Release of Yarros' Iron Flame marked with late store openings and events across the UK

The release of the second instalment of Rebecca Yarros’ Empyrean series, Iron Flame, will be marked with late store openings and events at Waterstones branches across the UK. 

Waterstones stores in London Trafalgar Square, Leeds, Durham, Kingston, Canterbury, London Piccadilly, Birmingham, Crawley, Manchester Arndale and Trafford Centre will all be hosting events for the eve of publication tonight (6th November), with a flagship experiential event at Liverpool One that will feature interactive displays, video, photobooth and an immersive social filter for fans to enjoy. 

Store activities range from quizzes to egg painting to origami dragon making, some featuring themed drinks and snacks. Further stores will be opening early on release day itself (7th November), in anticipation of the number of fans wishing to get their hands on a copy as soon as possible. 

Larissa Coates, head of events at Waterstones, said: “It is always a treat to welcome fans to an eagerly awaited book launch. The shared excitement and anticipation make these events extra special and there is currently no book more hotly anticipated than Iron Flame, the sequel to our Waterstones Book of the Year-shortlisted Fourth Wing. We are absolutely thrilled to invite fans to various locations across the UK to celebrate the launch of Iron Flame. The events will boast fun activities and range from bookshop lock-ins to midnight and early morning openings, enabling fans to be some of the first to get their hands on a copy.” 

Iron Flame received the largest number of pre-orders Waterstones.com has ever taken for a title in a single day. The book’s launch is backed by a “major” PR and marketing campaign, including a suite of point of sale for bookshops featuring dragons, quadrants and the emblem from the cover – posters, bunting, window clings, mini standees, bookmarks, bookseller lanyards and T-shirts – and work with independent stores, including a midnight launch at Padstow Bookseller and a publication day celebration at Imaginarium Books.  

Launch activity also includes a social media campaign with “extensive” Facebook, TikTok and Instagram ad campaigns, plus a combination of sponsored TikTok influencer content and organic content across channels. Currently embarking on a major US tour, Yarros will appear in a Fane event online for UK readers, hosted by fantasy author Sabaa Tahir, on 9th November. There will also be a Waterstones online event on 28th November to mark publication of the Waterstones exclusive Red holiday edition of Fourth Wing which includes two never before seen chapters 

Zoe Bohm, executive publisher of Little, Brown’s Piatkus, Constable & Robinson publishing division, said: “It’s hugely exciting to be celebrating the publication of Iron Flame with this dragon-sized launch across Waterstones stores – and it’s even more incredible to be doing so just six months on from the publication of Fourth Wing, which has become a number one bestseller across all of our territories and has just been shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year. We are hugely grateful to the Waterstones team for all of their support for this series as well as the passion and creativity they are investing in the launch events. We’ve already seen their special edition of Iron Flame break Waterstones’ pre-order records and I’m sure this is just the beginning for Rebecca Yarros’ phenomenal Empyrean series.” 

Yarros has sold just under 116,000 books via Nielsen BookScan TCM for £1.6m, 95% of which has been generated by Fourth Wing since it was published this May.