Matt Harry · Author · added about 8 years ago · 15 likes

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

A short update this week, but a big one:

Behold, the finished cover (front, back, and flaps)! Special thanks to Mike Rich for the amazing blurb, Mike Corley for the cover design, and Juliane Crump for the author illustrations/back cover layout. I’m really pleased with how this turned out. If I had seen this in a bookstore when I was 10, I would have freaked out. I hope you all are as excited as I am.

Secondly, I have a favor to ask. SORCERY FOR BEGINNERS was nominated as the October pick for a YA Readers Group on Goodreads. The two titles with the most votes will be exposed to nearly 10,000 readers, which would be huge for a debut title like ours. If you could take a moment to go here and vote for SORCERY FOR BEGINNERS, we’d greatly appreciate it!

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/84810.Indie_Author_Group_Buddy_Reads_at_YA_Buddy_Readers_Corner

More updates coming soon. Thanks again for all your support!

Matt Harry · Author · added about 8 years ago · 10 likes

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

Much has happened in the last month. We’re about six weeks away from publication, and the momentum is increasing. First, we’ve booked several more signing events in October. You can click on the links below to attend. It would be great to see as many of you in person as possible!

13 October, 2017 - Westlake, OH

14 October, 2017 - Oak Park, IL

18 October, 2017 - Redlands, CA

21 October, 2017 - Burbank, CA

30 October, 2017 - Pasadena, CA

We will let you know as more events are added. If anyone knows people who work at bookstores, libraries, or middle schools, especially on the West Coast, please let us know. We’d love to set up as many events as possible to build buzz, and personal connections are incredibly helpful in such a crowded marketplace.

Secondly, reviews have been coming in from early readers on Goodreads and NetGalley. Some highlights:

“Absolutely amazing! After reading this book, I didn’t want to put it down, even when I reached the last word.” (5 out of 5 stars)

“I could not put this book down … hopefully the author will expand on the universe.” (5 out of 5 stars)

“I loved the way the story was peppered with spells and footnotes…I can see this quickly becoming a cult classic and I hope this becomes a series with more volumes to follow!” (4 out of 5 stars)

“JK Rowling meets VE Schwab. Highly recommend!” (4 out of 5 stars)

It’s really humbling and awesome to see people we don’t know enjoying the book, especially since everyone involved worked so hard on it. And speaking of hard work…the final cover is FINISHED. I will be able to reveal that in about a week or so, but it looks really amazing and unique. My first thought when I saw it was, “If I found this in a bookstore when I was 10, it would have blown my mind.”

And honestly, that’s my real hope with this book—that some kid I don’t know will pick it up and be as excited as I was to discover the Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, The Dark is Rising, or Harry Potter. (Not that I expect to sell anywhere near that many copies, I just want kids to enjoy it.)

If you haven’t yet, please put Sorcery for Beginners on your wish lists at Amazon, Goodreads, Powell’s, Walmart, or wherever you buy books. It really helps us in terms of bookstore preorders. Thanks again for all the support, and we’ll have another update soon!

Matt Harry · Author · added about 8 years ago · 19 likes

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

This week has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster. First, Sorcery for Beginners was placed on NetGalley to solicit reviews. For those who don’t know, NetGalley is a website that gives out books to influential reviewers and readers for free, in exchange for honest opinions. Good reviews lead to positive word of mouth, which hopefully leads to sales.

So basically, my little word baby that I nurtured for five years and tried to raise as a decent manuscript has just been dropped in the middle of Times Square on a sweltering afternoon in July. Was I worried how people would respond to my earnest, adorably doe-eyed creation? It’s the Internet, you bet I was worried.

But then a few hours later, less than 24 hours that the book went live on NetGalley, the Inkshares marketing department sent me this:

Amanda Scheel (Reviewer) has just reviewed Sorcery for Beginners. To add this review to the book page on NetGalley, click here:

https://www.netgalley.com/book/118069/review/418228

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Full Text:
I got this ebook arc copy for free from netgalley and I must say this is absolutely amazing! Fell into the world of magic and after reading this book, I didn’t want to put it down, even when I reached the last word. Such an incredible book, any Harry Potter fan will fall in love all over again!

Links:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2065594383

Additional Questions:Would you purchase this book for yourself or a friend? Yes

WOW. Amanda, I can’t thank you enough. I know all the reviews won’t be this awesome, but these words mean a great deal to me. The fact that someone I don’t know enjoyed the book and finished it in ONE DAY is humbling and gratifying. As they say in E.T., I’m glad Sorcery for Beginners met you first.

