for anyone who missed the illumicrate live and does not want to sit through an hour of hints, reprint discussions anddd upcoming book chaos, here’s a recap of the main announcements and updates.

general notes

• this was their third attempt at doing the live after previous tech issues

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shipping & subscription updates

bridgerton shipping

• bridgerton orders have officially started shipping
• shipments are going out in batches every two weeks
• orders are being shipped in the order they were placed
• they are apparently still processing day one orders because demand was huge
• estimated completion for all shipping is by the end of june

june subscription themes

afterlight

• mm sports romance debut
• funny, emotional, and apparently very reminiscent of Red, White & Royal Blue in terms of humor/style
• includes mental health rep and discussions around being openly gay in sports
• they mentioned the edition design is very different from their usual afterlight style because they’re experimenting more this year

mindsight

this one sounds genuinely incredible.

• dark psychological thriller
• drama school setting
• toxic relationships and blurred identity/performance themes
• bisexual main characters + sapphic relationship
• they repeatedly described the edition as “incredibly aesthetic”

illumicrate

• achillean fantasy romcom
• villain x hero fake public feud/pr rivalry
• still heavily fantasy-focused despite the romcom setup
• described as more of a fun “palette cleanser” before the darker books later in the year

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july / august / september hints

illumicrate

july

• dark sapphic epic fantasy
• political scheming + revenge plot
• more cold and strategic than action-heavy
• they specifically said: “there is sex but i wouldn’t call it romance”

august

this was VERY clearly the staff favorite.

• political fantasy with an immortal protagonist
• sentient magic + power struggles
• compared the main character to olivia pope from Scandal
• caitlin called it her favorite illumicrate design of the year
• they would not stop talking about the foiling/design/colors

september

possibly the most “dark academia tumblr” sounding book imaginable.

• magical medical school murder mystery
• queer ensemble cast
• multiple povs
• students solving a murder during an exam
• compared to House in a fantasy world

afterlight

• july: bollywood-inspired fake dating/family drama romance
• august: married couple + resurrection magic + memory loss
• september: paranormal mm romance with a vampire, talking cat, italian detective, and murder mystery

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“awkward questions” section

honestly one of the most interesting parts of the live.

rewards program

• they said the rewards system genuinely was not ready before the vault sale
• their explanation was basically that they could either launch it now or delay it until 2027

farseer reprint

• originally, they had no plans for a reprint
• however, they had hundreds of sets during the vault sale and they sold out within minutes
• that sudden demand changed their decision
• they also basically confirmed liveship traders is happening because they specifically mentioned wanting enough stock available for it

check & mate redesign

• they admitted the original specs no longer match their current standards
• the redesign happened because the team loves the book and wanted to “do it justice”

novella pricing

• they explained shorter books are not actually much cheaper to produce because most costs come from artwork, materials, design work, and production rather than paper/page count itself

reprints

• they acknowledged that people interpreted “no current plans to reprint” as “this will never be reprinted”
• because of that, they’re changing the wording they use moving forward

sapphic afterlight discussion

• they addressed questions about the lack of sapphic romances in afterlight recently
• according to them, it is not intentional. publishers simply have not been pitching enough sapphic romances early enough in the selection timeline

sequel continuations

• sequel interest forms matter A LOT
• some series apparently just do not get enough interest/orders to continue producing matching editions

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upcoming designs & industry trends

design hype

the team seemed especially excited about:

• august illumicrate
• september illumicrate
• july evernight

they spent a surprising amount of time talking about foiling, typography, edges, and color choices.

publishing trends they’re seeing

• vampires are officially “back”
• fantasy dystopia is becoming more common
• more magic schools again
• “deadly social season” / bridgerton-inspired fantasy settings

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future plans & teases

mindsight

• september mindsight is apparently by a very recognizable author
• they described it as a perfect holiday read
• they also mentioned wanting to do a mindsight special edition in 2027

older fantasy series

• they are considering more older fantasy collector editions because robin hobb and tamora pierce performed very well

the everlasting

they heavily teased a possible special edition announcement happening “in about a week”

2027 planning

• they are already selecting 2027 books
• a lot of their process involves balancing genres, representation, and release pacing across the year