Hi

I’ve got the irresistible urge of falling in love with your enemy but haven’t had the chance to read it yet. Is the sequel worth buying?

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

I’m considering getting the Farseer Trilogy but am curious about the paper type and binding.

Is it acid free paper or just industry standard stocked groundwood? And is the binding glued or sewn?

Hi,

Just out of curiosity was your tax added after you added your item to basket? I bought the gothic romance book pot for what I thought was £15, but just realised on my order confirmation email tax was added after so was actually £18.85 (I was rushing when ordering so didn’t notice when I was placing my order).

I know they’ve had glitches with tax in the past, so wanted to check that hadn’t happened here. I’m based in the UK so normally tax is included in the first price you see (if not it usually says exc vat next to it)

I received my copy of Japanese Gothic over the weekend. It's beautiful and I'm very happy.

However I sat down to start reading it today and found quite a few of the pages are very faded at the bottom. It looks almost blurry. It's still readable but does make my eyes go weird. Top of the page is fine but it's almost as if it's running out of ink halfway down the page.

I flicked through and it's just affecting the first couple of chapters but a bit annoying.

I tried to take a picture but it doesn't show up, I guess my camera enhances it automatically or something.

Wondered if anyone else has experienced this before. I've only got the evernight quarterly so I've not had a lot of books from Illumicrate. This is just my 4th. Is it worth reaching out or just suck up.

Hi!!! Ive been searching for the evernight edition of Bat Eater by Kylie Lee Baker online and I cant find a single copy currently for sale. Just wanted to post and ask if anyone has seen any listings that Ive somehow missed. Thanks!!
Editing to add that Im in the US for shipping purposes