Oh, and something else came in the mail yesterday:

For the first time, I held Sorcery for Beginners in my hand! My first reaction was how weighty the book is. It has heft, y’all. I think it could stop a bullet.

We have a couple more tweaks before we send the final final version to the printer, but this thing is real. It is coming your way. And no matter what kinds of other reviews come in, we’re already bulletproof.

Matt Harry · Author · added about 8 years ago · 18 likes

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

Big news this week. The galleys for Sorcery for Beginners have arrived!

A "galley" is a printed preview version of the book. What you see above is called an "Advance Reader Copy," or ARC. ARCs are sent to bookstores, reviewers, and libraries to build buzz and help booksellers decide if they want to stock copies. That’s why the back includes marketing information.

If you look closely, you’ll also see an amazing blurb we got from Mike Rich, author of the forthcoming Skavenger’s Hunt, which drops in November 2017. Mike wrote the movies Finding Forrester, The Rookie, Miracle, Cars 3, and many more, so it was incredibly kind of him to take the time to read Sorcery and write such a nice blurb. In case you can’t see it, here it is in its entirety:

"Sorcery for Beginners makes me wish I had this book when I was Owen Macready’s age. The story casts a spell of its own." Thanks again Mike!

Also thanks again to Juliane, whose interior illustrations can be previewed here:

We wanted readers to feel like they really picked up a working guide to sorcery, and Juliane’s illustrations went a long way to making that possible.

I started writing this book in 2012. Now, five years later, to see a printed version of it is a humbling and emotional experience. This was not a solo effort by any means. At least a dozen people helped it reach its final form, and hundreds more people actually paid money to preorder it.

Now it’s real. No matter what else happens, it’s a real printed book that come October 10, will sit on the shelves of bookstores. It exists because of you. I can’t thank you enough.

-- mh

Matt Harry · Author · added over 8 years ago · 9 likes

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

We are soooo close to having printed galleys for SORCERY FOR BEGINNERS! We’ll have some images to show you soon, but for now I’ll just say that our layout designer Kevin and illustrator Juliane are champions. We have been through many rounds of notes and tweaks, but it’s safe to say the finished layout will look like no novel you’ve ever seen.

In the meantime, I have a favor to ask. Goodreads has a list up of the most anticipated middle grade novels of 2017. It would be HUGE for us if we could get on this list. As it currently stands, it would only take 22 votes to get us into the TOP TEN!

You’ve already done so much, but if you could go here and vote for SORCERY FOR BEGINNERS, it would really boost the book’s visibility:

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/74235.Middle_Grade_Novels_of_2017

While you’re there, you could also vote for another book I worked on -- SKAVENGER’S HUNT by Mike Rich (screenwriter of Cars 3, Finding Forrester, and many more). I edited Mike’s book and it’s a fun adventure featuring historical characters like Mark Twain and Gustave Eiffel.

Thanks again, and we’ll have more updates coming soon!

Matt Harry · Author · added over 8 years ago · 4 likes

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

Things have been very busy here at the Codex Arcanum. We got back some great notes from the copyeditor Pam, made those changes, then got back our first version of "the pour" from our layout designer Kevin. It looks so great, I can’t wait for you all to see it. We’re making some tweaks, and even creating some new illustrations because we were so inspired by the layout.

So we’re working hard to make a book that will be fun for everyone to read. On the marketing front, things are progressing as well. We have a confirmed book signing event at the awesome Vroman’s in Pasadena on Oct 30 at 7 pm, and we’re locking down other events as we speak. Currently, here is the list of places we’re hoping to hit:

Los Angeles, CA

Irvine, CA

San Francisco, CA

Washington, DC

New York, NY

Westlake, OH

Oak Park, IL

Iowa City, IA

More may be added, but as it stands, October’s going to be a very busy month! Facebook event pages will go out as soon as dates are confirmed.

In the meantime, please keep adding the book to your favorite book store wish lists and "Want to Read" shelf on Goodreads. The more clicks we have, the more visibility the book gets, and the more it encourages bookstores to place orders. Here is a sampling of places:

Thanks again for all your support!

Matt Harry · Author · added over 8 years ago · 6 likes

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

It’s been a couple weeks since our last update, but for good reason: Sorcery for Beginners has finally been shipped to the copy editor! For all intents and purposes, the last draft of the book has been completed. There may be some small final tweaks, but my last major pass on the story went out last Wednesday.

