Pamela Harry liked an update for Sorcery for Beginners

Thank you for purchasing Sorcery for Beginners. I wanted to point you to a new project I’m working on called YOU ARE A FILMMAKER. It’s a fun choose-your-own-career-path book for adults, currently funding on Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/756901533/you-are-a-filmmaker-an-illustrated-interactive-novel

Featuring over 100 endings, YOU ARE FILMMAKER allows you to live out all your dreams of making it in the movie business. You may become an Oscar-winning director, marry a movie star, join a cult, or get killed by a cocaine-crazy producer. There are also celebrity cameos, secret endings, and twists worthy of M. Night Shyamalan.

We’re running the Kickstarter campaign to pay for artists to illustrate at least 20 of the novel’s endings. We’ve been selected as a Kickstarter "Project We Love" and have hit 74% of our funding in less than ten days. There are also great bonuses for backers, such as a free memoir of my time in the film business, story consultation sessions, and even a personalized tour of Hollywood. 

Thanks again for your support, and I hope to see you behind the backer wall!

mh
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    Pamela Harry liked an update for Sorcery for Beginners

    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!

    mh

    n

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      Pamela Harry liked an update for Sorcery for Beginners

      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!

      mh
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        Pamela Harry liked an update for Sorcery for Beginners

        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.

        Goodreads
        Amazon
        Powell’s!
        Barnes and Noble
        Target

        Thanks all, and enjoy your pie!

        mh
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          Pamela Harry liked an update for Sorcery for Beginners

          Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

          One more runner-up cover to reveal before we get to the final choice. I promise we won’t do a last-minute switcheroo like last night’s Oscars. I was happy to see Moonlight win, but man do I feel for those La La Land producers. To have the trophy in your hand, then to realize you have to give it back ... oof. 

          But on to happier topics. Our cover designer Mike Corley gave us such an embarrassment of riches with the options he sent. Keep in mind, I’m only showing three of 12 that he sent. They were all different, all interesting in their own ways. 

          Here’s the last runner-up:



          I love how striking this cover is. If I saw it on a bookshelf or Amazon page, I would immediately pick it up. I love the retro feel, and the title font, and the bold red. This should definitely be the cover of a book. But for Sorcery, it still came in second to our final choice, which you’ll see tomorrow. Amazing work, Mike Corley!

          Another note: you might notice that the book is written by "Euphemia Whitmore." Those you who have read the sample chapters will realize that Ms. Whitmore is actually a character in the book. I thought it would be fun to treat this novel as if it were a real instruction manual, and Ms. Whitmore is a real person. Kind of like how Lemony Snicket pretends that the Series of Unfortunate Events books really happened. You will even be able to unlock a riddle in the book and apply for your very own Sorcery Learner’s Permit.

          So you will see Ms. Whitmore’s name on the final cover of the book. In fact, she is listed as the primary author while I am but her ordinary, non-magical civilian aide. Not everyone gets this (my parents certainly don’t - sorry Mom and Dad), but now you know the truth.

          Stay tuned for the final cover reveal, and some other awesome announcements tomorrow!

          mh 
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            Pamela Harry liked an update for Sorcery for Beginners

            Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

            Quick update today as we build up to the reveal of our final cover design next week. Here is Runner-Up #2:

            n

            Mike Corley is so talented! Love the vibe of this one, but ultimately it felt more adult, like a Dan Brown novel, than the fun magical adventure feel we’re going for. One more runner-up to go, then we’ll reveal the final cover next week!

            Enjoy your weekend -

            mh
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              Pamela Harry liked an update for Sorcery for Beginners

              Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

              Some wonderful updates for you from the end of this rainy Los Angeles month. First, the new draft of SORCERY FOR BEGINNERS has been sent off to Inkshares. We got great notes from the development editor Staton which forced me to take a hard look at the whole novel. Thanks to her, I think the book is much improved. We may get notes back from a few more beta readers and make some more adjustments, but I think we will be heading off to copy editing soon. 

              Secondly, we have a cover! Inkshares hired the amazing M.S. Corley to do a whole round of covers. We’ve settled on a final design, but before I unveil that, I wanted to show some of his other designs first, ’cause they’re just that awesome. Also you can check out some of his other work here: http://mscorley.com/

              But for now, here is Runner Up Cover #1 for SORCERY FOR BEGINNERS:



              Really cool, love that it has the feel of a real textbook, but the one we chose is even better! Stay tuned for more ...

              mh
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                Pamela Harry liked an update for Sorcery for Beginners

                Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

                Happy New Year! You may have seen this in another email, but thanks to you, WE DID IT! We made our funding goal. Because of some last-minute pre-orders, we held on to third place and won The List contest! This means that SORCERY FOR BEGINNERS will be published later this year with FULL MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION SUPPORT. 

                I’m over the moon, you guys. Four years ago, I pitched the concept for this book as a screenplay, but my agent said no one would buy it as a spec. If it was based on a book, he said it would be a slam-dunk sale. So I decided to write my first real novel, and nine drafts and several wrong turns later, here we are. In less than a year, SORCERY FOR BEGINNERS will be on the shelves of bookstores. 

                And I owe it all to you. Your tweets, your shares, and most importantly, your pre-orders got us to this place. Thanks to you guys, we donated $560 to breast cancer research, we finished in the top ten of two separate contests, and SORCERY got a real publishing deal. There’s a lot of work still left to do -- I have to address notes from my editor, Juliane has to do the illustrations, plus layout and cover design and marketing one-sheets -- but for now, I simply want to say THANK YOU. Thank you to all who supported this project over last three months, and to everyone who has supported my writing in other ways over the years. I owe you all drinks. I’d also like to send a special shout-out to all the folks in the Inkshares community, especially Adam, who believed in this book. I look forward to working with you all in 2017.

                For now, may you enjoy the rest of your holiday. I wish you all the best in 2017, and no matter what else happens, I hope this book will be a little bright spot in your year. It wouldn’t exist without you.

                Thanks again. Onward!

                mh

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                  Pamela Harry liked an update for Sorcery for Beginners

                  Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

                  We have passed the halfway point. Only 44 days left in our fundraising campaign. Sorcery for Beginners will definitely be published, but we are still aiming for the FULL editing and marketing package. To get that, we need to keep selling copies.

                  And we had a big boost yesterday -- out of thousands of books, Sorcery for Beginners was chosen as one of the Top 35 unpublished projects on Inkshares! It’s called The List, and you can read about it here:

                  http://blog.inkshares.com/post/153308043055/the-2016-list

                  There we are, right up top! Cue my reaction:

                  Basically, the top three pre-sellers on The List by Dec 31 will get a full publishing package. And maybe a solid-gold car, I’m not sure. Either way, it’s pretty awesome.

                  So if you haven’t bought a book yet, or you know someone who might like a copy, now is the time. Send the link to friends, keep sharing on Facebook, guilt your family into making a purchase, whatever works. Juliane and I really appreciate your support.

                  Thank you all --

                  mh


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                    Pamela Harry followed Sorcery for Beginners
                    Sorcery for Beginners
                    A 13 year-old boy finds an easy-to-read, how-to manual for magic. Now he just has to prevent everyone else from stealing it.