge to donate.

Leave your pledge and a contact email below in the comments.

Thank you in advance! You guys rock!

The One with the Video

Just stopping in to share this AmazingPants video made by an AwesomeSauce fan! You guys should go give her some love in the comments.

The One where LOSING IT goes International

Hello Lovelies!

Sorry I’ve been MIA. I’ve been locked in the writing cave working on Cade’s companion novel, but I’ve peeked my head out to tell you some very exciting news!

You all know that the New York Times broke the news of LOSING IT selling to Harper Collins, but today the official notice went life on Publisher’s Marketplace along with a few other deals that have been secret until now. Here’s the notice:

Cora Carmack’s self-published NYT and USA Today Bestseller, LOSING IT, about a 22-year old virgin in her last year of college who decides to solve the problem, but her attempt at a one night stand turns disastrous the next morning when she realizes her new theatre professor is the guy she left half naked in her bed eight hours earlier, to Amanda Bergeron at William Morrow, in a major deal, at auction, in a three-book deal, by Suzie Townsend at New Leaf Literary & Media (NA). Rights to Psichogios in Greece, by Nelly Moukakos of JLM Agency, to Random House Korea, by Ally Bang of Eric Yang Agency, to RBA Libros in Spain, by Jennifer Hogue of International Editors, and to Pena in Turkey, by Bengu Ayfer of Akcali Copyright Agency, in association with Kathleen Ortiz of New Leaf Literary & Media.

Yes, my loves. Those are foreign rights sales you see, specifically to Greece, Korea, Spain, and Turkey so far! And RBA Libros in Spain will be distributing to other spanish speaking countries as well! Clearly my agency of awesome (New Leaf Literary) is SLAYING it.

Now I don’t have release dates for those countries yet, but they’ll be there eventually! And hopefully the book will continue to gain interest in other foreign territories. So that all my AMAZINGPANTS fans across the globe can get their hands on paperback copies.
In other news, HarperCollins officially took over sales of the ebook of LOSING IT today, too! That means it’s now available on other ebook websites other than B&N and Amazon! Like iBooks and Kobo! So many of you have been asking about this for so long, so I’m relieved to say it’s up!!! 😀 And Harper Collins is amazing and didn’t raise the price, which means it’s still extremely affordable at $3.99!   *Cough* Cheap Christmas present *Cough*.
*For those of you wondering, you don’t need to buy a new copy of LOSING IT if you have the original (unless you just want to, because you love me). It went through a quick edit for any grammatical errors, but there are no major changes.
And if you haven’t already, you should check out the interview with me posted today on USA Today’s HEA blog!
I’m sure there are more updates that I’m missing, but I’ll catch them next time! Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Facebook if you haven’t already!
In Awkward <3,
Cora

The One About What New Adult Means to Me


What is a “New Adult” book anyway? 



I’m a re-reader. 



 That’s how I know that I really LOVE a book, when I can read it a second, third, or fourth time and get just as swept away in the story as that very first time. 

I discovered this for the first time when I was twelve and re-reading HARRY POTTER. Since then, I have reread and loved many books, one of which stuck with me so completely that I can still recite entire quotes from it with ease. 

That is THE AWAKENING by Kate Chopin. It was one of those books that you’re forced to read in your high school English class, and for many people it is a miserable experience. But for whatever the reason, I didn’t resent having to read that book. The story captivated me utterly, and I’m inclined to believe it is a huge part of the reason I write stories like I do. 



 THE AWAKENING is about a 28-year-old married woman named Edna. As you can guess, she goes through an awakening where she realizes she hasn’t truly been living. Her ideas and opinions and emotions all begin to change radically because for the first time in her life, she is determined to live life on her own terms. 

There is one quote that has stuck with me all these years: 



“Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her… But the beginning of things, of a world especially, is necessarily vague, tangled, chaotic, and exceedingly disturbing. How few of us ever emerge from such beginning! How many souls perish in its tumult!” 
 

There could not be a better way to describe the turbulent years between adolescence and adulthood, that terrifying in-between. Whether you’re at college or moving out on your own or working your first full time job—your life seems to change radically overnight. And yet for most people in that age group (18-25ish), you’re still not completely on your own. Your parents are still a large part of your life. You’re not a child anymore, but you’re also not quite an adult. You may call yourself an adult (as will others), but deep down in side you are petrified because you don’t feel like one. 


At least, that’s how it was for me. It really did feel like my world was starting from scratch. I was searching for my perfect fit in this wide world. I once likened the feeling to leaving behind a comfortable pair of old shoes for new ones that fit a bit better. It’s not that you want to stay with the old shoes that have become worn out and are a bit too snug, but breaking in those new shoes takes time and can be painful. That is what New Adult books are about to me.



Young Adult books are about surviving adolescence and coming of age. New Adult is about how to live your life after that. New Adult is the “I’m officially an adult, now what?” phase. 
 Just like growing up, that life stage is different for everyone, but I do think there are some things that are constant.

The first is figuring out who you are outside of the world in which you grew up. A few lucky people may figure out who they are when they are teenagers, but I’m inclined to think that for most of us, we just think we know who we are. Some of it might be right, but a lot of it can be very wrong. We believe things because we’ve never known there was another way to believe. We think life is a certain way until we experience the opposite. 


