ReadPop revealed last year that BookCon would return in 2026 after the popular publishing convention was canceled in 2020, making a book lover’s dream come true.
Since its announcement in June 2025, readers have been scouring all the new information about the two-day show in the lead up to its opening day this Friday. Tickets sold out as soon as they went on sale last September, and reservations for author autograph sessions and exclusive events quickly flooded in when the book opened last month.
Now, the eve of BookCon 2026 is approaching, and organizers are stacking shelves in preparation for the authors and readers flooding into New York’s Javits Center. This is a bright new chapter for the entire publishing industry, which has largely accepted that BookCon is gone for good after a six-year hiatus.
“We never let it go,” Christina Rogers, ReedPop’s vice president of U.S. comics portfolio, BookCon and Star Wars Celebrations, told Variety. “We canceled our events due to the pandemic. We had an incredible online (Bookcon) event that was the strongest of all the online events we’ve held during the pandemic. And every year the conversation continues: Is this the year? Is this the year? And we’re finally getting ready to get back in shape and get our team back post-pandemic. Jenny, Bookcon Event Director Martin made the time and we got together and said, okay, let’s bring it back.”
The process has been a long one, starting 18 months ago, long before ReedPop officially announced that it would be resuming BookCon in 2026. The plan included considering which elements of the original show to keep and what new features to introduce amidst the growing Romantacy readership, book-to-screen adaptations, and the broader influence of TikTok’s #BookTok community.
“It’s really hard to bring back a show that used to be on the air years later and bring it back in a new and different way,” Rogers said. “Everyone knows what BookCon is, or at least heard about the old BookCon, but I’m very proud of what our new team has brought to the table. We have the bones, but diversity, community, inclusion, that’s at the forefront of everything. You see it in our guest list. You see it throughout our program. You see it through everything the team does.”
One of the problems that emerged on BookCon’s long road to revival was the boycott of the convention that began earlier this year. The movement began when it came to the attention of authors and ticket holders that ReedPop’s parent company, RELX, also owns a subsidiary, LexisNexis, which has a contract with ICE. Once this information came to light, some authors who had already applied to participate decided to withdraw their participation.
Despite that reaction from some, ReedPop is pushing ahead with BookCon, but Rogers says the organizers don’t begrudge those who made this choice.
“We work very closely with our guest writers and wholeheartedly support their decisions,” Rogers said. “This is a personal decision that everyone makes, and we’re here for the community and the authors, and it’s our job to support them. We’re really happy with where we are right now. We’re really happy with the engagement and support we’re getting from authors. And at the end of the day, choosing to boycott is a personal choice.”
Notable authors and guests in attendance include Leigh Bardugo, Marie Lu, Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, Veronica Ross, Casey McQuiston, Jasmine Guillory, Tracy Deon, Jodi Pickult, Matt Dinniman, Emily St. John Mandel, RF Quan, Scarlett St. Clair, Andy Weir, and more. Events include everything from a panel featuring “Heated Rivals” author Rachel Reid and Jacob Tierney, the showrunner behind the animated hit TV series, to an “After Dark” fantasy ball event.
“The team did a great job of figuring out what the non-alone part of reading is and how 400 people can do it at the same time,” Rogers said.
For more of Rogers’ BookCon preview interview with Variety magazine, see below.
Since the last BookCon, the #BookTok community has emerged and become a huge part of the reader community and publishing industry. How do you incorporate changes in book culture into your programming?
Community, and that’s what #BookTok has created, it’s created a really nice bubble across social media that connects us to community. I think the feature of the show that most reflects that is The Grove. That’s our third space. There will be workshops, there will be dwell time, there will be some stages, and there will be some conversations. We hold several book clubs. It has a little bit of everything. I think that’s the best way we can represent the online version of this community.
In recent years, Hollywood has become more interested in what its readers are interested in, making decisions about what gets adapted into film and television based on what interests the publishing community. How does BookCon approach the relationship between Hollywood and publishing at the event?
I think we can grow that bridge significantly over the next few years. That’s a really big focus for us. It’s very exciting. The fans are really excited. they want it. That’s what really drives us. But I think we’re in a very good position to fill those gaps. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the big names representing these film adaptations appear on the show next year or the year after.
This year’s visitors had problems with the reservation system for author autograph sessions and panel exhibitions. What do you think went wrong? How would you address the process?
First, make peace with your broken heart. And that’s a lot of math. My old math teacher had a certain smugness about him. It’s hard to sit down and say, “Okay, what’s the throughput?” What can you do? And what’s the best way to approach that? There’s an ongoing conversation about booking. I think the team got a lot of really great feedback. It didn’t work out the way we wanted it to. The real problem was throughput: we couldn’t get enough people to the page at the same time. So things really slowed down.
I think moving away from first-come, first-served and toward being able to select what you’re interested in and then send it back is definitely the next step for BookCon 2027. So the team is going to work hard towards that, but we’ll make our best plans and revise based on the results. And the core of this is event planning. And the rest of the autograph sessions still require a lot of math and line science. We have a really strong team. I’m sure you’ve seen autograph sessions not go very well at certain BookCons in the past, or even at other shows held in between. Problems of congestion, problems of congestion. When you get 1,000 or so people together to do the same thing, that’s a problem, and we’re going to solve part of that problem with reservations. So some of our biggest stresses on site are alleviated and we have a lot of security and staff on site. Get everyone in place, keep everyone happy, and make sure everyone is walking. Trotting is the highest speed, that’s all.
What plans are you already making for BookCon 2027?
We are already talking about booking ’27 and how to arrange it. We’re putting together a guest list for 27 years, looking at several different spaces, and looking at ways to grow meaningful shows. I think the important thing is to look at how and what the fans are involved with on set. Post-show surveys that people think we don’t read, but we really do. I usually use a bottle of some kind to read everything and take notes. But the post-show survey will be a big driver for us. One big thing is that there’s a lot of feedback online that romance and fantasy are popular, and that’s not surprising. There are many such guests. I think we, as a team, could do a better job of promoting work outside of romance and fantasy. But we also think we’ll meet that demand in a better way next year. Sci-fi and horror, what people feel is a “secondary interest”, but let’s give them a little more breathing room.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
