Upcoming BL Stuff 2026

[Felix Antipodes]

10 hours ago, DarkChaplain said:

Just FYI, Omnibuses are NEVER in the Mass-Market Paperback format. That was completely ditched by Black Library a decade ago, with the sole exception being for Horus Heresy releases, often a year after their original release.

 

Omnibuses are TRADE paperbacks, in the standard format. Yes, the font size is often reduced compared to novels, but that depends on how much content they need to squeeze in there with the 600-900 pages they got before the thing falls apart.

 

I'm also not aware of BL ever putting out an omnibus in hardback; even when they do trilogy hardbacks, it's usually box sets with each book being bound separately.

 

Apologies; bad wording on my part.  In my (prejudiced) tiny mind there is only HC or SC so I link trades and paperbacks as the same.

 

I had those early Gaunt’s Ghosts HC Omnibus editions in mind when I voiced my disappointment.  It also seemed a waste of a nice new cover.

 

Time for another session in the pain glove 

[Taliesin]

20 hours ago, Felix Antipodes said:

 

Apologies; bad wording on my part.  In my (prejudiced) tiny mind there is only HC or SC so I link trades and paperbacks as the same.

 

I had those early Gaunt’s Ghosts HC Omnibus editions in mind when I voiced my disappointment.  It also seemed a waste of a nice new cover.

 

Time for another session in the pain glove 

 

Thats alright I consider many of them to be mass market paperbacks as well and not trade paperbacks, they are so small.

I would say the omnibus of Fehervari I have , released this year, is a mass market paperback.

 

The trade paperbacks I have from other publishers are bigger.

Edited January 6 by Taliesin

[DarkChaplain]

10 hours ago, Taliesin said:

 

Thats alright I consider many of them to be mass market paperbacks as well and not trade paperbacks, they are so small.

I would say the omnibus of Fehervari I have , released this year, is a mass market paperback.

 

The trade paperbacks I have from other publishers are bigger.

 

Those terms are industry standards.

 

The other Trade Paperbacks you have from other publishers are a different type of Trade Paperback. Black Library is using what is basically the standard anyway - the B-Format TPB, normed at 129mm x 198mm (or 5+1⁄8 in x 7+3⁄4 in for non-metric xenos folks).

 

"regular", non B-format Trades are normally the same as a previous hardback, same page format, numbering etc, but in a different, softcover binding. Both B-format but especially non-B use higher quality paper than Mass Market Paperbacks - which are flimsy and often have ink bleeding issues as well.

 

The exact dimensions of full-on TPBs differ between markets (UK has them slightly larger than B-formats at 135mm x 216mm, for instance (which is why I have to double-check whenever I order UK editions because they generally have better, more distinct cover art and also often less marketing junk on the cover).

 

Technically you'd also refer to comic trades as TPBs, but they're a different matter yet again.

 

Black Library made the switch from MMPB to B-Format Trades back when they were still publishing Time of Legends set 2 and Warhammer Heroes. I believe the first Horus Heresy book to switch to the trade format - notably the larger British format, not B-format! - was Angel Exterminatus, which was also the first Hardback release for the series; the trade was, as explained above, basically identical to the hardback as a regular Trade Paperback would be. 6-9 months later, the book got the Mass Market Paperback release, skipping over the in-between B-Format that every other non-hardback BL release would switch to (often mid-series at the time, which my shelf has never forgiven them for).

 

tl;dr BL does B-Format TPBs, which are the perfect compromise between compactness, sturdiness and pricing compared to "full-size" trades succeeding a hardcover release, which are often noticeably more expensive than Bs. Unlike MMPBs, B-format spines are much harder to destroy, too, rather than just being something that happens while reading and has to be lived with.

Edited January 7 by DarkChaplain

[DarkChaplain]

Starting strong into the new year with not a single new story getting published until the 31st at the earliest, IF they preview something new next Sunday. If not, that's a dire January....

 

Last new thing was actually Demolisher, and that was previewed ages ago, too.

 

Oh well, at least the Vaults of Terra Omnibus is confirmed to include the short stories from the limited editions of the novels. I don't get why this has to be surprising, but it is, considering all the omnibuses that ditch the limited stories...

[darkhorse0607]

2 hours ago, DarkChaplain said:

Starting strong into the new year with not a single new story getting published until the 31st at the earliest, IF they preview something new next Sunday. If not, that's a dire January....

