Greetings, adventurers! 

 Some bittersweet news: we are no longer in the running for the Launchpad contest, as we did not make the top 75. A HUGE congratulations to those who did make the cut! Now I get the opportunity to follow several more exciting up-and-coming books. All in all, it was a good experience. Thanks to Launchpad and Inkshares for the opportunity!

 So now, to the good news! It’s been another HUGE week, so I have lots to share. 

 This was another exciting week for the campaign, and another huge milestone! In fact… we hit TWO milestones. Firstly, on Sunday, we hit the 100 preorders mark. Considering we were barely over 50 preorders at the beginning of the month, this was a pretty exciting number to hit. Then, yesterday, we hit the halfway point of the campaign! 

 So, we’re now over 125 preorders, and we have less than that many to go with a little less than three weeks left. It’ll be tight, but I think we’ll be able to squeeze in the full 250. Thank you to everyone who has been preordering and spreading the word—there are a lot of you! 

 This week, I was featured on the front page of ThisWeek (see what I did there?), an arts-focused paper distributed weekly to my area. The multi-talented Margaret Eaton came by my house and interviewed me about my creative work, with a focus on Mushroom and Anchovy. Her article was very in-depth and I really couldn’t be happier. Thank you, Margaret! 

 On the same day Margaret came by, I recorded a little video to try and convince a few other people to preorder. It’s right here if you want to see me yelling about my book (because you haven’t seen that enough already).  

 I had a couple other points to make, friends, but this e-mail is long enough. I’m just happy I can present this much information for you, because it’s really exciting to me! I am 52% of the way to reaching my biggest goal for this year. Thanks for reading this far and joining me along the way. 

May your adventures be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting, 

 K. M. Cooper

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!

mh