Bloomsbury has just reported a 30% fall in first-half adjusted profit. It is also predicting record results for the full year.

The bridge between those two statements is, to a remarkable extent, one fantasy author.

Sarah J. Maas is the bestselling American novelist behind the Throne of Glass, Crescent City and A Court of Thorns and Roses series. Her publisher says her books have sold more than 75 million copies in 40 languages. If the name means nothing to you, the numbers should: this is not a hopeful debut being asked to rescue the quarter. It is a global publishing business preparing to release two books by one of its largest commercial forces, just eleven weeks apart.

That is why a set of fairly grim interim figures has arrived wrapped in so much confidence.

The 30% fall

For the six months to 31 August 2026, Bloomsbury reported revenue of £151.6 million, down from £159.5 million a year earlier. Adjusted profit before tax and highlighted items fell from £24 million to £16.8 million, a drop of 30%.

The statutory profit-before-tax figure was less decorative still: £9.3 million, compared with £18.3 million in the same period last year.

Its consumer division, which includes adult, young-adult and children’s publishing, brought in £102.8 million. That was down from £113.4 million. Adjusted profit in the division fell from £13.4 million to £9.8 million.

These are not the sort of figures normally followed by somebody confidently ordering champagne for the year end.

Bloomsbury, however, says growth is weighted towards the second half and maintains that it expects record results for the financial year ending February 2027. The market consensus cited by the company is revenue of £354.3 million and adjusted profit of £49.9 million.

Who is Sarah J. Maas, and why does she matter?

Maas writes the sort of sweeping romantic fantasy that inspires midnight launches, elaborate special editions and readers who can explain an imaginary royal bloodline with greater confidence than most people can describe their own cousins.

Her A Court of Thorns and Roses series, commonly shortened to ACOTAR, began in 2015 and has become one of the defining franchises of the romantasy boom. Bloomsbury says Maas was the highest-selling author in the United States in 2024, using Circana data, and the UK’s number-one bestselling fantasy author in 2025.

The next two ACOTAR novels are A Court of Splintered Harmony, due on 27 October 2026, and A Court of Forgotten Melody, due on 12 January 2027. Bloomsbury has previously described pre-orders for its major titles as “exceptional” and said the two-book timetable is almost unprecedented in publishing.

Bloomsbury is not merely hoping that two new books will sell. It is counting on their arrival to change the shape of the financial year.

One major release can lift its author’s entire backlist. Two closely spaced releases give retailers, bookshops and readers a reason to keep that author visible across the crucial autumn and Christmas period, then renew the attention in January. New readers do not have to buy only the latest title. They have a whole fantasy kingdom waiting behind it, helpfully priced one volume at a time.

It is not only Maas

Bloomsbury does have other cards to play. Gillian Anderson’s More and Stephen Graham’s Letters to Our Sons became Sunday Times bestsellers after the half-year closed. The publisher also expects a Christmas Day HBO launch of a new Harry Potter television series to introduce the books to another generation, supported by a television tie-in edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Its academic and professional division also grew revenue by 5.9% to £48.8 million. Adjusted profit there still fell, from £11 million to £6.8 million, partly because an ongoing non-exclusive artificial-intelligence licensing agreement produced less income than in the previous period.

The group is hardly balancing over a trapdoor. It reported net cash of £22.8 million and increased its interim dividend by 5% to 4.28p per share. This is a publisher with a diversified operation, a large backlist and several valuable franchises.

Even so, the timing makes the dependence unusually visible. A disappointing first half is being followed immediately by two of the most commercially important books on the list.

What the rest of publishing should notice

Publishing likes to describe itself as a portfolio business. Sensible publishers spread risk across authors, formats, territories, frontlist and backlist because nobody knows with certainty which book will suddenly become indispensable to millions of strangers.

Then an author becomes large enough to move the company’s expectations.

That does not make Bloomsbury’s confidence misplaced. Seventy-five million previous sales are rather better evidence than a hopeful marketing meeting. It does show the extraordinary economics of a genuine publishing franchise. Most books are asked to earn back their own costs. A phenomenon is asked to improve the year.

For authors, the lesson is not to rush home and write seven romantasy sequels before breakfast. It is that a loyal readership and a commercially useful backlist create leverage no acquisition announcement can manufacture overnight. The same principle sits behind the recent 13-book Penguin deal for Beth Brower’s already successful self-published series: publishers are not only buying manuscripts. They are buying evidence that readers intend to return.

Bloomsbury’s next set of results will reveal whether the wager paid off. For now, the company has placed a very large financial expectation on two fantasy novels and millions of readers wanting to know what happens next.

In publishing, apparently, even a 30% profit fall can be treated as the quiet bit before the dragons arrive.