 

Last new thing was actually Demolisher, and that was previewed ages ago, too.

 

Oh well, at least the Vaults of Terra Omnibus is confirmed to include the short stories from the limited editions of the novels. I don't get why this has to be surprising, but it is, considering all the omnibuses that ditch the limited stories...

Don't worry! Next month is the Black Library Celebration! There will be so many books! Right? RIGHT?

 

 

[DarkChaplain]

....I once more have to criticize the lack of Crying emoji reaction

[Taliesin]

1 hour ago, darkhorse0607 said:

Don't worry! Next month is the Black Library Celebration! There will be so many books! Right? RIGHT?

 

 

And after the first time cancellation of the annual preview in December ( without a word said about it of course) , and there since not having been any word of the BL Celebration 2026 on Warcom either, and considering that the last few years the books on offer during the BL celebration became less each year....I now wonder if there will even be a BL Celebration. 

 

I wish we could get any kind of insight into what has been going on at Black Library. The days of insight from Laurie Golding are long gone, the annual events with customers have been deleted and the communication since then has been .......

[darkhorse0607]

2 hours ago, Taliesin said:

I wish we could get any kind of insight into what has been going on at Black Library. The days of insight from Laurie Golding are long gone, the annual events with customers have been deleted and the communication since then has been .......

 

It does make me think of how Forgeworld acted before it got dissolved (if thats even the right term for what happened) and just made the specialist game studio 

 

They used to have Heresy weekenders/celebrations where you got insight to what was coming, could talk to the designers, etc, then that stopped 

 

They did the last chance to buy episodes in 2018-2019 (still emotionally recovering from that) to clear out/slim down production 

 

Then the media teams went basically silent for months at a time 

 

Then it was gone and now just exists as the non-named studio, which kind of does the same thing but is far less interactive /responsive than it used to be, there's no public facing side of it like you had with Forgeworld proper 

 

I dont think thats going to happen to Black Library, but it is interesting that it appears the same on the surface 

[Taliesin]

It is very similar to that. Forgeworld was very different from what is the Specialist Game Studio.

At least they still have significant output though, thats the positive part about them, but yes it does have that vibe. Forgeworld even had its own annual Open Day.

 

As you say, I also dont think BL is about to be folded in, but it is definitely reminiscent, how year after year it is scaled down, communication goes to near nothing, output reduced, output quality reduced also and the silent deleting of their customer facing events.

[Felix Antipodes]

I wish I shared your optimism about the future of BL.  Publishing is an expensive business and I’m not sure GW covers the cost with their minimal print runs.  It would not surprise me one bit if WarCom put up a story announcing a brand new ‘excellent’ partnership with Arconyte or some other publisher of tie-in fiction.

[darkhorse0607]

I honestly think it'll be more that Black Library itself disappears, and is just replaced by "Warhammer Media" or something which has novels, WH+, whatever 3rd party deals they have (games, shows, etc), and White Dwarf under one umbrella. That removes the individual pressure (as seen with Forgeworld) and gives them an anonymous shield to hide it behind. Then if it does continue to scale down novels, it'll be a little more ambiguous, or at least the tone will be set. 

[Taliesin]

I am just disappointed by how much they have declined. There were years when there was a HH Weekender in February, a FW open Day a few months later and then a BL Weekender in November. All 3 are gone and not replaced in any kind of way; now the online preview declined year after year until it has now disappeared as well. They used to have BL Live as well in June, Track of Words would cover that in depth, also cancelled. I suppose one could call BL customer service to ask about it but even if they did know, they would not be allowed to speak out on what is going on.

 

At this point I feel like if they publish 3 or 4 books this year of interest, I should be content.

 

There is a Warhammer Preview show on Friday; however BL is not included, apparently they have nothing to announce.

Edited Monday at 10:31 PM by Taliesin

[Ubiquitous1984]

17 hours ago, Taliesin said:

I am just disappointed by how much they have declined. There were years when there was a HH Weekender in February, a FW open Day a few months later and then a BL Weekender in November. All 3 are gone and not replaced in any kind of way; now the online preview declined year after year until it has now disappeared as well. They used to have BL Live as well in June, Track of Words would cover that in depth, also cancelled. I suppose one could call BL customer service to ask about it but even if they did know, they would not be allowed to speak out on what is going on.

