Is the romance boom a recession indicator? From Mills & Boon to BookTok Life&Style From Mills & Boon to BookTok, romance fiction has thrived for more than a century. But what makes it so economically resilient?
Have rumours of the death of literacy been exaggerated? Opinion We’re told no one reads for pleasure any more, but the popularity of Middlemarch in Silicon Valley and the rise of “booktok” give a glimpse of hope, says Phoebe Arslanagić-Little A new study has found that the percentage of Americans who report reading for pleasure over the course of an average day has declined from [...]
Booktok boosts Bloomsbury again as Sarah J Mass tops bestseller lists Media Bloomsbury has been buoyed by the success of its fantasy-romance list as online discourse fuels mass interest in the books. Sarah J Maas topped bestseller lists again this year with the paperback launch of House of Flame and Shadow in June, following global success with the previous two books in the series. She has now sold [...]
Bloomsbury: Profit falls at Harry Potter publisher despite sales rise May 22, 2025 Profit at Bloomsbury Publishing, the giant most known for the Harry Potter series, was cut by almost a fifth during its latest financial year despite revenue rising. The London-listed company has reported a pre-tax profit of £32.5m for the year to 28 February 2025, down from the £41.5m it achieved in the prior 12 months. [...]
Waterstones: Return to the office helps profit almost quadruple January 21, 2025 The return of employees to offices in major UK city centres helped profit almost quadruple at Waterstones during its latest financial year. The bookseller cited the trend of the return to work as a key factor in its pre-tax profit surging from £11.2m to £42.9m in the 12 months to 27 April, 2024. In newly-filed [...]
Waterstones plans dozens more UK stores as it mulls possible London or US IPO January 6, 2025 Waterstones boss James Daunt has said he plans to open dozens more bookshops this year in the UK, along with considering a potential flotation in London or New York. He told the Financial Times it would be “logical” to look at an initial public offering of a consolidated combination of Waterstones and Barnes & Noble [...]