The midnight release party is back, and it’s more elaborate than ever

Late on a recent Monday night, Sarah Skinner and Julia Slade finally got matching tattoos inside the Fox Theatre. The ink depicted a small set of wings, inspired by Sarah J. Maas’ fantasy series, “A Court of Thorns and Roses.”

The best friends of 12 years had come to spend the evening in Velaris, the fictional city from Maas’ book. At the stroke of midnight, they received a copy of “A Court of Splintered Harmony,” the highly anticipated sixth book in Maas’ bestselling series.

“Obviously we’ve been waiting oh so many years for (the book), but also just the experience of a midnight release party that’s also where we get to dress up and look like fairies,” Skinner said.

“And just to explore Velaris for the night,” Slade added. “Live our wildest fairy dreams.”

There were about 175 other attendees at the evening’s Starfall Ball, getting tattoos, painting, shopping and dancing in the Fox Theatre’s Egyptian Ballroom, all in honor of a book they have been waiting to read for more than five years.

In addition to the Starfall Ball, more than 1,500 other midnight release parties for the book were happening on Oct. 26, a representative from Bloomsbury Publishing said in a statement.

It’s not the only series leading fans to gather late into the night. Years after the “Harry Potter” books inspired midnight release parties, books and authors are receiving their own late-night events as readers build communities around the literature they love.

The evolution of the midnight release party

Isabella Johns, a ballroom dance instructor and avid reader, attended her first midnight book release when she was living in New York City years ago. She went to her local bookstore alone for the debut of a romantasy book by Rebecca Yarros and left with bookish friends she still speaks to.

When she learned about the forthcoming release of “A Court of Splintered Harmony,” Johns dreamed up the idea of hosting a midnight ball in honor of the series that got her back into reading as an adult. Eagle Eye Book Shop in Decatur provided books for the event.

Eagle Eye events coordinator Preet Singh has hosted multiple midnight book release events in the five years she’s been working for the bookstore. The first was for the release of Maas’ book, “House of Flame and Shadow,” in 2024.

Longtime employees told her the last time they saw this level of fervor for midnight release parties was for the “Harry Potter” series.

“Making book friends is so important, and there’s nothing better than an author event for an author you love, or midnight release party or a fan gathering to make book friends,” she said.

Midnight release events have historically extended beyond the bookselling industry, as record stores and video game shops would hold their own late-night releases throughout the ‘90s and early 2000s.

Tyler Sanders, the owner of retro gaming store Steel Collectibles in Kennesaw, has many memories of lining up outside, sometimes in the cold, to get the latest console or game.

He’s 42 now, but growing up his mom would take him to stand in line at GameStop, everyone anticipating the latest release. He guesses he’s attended at least 50 midnight releases over the years.

But Sanders said the push for exclusively digital games since the mid-2000s has led to a decrease in release parties.

“Now, with digital just being thrown in our faces so hard by the console companies, it’s fading a lot,” he said.

Many stores don’t even get many physical copies anymore, and console companies encourage fans to preorder digitally to receive the game a few days in advance.

Still, in November, select Best Buy locations are set to host midnight release events for “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” game. Nintendo, which produces “Zelda,” is one of the few companies that still produces physical items.

“I honestly just don’t see it coming back ever like it was,” Sanders said. “As long as there’s still physical copies out there, there will be midnight releases. But I don’t think it will ever be what it was years ago.”

Although it may never return for the gaming world, Eric Levin of Criminal Records has seen a renewed interest in midnight release and listening events over the past five years.

Levin is also the co-founder of Record Store Day, an organization that, in part, helps participating businesses curate and manage listening parties.

Levin said Record Store Day asks participating record stores for pictures and videos from the midnight release events that can be shared with the artist’s management, record label and distributor.

“They’re not just counting sales; they’re counting impressions and focus, and, ideally, joy. That has gone a long way to a point where every artist and manager wants to do an event,” he said. “So that’s fueled the explosion of the number of these events, and they’re very successful now.”