 

At this point I feel like if they publish 3 or 4 books this year of interest, I should be content.

 

There is a Warhammer Preview show on Friday; however BL is not included, apparently they have nothing to announce.

I remain surprised how nothing ever leaks out about what’s going on behind the scenes at BL.  I’ve seen a few BL people on social media post-Covid, but none have ever hinted about the changes since the ‘glory days’.  As an avid fan I’d love to know what they have been thinking and discussions that have taken place behind the scenes.  

Edited Tuesday at 03:39 PM by Ubiquitous1984

[System Sound]

16 hours ago, Ubiquitous1984 said:

I remain surprised how nothing ever leaks out about what’s going on behind the scenes at BL.  I’ve seen a few BL people on social media post-Covid, but none have ever hinted about the changes since the ‘glory days’.  As an avid fan I’d love to know what they have been thinking and discussions that have taken place behind the scenes.  

Hard to leak anything when there's probably like 4 people working there... 

 

My personal tinfoil theory is that Crime and Horror failing to sell huge amounts is why the output is slowing down constantly. Corporate saw that BL is not generating enough revenue, thus cutting the budget... crime and horror labels where probably were an effort to get more new readers, but that didn't work either. 

[Nagashsnee]

BL hasnt really declined, it has evolved alongside GW into an actual corporate entity. 

 

The 'glory days' just like the WD fat bloke era (and god i miss it) also go hand in hand with them being a smaller company both in capacity, structure and profit. The more GW grew and expanded and became an actual for profit for shareholders company (with shareholders being actual investors) . Having people leak or authors talk about things WITHOUT central planning and talking points was always going to go the way of the dodo.

 

Having sub studios (and again i miss the old FW and would wish them back if i could) that often worked AGAINST the main studio was again doomed.  From all available information the fires of Cyraxes disaster of a entire imperial armor being written for a ruleset the main studio was phasing out is the king of waste of funds and time that just doesnt fly in the new type of company GW is.  Looking at it from a purely structure standpoint FW made no sense, why are they independent? Why are they not supporting the main sales push? Why why why...  

 

BL open days if they had them now would be souless sale expos. Marketing dictates what we will be told and how we will be told it, not authors, not BL. Cross company sales synergy is the altar that all things will be laid on. And NO ONE at GW wants Josh Reynolds talking bad about the chaos behind the scenes, never mind at the bar of the hotel the event is hosted on (not saying he ever did, but BL open days had allot of post pint chats).  Everything must be happy and good at all times, all books are the best books, all LE are worth it and everything is always going to plan. 

 

There is no war in Ba Sing Se.

 

They want you going to warhammer community, they want constant content and updates on the site, they want complete control on when information goes out just like any big corpo would. And its not a bad thing, its how the game is played,

[theSpirea]

51 minutes ago, Nagashsnee said:

They want you going to warhammer community, they want constant content and updates on the site, they want complete control on when information goes out just like any big corpo would. And its not a bad thing, its how the game is played,

I’d argue it is a bad thing. There are no updates from BL, and those laughable articles with two or three paragraphs, when they occasionally bother to announce a book, don’t really count.

 

BL starts a series and then just drops it without ANY communication. This doesn’t build trust, and it’s very likely people won’t be that interested in buying the next series if a bunch of previous series were just abandoned. And this is not just Horror/Necromunda/Crime. Tales of Mhurghast was supposed to be a four-book series and was just dropped dead. Pilgrims of Fire was announced as part of a six-book series and was dropped after two, etc.

 

It’s the lack of communication and transparency that is pushing me, and many people around me, away from BL. The BL Celebration used to be my highlight of the year, then it was reduced to ridiculous online format with two blokes who don't even seem to be that much interested in books and just read dumb online comments most of the show. Now it's completely gone.

[Nagashsnee]

1 hour ago, theSpirea said:

I’d argue it is a bad thing. There are no updates from BL, and those laughable articles with two or three paragraphs, when they occasionally bother to announce a book, don’t really count.

 

BL starts a series and then just drops it without ANY communication. This doesn’t build trust, and it’s very likely people won’t be that interested in buying the next series if a bunch of previous series were just abandoned. And this is not just Horror/Necromunda/Crime. Tales of Mhurghast was supposed to be a four-book series and was just dropped dead. Pilgrims of Fire was announced as part of a six-book series and was dropped after two, etc.

