It’s almost August, and I’m counting down to the release of Breaking Dawn just as anxiously as you are! I can’t wait to finally be able to discuss everything that happens in Breaking Dawn with you. I want to give a heads up to everyone going to the Breaking Dawn Concert Series events in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle: I am going to talk about it all, so bring earplugs if you haven’t finished reading Breaking Dawn by then! (If you’re going to the first event in New York, it will be spoiler free.)

Speaking of spoilers, I want to ask you guys for a favor. As we saw with Eclipse (not to mention that last Harry Potter book), there is always the potential for copies of the book to be leaked early. My publisher is doing everything they can to prevent this, but there is only so much that can be done. This is the favor: if someone, somewhere, somehow, gets a copy early, I’m asking you to please not post any spoilers on the internet. And if you see something, please don’t spread it around. Breaking Dawn was meant to be experienced in a certain way, and I would hate for someone to get that experience ruined by seeing something online they didn’t want to see. My fans have been super cool about this in the past—last year in particular you guys went above and beyond to protect Eclipse until the release date—and I hope that we’ll have the same positive experience this year.

If somebody does post a spoiler (and remember there will be a lot of hoaxes out there—do not believe everything you read: Bella gets eaten by a polar bear, anyone?), I’d love your help in getting them taken down. My publisher has set up a special e-mail account, bdcopyrightviolation@hbgusa.com, for fans to alert us to spoilers that appear online. PLEASE only send links to spoilers. E-mails about events, contacting me, etc. will not be returned.

Another thing you may notice close to the release of Breaking Dawn is that the message boards on several fansites will be taken down. They are doing this as a favor to me because I want to protect you all from stumbling upon something that could ruin the book for you. There will be plenty of time to discuss all the details of the book after August 2nd.

Finally, I don’t think I could ever thank all of you enough for being so devoted to this series. You’ve proved over and over again that you are the best fans in the world. I hope that together we can make sure everybody gets to experience Breaking Dawn the way it was intended — on August 2nd [or the 4th if you live outside North America].

We’re almost there!

–Steph