Category Archives: Housekeeping

Giveaway, Happy Holigays, Housekeeping

Happy 5th Anniversary, LGBTQReads!

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Yup. Five years.

Five YEARS, this site has existed.

In five years, there have been over 800 posts, 20,000 Twitter followers, 16,000 Tumblr followers, and over 3,000 Instagram followers. We’ve revealed 126 covers, and yes, that’s my favorite number because it also happens to be my birthday, and no, I probably didn’t do that on purpose. (Plus, it’ll be 127 tomorrow.)

In five years, we’ve done a whole lot, all together. You’ve posted and shared, you’ve reblogged and retweeted, you’ve donated and commented, you’ve recommended this site to your library patrons and students, and you’ve helped make it what it is.

Thank you.

A few fun facts:

The most popular post on the entire site is… LGBTQIAP YA Preview 2020: January-June (and it damn well should be, since I wrote blurbs for 72 books)

The most popular guest post on the entire site is… Recommendations for Polyamory in Fiction by Shira Glassman

The most popular discussion guest post is… Goodbye, Bad Bi: the Lose-Lose Situation of Bisexual YA by Casey Lawrence

The most viewed cover reveal is… The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

The most viewed New Release Spotlight is… Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram

The most viewed Better Know an Author is… Kacen Callender

The most viewed Fave Five is… Canon Demisexual Characters

and the most viewed subpage is… (Romance) by Trope/Archetype

So, an anniversary! What are we doing to celebrate??

To be honest, not much! Because I had a book come out yesterday and have another one out in less than two months and I am a little fried! But you can enter to win that first one here, and if you want to win the latter (aka Cool for the Summer), comment below with one of your favorite LGBTQIAP+ books, and one you’re looking forward to reading this year! I’ll give away one bound galley (left) and one ARC (right) so please include which one you’re entering for in your comment!

Housekeeping

Thank You, and Good Riddance 2020

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As we all bid Good Riddance to 2020, a quick thank-you post from me to close out this true disaster of a year:

Huge thank you to all of the LGBTQReads donors and Patrons who keep this place running and give me some necessary justification for all the time I spend on it <3

One of the things that money goes to is the assistants who help with the tremendous amount of formatting and linking that goes into a site like this, and who make the lovely cover collages I absolutely cannot – huge thank-you to them: Rachel Strolle, Shauna Morgan, Angie, and Mark O’Brien seriously helped carry this site through the year.

Massive thanks to all those who promoted the site and helped it find a larger audience. This year the most special thanks in that regard goes to @spideysunflower, who mentioned it in a reply to Rick Riordan, including some screenshots, and literally gained the Twitter account thousands of followers overnight.

Also very grateful to the booktubers, bloggers (especially at Book Riot and the Lesbrary) who direct people here, and the authors who put shoutouts to the site on their own websites.

And while we’re on authors who are tremendous friends of the site, I want to take a minute to talk about what was, for me personally, the absolute worst part of 2020: losing Corey Alexander/Xan West. As most people reading this probably know, Corey’s work was incredibly special, and I don’t just mean their books; I mean the way they worked to make literature a safe space where marginalized people could find themselves, the way they covered things no one else was, the way they made people excited to write books that Corey might like; I know that was definitely on my mind as I worked on the Chanukah rom-com I hope to self-pub next year. They were a literal inspiration – someone who made you want to write and want to do better and want to write the kind of work that would make them happy; there’s really no overstating how rare and special that is.

I feel very privileged to have gotten to feature some of Corey’s work on the site, and if you haven’t already checked it out, there’s never a better time:

Exclusive Cover + Excerpt Reveal: Their Troublesome Crush by Xan West!

Exclusive Cover + Excerpt Reveal: Eight Kinky Nights by Xan West

Exclusive Cover + Excerpt Reveal: Nine of Swords, Reversed by Corey Alexander

Not much more to say after that, but hoping for much happier, healthier times in 2021! I myself have two books coming (That Way Madness Lies/Flatiron Books, March 16 and Cool for the Summer/Wednesday Books, May 11), so look for me to find a billion ways to talk about them, and of course, I’ll be doing more preview posts both here and on Buzzfeed. (Keep an eye on the latter for my upcoming Winter LGBTQ+ YA preview, which has 25 titles!)

Also coming in 2021? The fifth anniversary of LGBTQReads, which I hope to be turning into a fun fundraiser with the help of wonderful authors etc. so more info to come on that! (If you’re someone who’d like to help, please feel free to drop me a line at LGBTQReads@gmail.com!)

Aaaand that’s a wrap on 2020 – stay safe and healthy, and keep on reading under the rainbow <3

xoxo,
Dahlia

 

Housekeeping

Happy New Year from LGBTQReads!

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Hey, all! Just a quick note to wish everyone a very happy new year full of rainbow-y reading and all the joy and good things.

