Australia's largest book retailer is turning October into Fantasy Month, with early-morning openings, special release events and a major midnight launch as fantasy becomes QBD's largest fiction category.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA: Fantasy readers are no longer quietly waiting for their favourite books to arrive on shelves.

They're pre-ordering months ahead, dissecting theories on TikTok, creating fan art, dressing as their favourite characters, and gathering in person to celebrate the stories and worlds they love. This October, QBD Books is leaning into that shift with Fantasy Month, a nationwide celebration built around some of the year's most anticipated fantasy releases, culminating in a major midnight release event for the latest instalment in Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses series.

Fantasy is now QBD Books' largest fiction category, ahead of major categories including general fiction, crime and romance. QBD Books is also seeing particularly strong growth across fantasy backlist titles, with sales up year on year, as readers continue to discover established authors, series and fantasy worlds.

QBD Books CEO Nick Croydon said social platforms such as TikTok have helped change the lifecycle of books and the relationship readers have with authors, characters and series.
“Fantasy has always had passionate readers, but BookTok has given that community somewhere to find each other. We’re seeing readers discover a single title online and then go back through an author’s entire catalogue or immerse themselves in a series.”

A month built for fantasy fans
QBD will kick off the month by inviting customers to Fly into Fantasy Month with the release of Rebecca Yarros’s highly anticipated Threshing Day on 30 September. Many QBD Books stores, across the nation, will open an hour early to give fans the opportunity to collect their copies first thing on release morning.

“Threshing Day is famously Not Book 4 but it is essential reading for fans of Rebecca Yarros’ #1 bestselling Empyrean books and we’re excited to see fans in QBD stores early on Sep 30th to collect their copies.” - Lillian Kovats, Hachette Australia Sales Director

On 13 October, five selected QBD Books stores will open early for the release of The Sixth Faction.

The month then builds towards one of the year’s biggest fantasy publishing moments, the release of the latest instalment in Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses series, A Court of Splintered Harmony.

On 27 October, QBD stores across Australia will open an hour early, giving ACOTAR fans the opportunity to collect the new book from release morning and celebrate alongside other readers. In Brisbane, however, the celebrations will begin the night before.

ACOTAR gets the midnight-release treatment
On 26 October, QBD Books will host a major ACOTAR midnight release celebration at Cloudland in Brisbane, running from 8pm through to 1am and culminating with fans receiving the new book from midnight.

The event will be hosted by authors and BookTok creators Luke Bateman and Stacey McEwan, bringing together two established voices from Australia’s online reading community for a night built around fantasy fandom.

“Readers know the release dates, they’re counting down together online and they want to experience these moments with other fans.”

Prepare for the beginning of the end…
To close out Fantasy Month with a bang, QBD Books will host an exclusive event for their YA readers. This intimate evening on November 2 will bring together two internationally bestselling authors – the OG Queen of YA Fantasy, Cassandra Clare and Neal Shusterman, master of speculative dystopia and sci-fi thrillers. Fans will have the chance to be the first in the world to get their hands on the hottest YA fantasy new releases of 2026, with Clare’s The Last King of Faerie out on November 3 and Shusterman’s Rising Thunder on December 1 worldwide. The two literary giants will be live in conversation to discuss the new releases in their generation-defining series (The Shadowhunters Chronicles and Arc of a Scythe), with Shusterman in the room and Clare joining virtually.

From booksellers to BookTok creators
Rather than running its TikTok presence entirely through a central marketing team, QBD now has 14 staff content creators across Australia, giving booksellers around the country a direct role in creating content for the brand.

The approach has helped QBD build a growing and engaged BookTok fan base, with its own booksellers recommending titles, discussing new releases, responding to trends and sharing the books they genuinely love.

“Our staff understand these communities because they’re part of them. They know the characters, the theories, the tropes and the books everyone is waiting for. Giving them a voice on our channels makes the conversation much more authentic.”

QBD Books Fantasy Month runs throughout October 2026 across QBD Books stores nationally and online