Upcoming BL Stuff 2026

[grailkeeper]

Is it thr case that BL is not profitable, or simply not as profitable? 

[Ubiquitous1984]

31 minutes ago, grailkeeper said:

Is it thr case that BL is not profitable, or simply not as profitable? 

It must be profitable IMO, otherwise GW would have ditched it long ago.  That said there is no public information on department profitability.

[Felix Antipodes]

19 hours ago, Ubiquitous1984 said:

It must be profitable IMO, otherwise GW would have ditched it long ago.  That said there is no public information on department profitability.

 

Exactly this imho.  GW doesn’t work on sentiment (for the most part).  If BL wasn’t pulling its weight financially it would be gone.  Someone above stated a figure of only being 1% of GW profit.  With the money GW now pulls in that is still a tidy sum.

[hd3]

I'm STILL waiting for the Horus Lupercal primarch book. Im praying its taking so long because they want Abnett to write it as a counter part to Horus rising.

[Ubiquitous1984]

7 hours ago, hd3 said:

I'm STILL waiting for the Horus Lupercal primarch book. Im praying its taking so long because they want Abnett to write it as a counter part to Horus rising.

For the book to have been delayed for so long, there must be a GW-studio level block in place.  Surely there can be no other explanation as a Horus Primarch book would presumably be popular and sell well.

 

If there is a block in place, I wonder why?  The easy answer would be ‘Horus is returning to 40k’ but that seems utterly implausible.  

[wecanhaveallthree]

+I wait for you and I forgive you.+

[hd3]

2 hours ago, Ubiquitous1984 said:

For the book to have been delayed for so long, there must be a GW-studio level block in place.  Surely there can be no other explanation as a Horus Primarch book would presumably be popular and sell well.

 

If there is a block in place, I wonder why?  The easy answer would be ‘Horus is returning to 40k’ but that seems utterly implausible.  

 

Maybe they just wanted to finish siege of terra to make sure they know how horus' story ends first. Or Abnett is just busy.

Edited January 18 by hd3

[hd3]

I also saw there's a new alpha legion book coming up that is a follow up to harrowmaster apparently.

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Warhammer-40-000-Geisterlegion-Säule-Träume/dp/1836093454

 

"Solomon Akurra dreams of his own kingdom. As the First Flayer, he united the warring factions of the Alpha Legion under his command and conquered entire star systems. Wielding the supposed Pale Spear, his Primarch's weapon, Solomon fights for a new future. Many rogue warlords seek only to enslave humanity, but the Ghost has more ambitious goals. He wants to shatter the empire and rebuild humanity.
But his dreams attract enemies, and the Empire rises against him to destroy the Ghost Legion and Solomon's new world. To defend his realm, the First Flayer must summon all his combat skills and cunning. He is prepared to exercise patience, but assassins lurk in the shadows, and anger and discord fester within the Legion's ranks. Is the price of Solomon's vision perhaps too high?"

 

Whoever did the artwork though was a huge downgrade from the previous one.

 

Edited January 18 by hd3

[darkhorse0607]

3 hours ago, hd3 said:

Whoever did the artwork though was a huge downgrade from the previous one.

 

 

 

Yeah, if that rumor engine from a while back is the BL celebration model and it is Akura, I hope it doesn't follow that artwork and it's based off of the old one (which would be my guess given the lead times on things). The book mentions the armor's scales a number of times, and how they function/protect him, etc, so the artist removing most of them is a choice. 

 

Excited for more Alpha Legion though, I really liked how it wrote the story of them encountering Primaris for the first time/dealing with a changing galaxy and trying to figure out who the Silver Templars are, which got a chuckle from me

[theSpirea]

Aaand the next week pre-orders are packed with BL stuff..... (that's a joke, just like BL is now seems to be)

https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/qvxeezrk/sunday-preview-fell-hunters-and-faithful-wardens-clash-in-kill-team/

[darkhorse0607]

11 minutes ago, theSpirea said:

Aaand the next week pre-orders are packed with BL stuff..... (that's a joke, just like BL is now seems to be)

https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/qvxeezrk/sunday-preview-fell-hunters-and-faithful-wardens-clash-in-kill-team/

 

Well it wouldn't make much sense to release anything now when they've promised such a massive Black Library Celebration next month! We can surely take solace in that fact

 

 

_{oh wait}

[Roomsky]

Re: Harrowmaster sequel, I actually like that cover better. It has a lot more depth, I thought Harrowmaster's looked quite flat.

[Felix Antipodes]

5 hours ago, theSpirea said:

Aaand the next week pre-orders are packed with BL stuff..... (that's a joke, just like BL is now seems to be)

https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/qvxeezrk/sunday-preview-fell-hunters-and-faithful-wardens-clash-in-kill-team/

 

The only thing more annoying than no new releases (again) is that we know they will now release six at once when we finally do get something. 

[Nagashsnee]

7 hours ago, Felix Antipodes said:

 

The only thing more annoying than no new releases (again) is that we know they will now release six at once when we finally do get something. 

Thats purely economical from a shipping point of view i am afraid.  One book a week while maybe more popular would make a significant cost difference for bl.

[Felix Antipodes]

Not being argumentive, but how?  Only one a week would mean we pick up the postage tab not them and they are more likely not miss sales because of too much cost in one hit.  Yes, I know they (nearly) always sell out due to small print runs (by industry standards).