 

It’s the lack of communication and transparency that is pushing me, and many people around me, away from BL. The BL Celebration used to be my highlight of the year, then it was reduced to ridiculous online format with two blokes who don't even seem to be that much interested in books and just read dumb online comments most of the show. Now it's completely gone.

I hear you and i agree. But i just dont know how much GW marketing cares about the tiny % of people who are primarily BL readers.   I just dont think their marketing even considers them when they make decisions. Most of their books are out and gone in a flash. The mini game spawns enough people who pick up BL that putting in any extra work to foster the BL community side may not be worth it when placed on a excel sheet. 

[theSpirea]

I think root of the issue with GW's inability to transfer BL's value into actual revenue. I don't mean revenue/profit from books but the engagement it creates and how many people thanks to BL books get AND stay in the miniature part of the business. 

[Roomsky]

https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/dgunipgk/pages-from-the-black-books-the-night-lords/

Well, this is surprisingly pro-consumer.

[wecanhaveallthree]

The first taste is free. That's how they getcha. Next thing you know, there'll be shady gents in large overcoats outside schools: 'Psst, hey kid! Yeah, you! I got a Primaris Lieutenant for ya, heh heh heh...'

 

The Black Books are absolutely grouse, however. And Imperial Armour!  Cripes, Forge World really could do no wrong.

Edited Thursday at 06:13 PM by wecanhaveallthree
SICKOS

[darkhorse0607]

25 minutes ago, wecanhaveallthree said:

The first taste is free. That's how they getcha. Next thing you know, there'll be shady gents in large overcoats outside schools: 'Psst, hey kid! Yeah, you! I got a Primaris Lieutenant for ya, heh heh heh...'

 

The Black Books are absolutely grouse, however. And Imperial Armour!  Cripes, Forge World really could do no wrong.

 

Listen, with the cost of a Primaris Lieutenant I'll take the risk

 

Also yeah, I hope they do some of the older Imperial Armor books as well (Taros campaign please), but someone pointed out on the main forum's thread that those are on Warhammer Plus so maybe not

[grailkeeper]

I had assumed Bl printed money, just maybe not as much as thr main lines. It also has synergy. Someone who likes a book about Night Lords might buy some Night Lords models etc etc.

[Sothalor]

1 minute ago, grailkeeper said:

I had assumed Bl printed money, just maybe not as much as thr main lines. It also has synergy. Someone who likes a book about Night Lords might buy some Night Lords models etc etc.

 

"Not as much" is putting it kind of mildly. The shareholder reports from the last... at least half decade or so- showcase that Black Library constitutes single digit percentages of Games Workshop's annual revenue - potentially as low as 1% in some years. 

 

I would not be surprised if that were a significant factor in how BL releases and marketing get treated.

 

You're right that there's a synergy in terms of establishing and growing the value of their IPs, but that's one of those things that's very difficult to quantify, especially were one to try making that case in a shareholder report. Sure, the Night Lords trilogy probably got some people into the hobby in terms of buy-in to collecting miniatures and/or the tabletop game, but how many? What's the conversion funnel for people who pick up a novel into dedicated adherents of the GW lifestyle? Is that even something that they can feasibly quantify on a  systematic level?

[wecanhaveallthree]

Quote

Black Library constitutes single digit percentages of Games Workshop's annual revenue - potentially as low as 1% in some years. 

 

Surely the strength of Black Library isn't book sales in and of themselves, but the advertising they do for the hobby? There's a reason box sets tend to get a novel release e.g. Leviathan or whatever that Cthonia anthology was called (I refuse to refer to it by name, it has no power over me). They also encourage people to enter and participate in the hobby in spaces like FLGS or online communities, which churns engagement (and purchases) from other people as well. 

 

It's all a bit 'spongey', I suppose, but it's always felt a bit like 'wow our advertising department doesn't make any money at all, what do we pay these people for?!'

 

 

[Felix Antipodes]

The cynic in me wonders if these Black Book snippets are the remnants from an attempt to disembowel them of rulesets for insertion into the WH Vault alongside the Imperial Armour series.  Nothing has been added to the Vault since July 2025 (except two of the DK books - Art of WH Video Games and an Astra Militarum extract from the Character Encyclopedia).  Even WD additions are only up to early 2024 and the back issues have stopped being uploaded.

If you signed up to WH+ just for the promised future contents of the Vault you’ve been diddled.