So why are people just now hearing “New Adult” in terms of a category for fiction? Well, the world is a very different place than it was when YA first became an accepted genre. It used to be that many people got jobs straight out of high school, and only some people went on to college. And usually those who did go to college were more financially and emotionally dependent. Now, it has become the norm to go to college, and for young adults to remain in contact or even dependent upon their parents for years after graduating high school. College is the new high school, and as such that “growing up” phase has been stretched to include a few extra awkward years. 


That time, like Kate Chopin says, can be vague and hard to understand. It can be chaotic (oh so chaotic). It can be a mess. We, as the “new adults” can be a mess. It can be awkward and emotionally exhausting and painful and disturbing. For me, it was a time of anxiety and self-doubt, where I questioned everything I’d always thought to be true about the world and myself. I’d grown up as an intelligent, confident, ambitious young woman. Then suddenly I was this indecisive, terrified girl who was afraid she’d made all the wrong choices and doubted her ability to achieve her dreams. 


I’m twenty-five-years-old, and I still suffer from some of those symptoms. In the moments before I hit the button to self-publish LOSING IT, I felt like I was going to be sick, and was moments away from a complete breakdown. I had to turn my music on really loud, dance around, let go of the world, and completely clear my mind, so that the prospect of hitting a stupid button didn’t break me. 
 And now LOSING IT has been more successful than I ever could have imagined. For the first time in a long time, I feel like that new world that Kate Chopin talks about is finally starting to make sense. It has become a little less vague and a little less scary.

Who would have thought that by writing about this awkward phase in life, I would begin to find my way out of it?

ERMAHGERD. LOSING IT Gets a New Release Date!

GUESSSSSSSS WHAT, FRIENDS? GUESS! GUESS! OKAY, DON’T GUESS I’LL SHOW YOU!

DO YOU SEE THAT NUMBER???? 1502!!
Do you know what that means?!?
First, it means:

Second, it means you met my earlier challenge, so I’m MOVING UP the release date of LOSING IT from the 16th to the 15th!!!!

Huzzah! I hope you guys are as excited as I am! Because I am SO excited!  I’ve been getting a lot of questions about LOSING IT not being available for pre-order, so this seems like a good time to clear some things up. LOSING IT is independently published, which means it won’t be available for pre-order. I’ll be hitting publish sometime on the 14th (or perhaps a little earlier). It’s impossible to know how quickly the book will be available after that because it varies for everyone. I plan to hit publish with plenty of time to spare so that it will definitely be available on the 15th. Because of that, it might even go up earlier that the 15th if the process goes quickly, so feel free to keep an eye on Amazon/B&N or my twitter and facebook for updates. I’ll let you know when it is available for sale!
WHOO-HOO! Now time for more celebration! A majorly awesome blog tour will be kicking off this Saturday at The YA Sisterhood. It will run through the end of October and will have lots of fun interviews, excerpts, and extras! 🙂
Again! Thank you! Thank you! Your support for this story has been tremendous so far! I cannot wait for the release date!

Want to read LOSING IT early? AKA… The One with the Challenge

Hellooooo friends!

So many amazing things have been happening that I’ve had a little trouble keeping up and have neglected my sad little blog. I think it’s time to change that! So… I have some news and a challenge for you all!

The news is… LOSING IT has a cover!!!! The cover reveal (organized by the YA Sisterhood) was a phenomenal success!!! Over 30 blogs participated, and the reaction was FANTASTIC! Sadly, since the cover reveal, I had to make a slight change to the font on the cover so that it would be more readable as a thumbnail for when it goes up for sale. So here is the latest version for your viewing pleasure!

*Fans self* 
The guy is pretty cute, huh? Trust me… the rest of the picture that I cut out is even better! It will be released along one stop of the blog tour! 
Now that that’s done, are you guys ready for my challenge? It’s a big one! Well, actually it’s a multi-part challenge! 
If LOSING IT hits 1000 “to read” adds on Goodreads, I’ll host a giveaway for one advanced copy of LOSING IT! These are rare folks, and I hadn’t planned to give any more out, but I think 1000 adds deserves celebrating! Here’s where we currently stand on Goodreads: 
Not that far to go, right? That giveaway is within your grasp! 
UPDATE: Challenge met! See the next post for the giveaway! 

Losing It

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! 

If LOSING IT hits 1500 “to read” adds, I’ll do something crazy! I’ll bump the release date up by at least one full day (the current release date is October 16th). I’ll do the same at 2000 and 2500 too, which means LOSING IT could be released by as many as three days early! 
UPDATE: WE’VE HIT 1350! Not much more to go before the 1500 challenge! October 15th is looking pretty good for the release date!  
Everyone I’ve interacted with so far has been so enthusiastic and encouraging and amazing. 

I BELIEVE IN REWARDING THAT KIND OF AWESOME. 

And I like coming up with rewards! So, who knows? Maybe if you guys continue to impress and awe me, I’ll come up with even more rewards! 
Love, love, love you all! 
In awkward <3, 
Cora
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