To clarify, I’m not after a book a week, because imho that would be just as bad.  Just curious.

[Nagashsnee]

Unlike the minis, GW doesnt make its own books. So It needs to plan out when it receives them, how long/where to store them and then ship them to its own stores/shops/customers. 

 

Shipping and storing books is not the easiest (nor the hardest) to do. Storing them also is bulky and take up space. So lets say we have 4 BL books, 2 hardbacks and 2 mmpb. 10k each. thats 40k books.  Shipping is awlays cheaper the more you ship. So its save on shipping, have them sit around the warehouse or pay for multiple shipments.  

 

What is easier, to store them all x ammount of time, ship the allocations out in 1 go and then have the space and manpower ready for whatever else next week. Or to ship 1-2, have the rest take up warehouse space that is now  dedicated to the books, and then in the following weeks re allocate effort to book shipments.  

 

We know the warhouse is struggling at times, we know they suffer for space, and we know they HATE sitting on stock.  So have book shipped to them in mass (cheaper and easier), and then get rid of them them as a group (cheaper, easier,  and frees up space faster) will always win. 

 

Always ship and sell in bulk to save costs. Unless selling piece by piece has the profit margins to justify otherwise, and here the profit margins dont change. 

Edited January 19 by Nagashsnee

[grailkeeper]

They should make all their books available for sale digitally.

 

[Tolmeus]

2 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

They should make all their books available for sale digitally.

 

I agree, but to be fair, aren't they doing that nowadays with each release?

[grailkeeper]

2 hours ago, Tolmeus said:

 

I agree, but to be fair, aren't they doing that nowadays with each release?

I'm talking about older books that are oops in hard form.

[theSpirea]

7 hours ago, Nagashsnee said:

Unlike the minis, GW doesnt make its own books. So It needs to plan out when it receives them, how long/where to store them and then ship them to its own stores/shops/customers. 

 

Shipping and storing books is not the easiest (nor the hardest) to do. Storing them also is bulky and take up space. So lets say we have 4 BL books, 2 hardbacks and 2 mmpb. 10k each. thats 40k books.  Shipping is awlays cheaper the more you ship. So its save on shipping, have them sit around the warehouse or pay for multiple shipments.  

 

What is easier, to store them all x ammount of time, ship the allocations out in 1 go and then have the space and manpower ready for whatever else next week. Or to ship 1-2, have the rest take up warehouse space that is now  dedicated to the books, and then in the following weeks re allocate effort to book shipments.  

 

We know the warhouse is struggling at times, we know they suffer for space, and we know they HATE sitting on stock.  So have book shipped to them in mass (cheaper and easier), and then get rid of them them as a group (cheaper, easier,  and frees up space faster) will always win. 

 

Always ship and sell in bulk to save costs. Unless selling piece by piece has the profit margins to justify otherwise, and here the profit margins dont change. 

They suffer for space yet there was plenty of evidence in the past that they were sitting on printed books for more than half a year?

[Fedor]

The bundled Sons of the Selenar/Fury of Magnus is coming out soon. I hope we get the same for Dreadwing/Spear of Ultramar and some of the other later HH stuff that has been left in non-mass market limbo.

[DarkChaplain]

"Betrayal at Calth" enters the thread....

[Nagashsnee]

16 hours ago, theSpirea said:

They suffer for space yet there was plenty of evidence in the past that they were sitting on printed books for more than half a year?

 

They could many reasons for products to be delayed/ situations like that to happen.  I do not work for GW, i dont know the details, but warhouse space is something the company has talked about. 

[Casual Heresy]

On 1/20/2026 at 10:38 AM, Nagashsnee said:

 

They could many reasons for products to be delayed/ situations like that to happen.  I do not work for GW, i dont know the details, but warhouse space is something the company has talked about. 

 

As someone who currently works in publishing, I do have some ideas.

 

It is common for books printed in India/China to sit in warehouses for a bit before release. Firstly it's the logistics of getting stuff shipped most of the way round the world. You need the stock delivered well in advance to account for shipping delays, reprints if stock is damaged/lost, etc. Stock printed in these countries is often left to sit for a while as changes in climate can affect books when the first arrive in a new location. Commonly you can see pages sort of crinkle up a bit, but this usually settles down after a week or two left alone on the pallet in a less humid environment.

 

Those don't quite account for the delays and bunching up we see in BL release schedule, but as others have suggested, it's likely a cost thing, but I think it's related to the actual printing more than anything else. The expensive part of litho printing is actually the set up of the machine and making the plates. If you have multiple jobs which are the same dimensions and using the same materials, you can save money by printing them as one job. I regularly get the Guidebooks for the place I work at printing together because of the cost saving (we usually save about £1k if all four can go together). Despite the the guides we print being different lengths, they are all the same size and use all the same materials, so the printers only have to set up the machine once. I suspect that BL are doing the same. Afterall, generally all of the HBs are the same Case-bound Royal HB format using the same paper and cover materials, and almost all the paperbacks are standard B-formats (excluding the occasional weirdos like Horus Heresy releases). 

[grailkeeper]

@Casual Heresy

 

A few books got leaked early, I'm thinking in particular of the leather bound version of Era of Ruin that was found monthsbin advance. As someone who knows more about the indusrty, what do you think happened there?