I have to be honest, it’s a bit weird. I’ve been working on this novel off and on for four years, so to hit a point where there can be no more changes and tweaks feels odd. I feel good about the book, and I think it improved a lot in the last month, but there is still some George Lucas-y part of me that wonders if I should go back and make more tweaks. Maybe add some more people screaming "Nooooooo!" (Kidding.)

Juliane is hard at work on the illustrations, Kevin is working on the layout, and we’re discussing ideas for the back cover art. Very soon all the creative work on Sorcery for Beginners will be all finished, then we have to sit back and wait for the orders to come in.

But before that, I wanted to introduce you to Euphemia Whitmore. Whitmore is the mysterious, intelligent figure who owns the Codex Arcanum, and sells Owen his copy of Sorcery for Beginners. She is also the author of the original edition, which was deemed too esoteric to understand, so Juliane and I were brought in to make it more of a novel. I’d like to say it was a fun experience working with her, but it was not. She is extremely demanding and condescending toward anyone who can’t cast spells at her level. (Which is pretty much everyone.)

Still, I’m grateful to her for letting us help tell her story. I only hope she doesn’t magically erase our memories to prevent us from saying anything about the Codex Arcanum.

If you haven’t done so already, please add us to your Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, and other favorite bookstore wish lists. It encourages them to order more books. Thanks again for all your support!

Matt Harry · Author · added over 8 years ago · 14 likes

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

We’re coming down to the wire. I spoke with the team at Inkshares yesterday and they are aiming to have galley proofs for Sorcery for Beginners in four weeks time. "Galleys", for those who don’t know, are the final print-outs of the book’s pages before it’s sent to the printer. So we are getting close to the final version. Even as I write this, I’m reading through the manuscript and making a few last tweaks.

But for now, I want to show you what the actual Codex Arcanum looks like. This is the bookstore where Owen first meets Euphemia Whitmore and gets his copy of Sorcery for Beginners. The store has entrances at 10 different spots all over the globe, which is why it’s made up of all these different architectural styles. It serves a few other functions as well, but to learn what those are you’ll have to read the book.

Hope everyone is well, and I’ll send out more illustrations and updates soon!

Matt Harry · Author · added over 8 years ago · 8 likes

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

For this week’s illustration, I’d like to introduce you to my favorite character in Sorcery for Beginners. This is Perry Spring. She’s the first person Owen meets at his new school, incredibly smart, and doesn’t care a whit about what anyone else thinks of her. She can be a bit of a know-it-all (Her favorite phrase is "Think about it") but she’s loyal and always strives to do the right thing. I work every day to be more like her.

Her name was inspired by the mythological Pierian Spring, which was supposedly the source of knowledge for art and science, and sacred to the Muses. It’s a weighty handle for a 13 year-old, but Perry is up to the task.

Perry’s likeness was also inspired by our family friend, Rachel. Thanks to Rachel and her family for letting us immortalize her in this book.

In other news this week, I updated the introduction to reflect the new rewrite. It’s much more of a warning and call to adventure then the last version. Hope everyone is well, and look for more illustrations next week!

Matt Harry · Author · added over 8 years ago · 8 likes

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

Happy Pi Day! I don’t know about you, but I aim to get at least one pie-related deal today, though I have yet to decide if it will be pizza- or dessert-based. But we also have another reason to celebrate with round carbohydrate disks -- the illustrations for the book are beginning to arrive!

The amazing Juliane Crump, who by day works as the graphic designer for TV shows such as "The Goldbergs" and "Transparent", has been slaving away to bring the words of this novel to life. We always wanted Sorcery to be very visual, like a "For Dummies" guide, and Juliane is doing a fantastic job of bring that to life. Here’s our first illustration of the book’s main character, Owen Macready:

Owen thinks he’s just an average eighth grader, even prefers it that way, but Juliane’s managed to show that he’s got lots of untapped potential. Great work Juliane!

Secondly, we are IN BOOKSTORES! At least virtually. We would love it if you would put Sorcery for Beginners on your wish lists at your favorite book outlets, or pre-order if you haven’t already. It means a lot in terms of how many orders bookstores place, and whether or not we appear in search engines and home pages. At least, that’s what I’m told, I’m not really sure how all that Interweb stuff works.

Thanks all, and enjoy your pie!