The 3 Moves That Decide Who Wins Peak 2025

Plus: Princeton absorbs Island Press, shifting marketing and distribution

Author

Avinash Duggempudi
October 08, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Bestseller Brief

Here's what's happening this week in the world of books and media eCommerce:
- AI moves upstream: manuscript-to-market insights launch.
- Princeton brings Island Press in-house for 2026.
- Walmart tests exclusives and live commerce at NYCC.
- SoCal indies crown Osman, Harris; holiday signals.
- October fantasy flood fuels curation and preorders.

⏱️The 3 Moves That Decide Who Wins Peak 2025

Every brand talks about “winning Peak.” Few actually do. In this short video, Fospha’s Aidan Gadd breaks down the 3 moves that decide who comes out on top in Peak 2025.

📌WEEKLY MUST-KNOWS

PRODUCT INNOVATION
BearingPoint Launches BookInsight By DemandSens – AI That Transforms Manuscripts Into Market-Ready Insights
BearingPoint launched BookInsight by DemandSens, an AI that reads full manuscripts to generate summaries, reader segments, sales potential, enriched metadata and even cover prototypes. It moves data-driven decisioning upstream, compressing editorial evaluation and go-to-market prep to cut time-to-market. Publishers, editors and agents stand to gain faster greenlighting and more consistent positioning; live demos land at Frankfurt Book Fair.

ABN AMRO and Children’s Book Week released a free, multilingual storybook and audiobook with a ‘Reading and Listening Bookmark,’ scaling to nearly 300 schools after a second print run. The model blends physical distribution with digital audio in four languages, expanding access for non-Dutch-speaking families and building repeatable education-channel reach. Brand-funded publishing is maturing into a durable acquisition and equity play for mission content.

Walmart is partnering with VeeFriends to debut an exclusive comic bundle at NYCC and will sell limited CGC graded editions via a Walmart Live event on October 9. This pairs scarcity and experiential drops with live commerce to drive fandom engagement and conversion at scale. Affected: mass retail collectibles buyers, licensors and publishers testing retailer-exclusive editions.

Disney acquired film rights to Katherine Rundell’s Impossible Creatures series and is eyeing adaptations of the first two books. Studio development around kidlit fantasy reliably lifts backlist velocity and opens tie-in windows well ahead of release. Booksellers, licensors and children’s/YA marketers should plan for demand spikes and cross-merchandising opportunities.

⚡QUICK READS

This Week’s Bestsellers At Southern California’s Independent Bookstores: SoCal indies crown Richard Osman and Kamala Harris, signaling demand for accessible fiction and timely nonfiction as holiday discovery ramps.(More)

All The New Fantasy Books Arriving In October 2025: Thirty-seven fantasy releases hit in October, heightening competition and rewarding curated lists, preorders and SEO-rich content for discovery.(More)

D&D Visual History Special Edition Box Set Is Only $45 For Big Deal Days: Amazon’s Big Deal Days slash premium D&D box sets, offering a read on collector price elasticity and bundling strategies heading into Q4.(More)

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