Super Thursday 2025 set to be the lightest on record
The Bookseller reported that Super Thursday 2025 would be the lightest since the phenomenon was identified, as big publishers cut autumn output by 10%.
On 28 August 2025 The Bookseller reported that this year's Super Thursday, the autumn publication day on which UK publishers traditionally launch their biggest Christmas titles, would be the lightest since the phenomenon was first identified.
The magazine attributed the change to Britain's largest trade publishers reducing their production for the Christmas run-in by 10 per cent.
For comparison, the 2024 Super Thursday, on 10 October, saw nearly 1,900 books published, including 457 hardbacks, a figure The Bookseller described at the time as a 30 per cent rise on the two years before. The Bookseller first identified the pattern in October 2008, when its charts editor noticed a cluster of major releases on a single Thursday.
Fewer autumn releases can be read two ways. For the titles that remain, there is slightly more room on tables and in review pages. But a 10 per cent cut in the busiest season also suggests larger publishers are concentrating on fewer, safer books. For writers, that may mean more competition for the slots that remain, and a stronger case for publishing outside the autumn crush altogether.
Sources: The Bookseller: Not-so-Super Thursday as trade publishers cut back on autumn releases; Royal Literary Fund: What exactly is Super Thursday?.