For example, Olivia Rodrigo wanted to get in on the midnight sales for one of her recent albums, “and, well, I’m not gonna say no to Olivia Rodrigo,” Levin said. That midnight release event at Criminal Records had about 150 attendees.

Levin has also noticed more artists offering exclusive releases where fans can purchase a particular version of an album only at an event.

Nowadays, Levin avoids calling them parties. Despite the renewed popularity, they simply aren’t like they used to be.

“The older events, going back to the ’90s, were very different in that we used to have local representation with the labels and distributors,” he said. “They had employees whose job it was to come out and help us throw these celebrations.”

For the midnight release of a Beastie Boys record, Levin recalled that a label representative got nine ice cream cakes.

“I wouldn’t make enough money today to buy one cake,” Levin said.

Even so, Levin is still pleased with the midnight release events as they are. “I’m totally satisfied as long as people come out and have a good time.”

How romance is fueling the midnight release party

Of the midnight release parties that Eagle Eye Books has hosted, Singh said the highest turnouts have tended to be for the romance and romantasy genres.

The romance genre has long been a reliable market, and romance book sales have consistently grown in recent years, with print book sales in the genre more than doubling from 2020 to 2023.

The newly coined “romantasy” genre, which characterizes books that combine fantasy and romance elements, has also exploded, and in October 2024 Publishers Weekly reported that seven of the top-selling 10 adult books of the year were romance and romantasy titles.

“It’s an industry that basically funds every other genre,” Singh said, though she predicts that midnight release parties will keep spreading into other genres.

Multiple readers at the Starfall Ball release party said they are drawn to romance and romantasy because they offer an escape from an at-times unpleasant (and unromantic) world.

A midnight release party like the Starfall Ball allows fans to physically escape into the fantasy world they love, all while building a community with others who have the same passion.

At a recent romantasy release event, attendees could participate in activities like sword yoga, where they trained with (fake) swords the way their favorite heroines do. For a brief moment, readers stepped into the feeling of being “a real-life warrior,” Johns said.

“‘Lord of the Rings’ or these other huge, epic world-building tales that have very similar themes (as romantasy) sometimes don’t have as much emphasis on femininity being represented as strength, and having a romance element to it,” Johns said.

The popularity of the romance genre has also initiated a flood of new independent romance-focused bookstores. Although Target held parties for “A Court of Splintered Harmony” at hundreds of stores worldwide, including seven in metro Atlanta, many of the other parties Monday were hosted by indie bookstores, including Little Shop of Stories, Eagle Eye Book Shop, All the Tropes and Damsel.

Sincerely Yours, Two Blond Readers BookBus and Damsel co-hosted a party in Canton, which sold about 300 tickets, book bus owners Stephanie Carlisle and Morganne Turberville said.

In addition to the buzzy romantasy titles, major romance writers are seeing midnight release parties held in their honor.

Kennedy Ryan, a leading author in the Black romance genre, has seen a growing number of midnight book releases with each of her last three releases.

Ryan first noticed midnight release parties for her books with the debut of her 2024 novel, “This Could Be Us.” As her team saw more taking place, they began sending bookstores and event organizers ideas and materials for the parties, including a thank you video from Ryan.

For her next book, “Can’t Get Enough,” her team helped support around 30 events. Ryan’s latest book, “Score,” was released in May and had even more midnight release parties.

“I realize it is about my book, but it’s bigger than me. It’s about community,” Ryan said. “It’s about gathering around authors you love, work you love, but also with the people who love the same books that you do.”

Ryan has been reading romance books since the eighth grade and has seen people grow more comfortable and proud about reading books in the genre.

“I think that romance is the genre of joy,” she said. It guarantees a happy ending, even if the journey can be fraught with heavy and serious topics.

Gone are the days of readers hiding their romance titles in shame. Instead, people are proudly attending midnight release parties, dressing up in their best outfits and even getting tattoos for their favorite books.