This year in books (2025)

This year! Books!

The word ninjas over at Merriam-Webster really nailed the word of the year for 2025: slop.

Slop is on my mind so much lately. Not just for the uncannily creepy images and videos that have started filling my social media feeds, but for the way it’s affecting my perception of what’s real. When a friend sent me an image of a plaque beneath one of Joe Biden’s official portraits in the White House that looked like a parody of a Trump tweet, I honestly didn’t even feel the energy to figure out whether it was real or A.I. (It’s real).

We’re already being drowned in slop, and our tech overlords are just getting started rewiring the economy to hasten the deluge.

This slop-fest is happening at the same time that I, many of my writer friends, and tons of my clients pursuing traditional publication are stuck in various publishing-related cul-de-sacs. Writers waiting to hear from agents, agents waiting to hear from editors, editors doing twenty jobs at once.

Publishers have always been more adept at capitalizing on cultural attention shifts than generating attention themselves. While trends are duly piled onto (edgy Harry Potter fan fiction, romantasy, hockey romance), and astute publishers mine the backlist for gems that meet the cultural moment, publishers have yet to truly find their footing breaking out new books with the fragmentation of traditional media channels.

I’m not sure things look terribly better on the self-publishing side of things. A.I. slop and partial slop books are swiftly polluting the commons and eroding the already-limited trust regarding the quality of independent offerings.

And yet! I’m feeling good going into 2026, and that’s primarily due to my editing clients. There are so many people out there ardently pursuing their incredible visions, writing books they’re proud of, doing their best to make them better, and letting the writing itself be the meaning. It’s hard to break out with a new book, but it’s always been tricky to rise above the noise.

I’ve been thinking so much about books as physical art, quirky projects that A.I. couldn’t possibly imitate, the gems that populate bookstores.

If you hate the slop, redevote your attention to anti-slop. Delve into that art project in 2026 and worry about sharing it later. If you even want to share it. It could be just for you!

Until the tech overlords plug our unwilling bodies into neural network hives like in The Matrix–an outcome I assume is at least a year and a half away–there’s still so much opportunity for writers to write what they love, share it with whoever’s willing to read it, and find meaning that A.I. could never produce nor understand.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I will use my A.I. browser extension to spell check all of this.

Here are some links from the past week (the headlines speak for themselves):

New Kindle Feature Uses AI to Answer Questions About Books—And Authors Can’t Opt Out – Molly Templeton, Reactor

Kindle’s New Gen AI-Powered “Ask This Book” Feature Raises Rights Concerns – Victoria Strauss, Writer Beware

‘Suddenly, it was everywhere’: why some books become blockbusters overnight – Emma Loffhagen, The Guardian

An Interview with the CEO of Books-A-Million – Kathleen Schmidt, Publishing Confidential

Marketing + Publicity in 2026: Change Needs to Happen – Kathleen Schmidt, Publishing Confidential

How to Sell a Romance Novel: Put the Characters in Skates – Jeanne Whalen, Wall Street Journal

Gonzo Fans Have Made ‘Dungeon Crawler Carl’ Into a Global Blockbuster – Alexandra Alter, New York Times

Bottega Veneta’s New Library Isn’t for Lending, It’s for Vibes – Max Berlinger, The Cut

What happens when family and friends don’t support your writing? – Dan Blank, The Creative Shift

This week in bestsellers

Here are the top five NY Times bestsellers in a few key categories. (All links are affiliate links):

Adult print and e-book fiction:

1. The Widow by John Grisham
2. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
3. The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
4. The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown
5. Brimstone by Callie Hart

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

1. 1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin
2. How to Test Negative for Stupid by John Kennedy
3. The Gales of November by John U. Bacon
4. The Look by Michelle Obama with Meredith Koop
5. Family of Spies by Christine Kuehn

Young adult hardcover:

1. The Way Things Work: Newly Revised Edition by David Macaulay
2. Fake Skating by Lynn Painter
3. If Only I Had Told Her by Laura Nowlin
4. Better in Black by Cassandra Clare
5. Hour of the Pumpkin Queen by Megan Shepherd

Middle grade hardcover:

1. The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs by America’s Test Kitchen Kids
2. The Complete Baking Book for Young Chefs by America’s Test Kitchen Kids
3. Growing Home by Beth Ferry
4. The Court of the Dead by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro
5. The Poisoned King by Katherine Rundell

This week on the blog

In case you missed them, here are this week’s posts:

• The best of 2025!

And keep up with the discussion in all the places!

• Follow me on Bluesky
• Check out the Bransforums

And finally, University of Pennsylvania alums have had a year.

Have a great weekend! See you in 2026.

Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!

For my best advice, check out my online classes, my guide to writing a novel and my guide to publishing a book.

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Art: Toits sous la neige, Paris by Gustave Caillebotte