Genre: YA Science Fiction
Publication: October 29th
Publisher: Self Published
Page Count: 379
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One hundred and fifty years ago, Earth was destroyed, and the remaining humans fled to the dusty red planet of Jutaire, where the only oxygen is manufactured, food is scarce, and death strikes often.
When Lissa's father discovers Earth still exists, she accidentally inhales the toxic air of Jutaire, and in one breath, discovers she isn't quite human.
Her father hangs for his discovery, and Lissa knows the Chancellors will come for her, for she saw the Earth that night too. With nothing to lose, she sets out to expose the truth. It isn't long before she meets Julian, a beautiful boy who can breathe the toxic air like she can - and shows her that the Jute, the original inhabitants of the planet, are more tangled in their lives than she knows.
But the Chancellors are only pawns in a greater game - one where the Jute control everything. Worse, the Jute plan to leave Jutaire for Earth, but to get there, they need her. And they'll stop at nothing until Lissa is in their clutches, even if they kill every human in the process.
The race for Earth has begun.
Unbreathable is a tale of love, redemption, and sacrifice, and one girl's struggle to find her place in a world where she doesn't belong.
About Hafsah
Hafsah Laziaf was born on the east coast on a hot summer day in 1993, raised on the west coast and is now stuck in the middle – in Texas – with more books than she can read. She’s the designer behind IceyDesigns and the blogger behind IceyBooks.UNBREATHABLE is her debut novel
I'm so glad to be a part of the tour! Today, I'll be sharing a guest post from the lovely Hafsah and a giveaway. I hope that you will pick up and enjoy this book as much as I did! Review will come sometime next week.
Self Publishing vs. The Traditional Publishing Route
The best decision I've ever made also happens to be the one I never wanted to make.
When I first started writing, I had this weird notion that I would easily find an agent and a publisher. Of course, I had no idea how publishing worked. I had no idea it wouldn't happen.
Fast forward three novels later, when I had just finished writing UNBREATHABLE, I had the notion again. This time, I knew I had something 'magical', as a friend likes to say. But I had accumulated hundreds of rejections for my past novels and I wasn't ready to be optimistic.
So I sent out a batch of five queries in September of 2012 and waited a few hours. Then sent another. And another.
15 queries were out for 1 week before I started getting requests. Not from any agent either - from several top agents I never dreamed of signing with.
In the end of my one-month querying period, I had gotten 15 requests. A few of them responded with rejections. A few never responded to this day. And yet another few asked for revisions.
I was ecstatic, of course. I had been writing for two years with countless rejections based on my query alone. But here were some, not one, but SOME, agents asking me to revise it? And resubmit it? That they really liked the concept and wanted this fixed and that changed?
Ecstatic.
Fast forward a few months later, January of 2013. I sent the revised manuscript in. And the rejections started trickling in. Why? They never said.
But UNBREATHABLE never left. It lingered. I loved the story so much. But I loved it even more because of the response I received from my early readers and then real, actual agents.
The rejections left me devastated. But it made me wonder WHY it happened. And the more I researched, the more I noticed how difficult and competitive the YA science fiction market had become. And how in two years, YA science fiction set in space would be a thing of the past.
At the same time, a friend had just self-published her own novel, and was encouraging me to do the same. But I was one of those people who frowned at taking that route. Who was terrified at being alone - no agent, no editor, no gigantic company backing me up.
But the more I thought about it, the more logical the idea seemed. Yet, I was terrified.
So before I could change my mind, I sat down and wrote an announcement post at 11PM and went to bed. The post went up at 6AM and I spent the whole night regretting it, worrying over it, and finally, stressing over the outcome.
But since 6AM that day, I haven't regretted my decision once.
And now for the giveaway! There will be two winners! The paperback will be US while the ebook will be international.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
I am really curious about Unbreathable, the cover is absolutely gorgeous. Self-published books are some of the best!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing! <33