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Welcome to your weekend edition of Today in Books, where we catch up with the biggest stories of the week.
Guess Who’s Back
After shuttering in 2020, BookCon, the reader-focused convention originally conceived as a companion to the now-defunct BookExpo professional conference, is making a comeback. Scheduled for April 18-19, 2026 at New York’s Javits Center, the “wholly reimagined event” promises author apperances, book signings, workshops, panels, and even crafting zones aimed at “bringing our online world into a real-world space.” Details remain TBA, but I think it’s fair to assume that, given the fan-service-meets-marketing fever dream vibe of fan conventions, we’ll see a lot of BookTok faves, big-budget summer titles, photo-friendly special editions, and, yes, probably some influencer activations. What are publishers prioritizing and how do they conceptualize what readers want? Event and speaker announcements will offer an interesting glimpse.
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Reese’s Book Club Steps Up to the Mic
Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine has partnered with iHeartMedia to launch a podcast for Reese’s Book Club. Debuting June 24 as an iHeartPodcast, “Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club” will feature “irresistible conversations with celebrities, tastemakers and authors from Reese’s Book Club and beyond.” While Witherspoon, who sold Hello Sunshine in a monster $900 million deal in 2021, will not be hosting (that duty goes to journalist and TV host Danielle Robay), she will serve as one of the executive producers. Reigning queen of the rom-com, Emily Henry, will appear on the first episode alongside Yulin Kuang, who is directing the adaptation of Henry’s Beach Read and whose own novel How to End a Love Story was a Reese’s Book Club pick in 2024.
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The Clock Runs Out for TikTok’s Publishing Experiment
According to reporting from The Bookseller, TikTok parent company ByteDance appears to be closing 8th Note Press, the publishing imprint it launched in 2023. No one associated with the enterprise has gone on the record to confirm, but The Bookseller has discovered that “authors and agents are currently negotiating the return of rights to titles acquired by the publisher, and the business’ digital presence has apparently been quietly deleted.” Since its launch, 8th Note Press had acquired rights to more than 30 novels, guided by an editorial approach of “building backwards” informed by online trends. When TikTok’s move into publishing was first announced, its appeal seemed obvious: TikTok was moving units and minting bestsellers at a rate publishing had never seen before, and it had the power to decide what goes viral. What author wouldn’t want a connection on the inside?
As Jane Friedman reports, 8th Note Press seems to have failed not only to reverse-engineer BookTok success from the inside but to provide its authors any reasonable amount of support: “Authors who were on a successful self-publishing path have had their earnings and career trajectory seriously hampered.”
Read the original article here