I also wanted to extend some thanks to the people who help keep this place running, especially the people who’ve generously donated ko-fis that allow for the hiring of assistants to do a lot of the formatting work when I’m overwhelmed (hats off to the two of you in particular who donated way more ko-fis than one could ever drink in a day), and to those assistants, Lily and Angie, who save the day when I can barely breathe.

As you may have noticed, the site has grown a lot this year, not just in the content of the posts but in the sub-pages; while they’re all majorly works-in-progress, there are about twenty more ways to search for books now than there were at this time last year, and I hope people are making good use of them! Thank you to every who writes the reviews and gives me the nudges that help fill them out.

Aaand that’s it for now! If you’re inclined to throw a few bucks the site’s way, I will always appreciate it, but word-of-mouth is truly the other best gift you can give. The number of librarians, teachers, parents, and friends who’ve been in touch about using this site as a resource is really remarkable, and it works because people get the word out and help make it so.

Thank you for almost three great years; looking forward to many more!

xoxo, Dahlia

Housekeeping

Happy New Year!

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As 2017 comes to a close, I just want to take a minute to thank everyone who’s contributed to this site, who’s shared posts, who’s purchased using the affiliate links, who’s generally done all manner of things that help keep this place going.

This site is forever a work-in-progress, and while I’m really excited about new things that’ve been added as of late, I have lots of plans for future features I think are gonna be really helpful and awesome. However, I’m one person who has a full-time job, a part-time job, and now a baby, so here’s the part where I beg everyone to please keep shopping via affiliate links as often as possible, and also to use that little “Buy me a coffee” link wherever you see it; that money will go to periodically hiring interns/assistants to help not only keep up the site and its associated social media, but work on new resources currently in progress, including Literature in Translation, a new series whose first post you can find here, and a page dedicated to historical romance organized by period/location.

Of course, I always encourage donating directly to queer people in need directly, and you still can find plenty of links to do that under Support up top; please make liberal (heh) use of them!

Aaaand that’s it! Thank you for another great year here, and looking forward to lots more reading together under the rainbow in the new year!

xoxo,

Dahlia

 

Housekeeping, News

Quick LGBTQ Reads News Roundup!

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There’s a lot happening today in the world of LGBTQ Reads, so a quick catchup for anyone getting overwhelmed by it all!

First, there’s some new stuff on the site: in addition to a brand-new Fave Five post, the SFF section has been updated to include YA as well, so that SFF for all ages can be found in one spot. There’s also a new page that is very much in progress, so that you can now find LGBTQIAP+ Manga, comics, and graphic novels as well. Thanks to everyone who’s been helping provide recommendations!

Second, two new gay Contemporary YA releases today, both dealing with mental health:

Jerkbait by Mia Siegert

Keywords: gay, hockey, twins, tw: suicide, online predators, GAY ATHLETE in case you didn’t catch that

Rec to: I mean, there’s almost no gay sports anything in YA, so.

Amazon

Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley

Keywords: gay, agoraphobia, friendship, literal LOLs

Rec to: Fans of mental health YA and Everything, Everything and also just funny, feelsy YA in general

Aaaaand finally, a cover reveal for an upcoming YA that is an f/f Robin Hood. Yes, you read that correctly:

 Marian by Ella Lyons releases on November 3rd, and you can add it on Goodreads here!

Quick reminder that LGBTQ Reads is also on Tumblr, and if you need a rec or twelve, you can always Ask!

Housekeeping

Welcome!

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Welcome to LGBTQ Reads!

This is a site dedicated to LGBTQ Lit including Picture Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult, New Adult, and Romance. Whether you’re looking for your personal next read or the best way to support your library, or anything in between, I’m here to help you find it!

If you’re familiar with my personal blog, you may recall that I have a QUILTBAG Compendium, and yes, that will still be updated and operational in its current functions. However, it was getting a bit unwieldy with all I wanted to feature, and there was so much I wanted to do with it for which there was no space, so, ta da! Yes, there is some overlap in content (although it’s organized quite differently here) and they will be similarly curated, but that’s where the similarities end.

The categories you see up top will be monthly features, so each month you’ll meet a new author and get recs for both an older title and a new release, often with some input from those authors as well. Besides that, you can see other themes of recurring posts in the sidebar on the left, and there’ll be guest posts from people involved in LGBTQIAP+ publishing in various ways, information on various queerly bookish things around the internet, and whatever else people throw my way. For more info, check out the FAQ!

Of course, no launch is complete without giveaways, so make sure you’re following LGBTQ Reads on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr, because that’s where I’ll be giving away some seriously awesome reads!

There’ll also be an event I’m really psyched for during pride month to raise money for some places near and dear to my rainbow heart. If you’d like to donate an item, please use this form. If you want more information first, just get in touch!

Welcome to LGBTQ Reads – can’t wait to queer up your bookshelves, one rec at a time!

xoxo,

Dahlia