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Waterstones celebrates Rebecca Yarros' Onyx Storm with late-night openings
The third instalment of Rebecca Yarros’ Empyrean series, Onyx Storm (Little, Brown), is being celebrated across the UK with special Waterstones openings, dragon filters and a London-based scavenger hunt for influencers.
It will be published at midnight on Tuesday (21st January), with late store openings and events across the UK for readers to celebrate one of the most hotly anticipated releases of 2025.
Around 60 Waterstones locations across the country are hosting events on the eve of publication, or early opening on the day itself, so that fans can get their hands on a copy as soon as possible. Shops include London Trafalgar Square, Leeds, Durham, Canterbury, London Piccadilly, Birmingham, Newport Gwent, Glasgow Sauchiehall, Manchester Arndale and Trafford Centre stores.
There will be a range of celebratory activities ranging from quizzes and decoration packs through to special videos and social media dragon filters, theory questions and a QR link to a video message from Yarros herself.
Gaby Lee, books and campaigns manager at Waterstones, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to welcome fans of Rebecca Yarros into our bookshops for the hotly anticipated launch of Onyx Storm. Brilliantly supported by the team at Little, Brown, almost 60 shops across the estate will be celebrating the publication, hosting midnight launches, early openings, and publication evening parties. We are delighted to give the biggest Yarros fans the opportunity to be the first to get their hands on a copy and cannot wait to share the excitement with our customers.”
The launch also includes “a major PR and marketing campaign designed to target hundreds of thousands of eager readers”, according to Little, Brown. This includes “highlights including two eye-catching billboards, one in Manchester and one in Shoreditch and an extensive unmissable digital and social advertising campaign”.
Little, Brown added: “Alongside the billboards, digital and social campaigns, the launch activity includes stunning point of sale for bookshops globally with bookmarks, posters, standees and window clings.”
Additionally, the publisher ran an independent bookshops exclusive pre-order campaign using collectable emblem patches with several indies celebrating with special events – stores such as Padstow Bookseller, The Imaginarium Lymington, Bookshop by the Sea in Aberystwyth, Night Owl Books in East Lothian, The Book Stop St Helens and Toppings Bath.
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Little, Brown said: “Dovetailing the social ad campaign running across Meta, TikTok, YouTube and Reddit, the marketing team seeded out content organically across Little, Brown channels since the book was announced in March 2024, incorporating animations, videos of Rebecca and a competition for readers to choose the end pages of the hardback edition.
“On the eve of publication, an Onyx Storm ‘Scavenger Hunt’ took place in East London for several big social media influencers; participants had to unlock various clues on and around Brick Lane to find exclusive merchandise, and the hunt culminated in the reveal of the stunning billboard on the corner of Quaker Street and Commercial Street which features specially commissioned art by Bethany Gilbert.”
Piatkus editorial director Rebekah West said: “It’s very exciting to see so much love for this series around the world: the growth of Rebecca’s fan base in the last 18 months has been extraordinary. From fan theories to their gorgeous fan art, this community is so dedicated and passionate, which makes it all the more fun to collaborate with them on all things Empyrean.”
Zoe Bohm, executive publisher of Little, Brown’s Piatkus, Constable and Robinson (PCR) publishing division, said: “Publishing Rebecca Yarros’ Empyrean series has been a career highlight for the whole team at Little, Brown and we’ve been blown away by the support from Waterstones, independent bookstores and retailers across the UK and all our markets for the launch of Onyx Storm. We’re looking forward to another record-breaking publication on 21st January and can’t wait for fans to get their hands on the book.”
Yarros has been featured 94 times in the Sunday Times Bestseller List for her first two books in the Empyrean series, including the global bestsellers Fourth Wing and Iron Flame, for which she has just scooped Gold and Silver respectively at this year’s UK Bestseller Book Awards.
Little, Brown said that “Onyx Storm is set to smash UK publisher records – it will be the biggest pre-ordered title for Little, Brown since 2016, when it published Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – Parts One and Two: The Official Script Book of the Original West End Production.”
