Inside 2025’s IP Market: What Sold, Stalled and What Comes Next
➕Lessons from the year’s bestselling books, and how the death of magazine journalism is rattling dealmakers
I write The Optionist, a standalone subscription newsletter from Ankler Media, all about the hottest books and other IP ripe for film and TV adaptation. Previously, I covered the books that decode Silicon Valley, AI and Hollywood’s future and Jon Landau’s uncensored Hollywood tales. Subscribe here for my weekly list of promising books (new and backlist), long-form journalism, short stories, graphic novels and more.
Welcome to a special edition of The Optionist. I hope you’re enjoying these last days of 2025! (Or maybe, given the year, looking forward to turning the page.)
At this time last year, I tried something new: Instead of the usual roundup of IP picks, I checked in with several agents, managers and producers about the previous 12 months — what worked, what didn’t, their thoughts on the state of the business and so on. The response was so positive that I’ve decided to do it again.
But first, some news from Optionist HQ. It’s been a pretty good year for my standalone newsletter, with a 30 percent increase in subscriptions for 2025. I want to thank those loyal readers, whether they’ve been there from the very first newsletter or just signed up. I noticed the bump when I started checking in on which of my previous picks were still available. Many of my favorites — like this Northern Exposure-esque charmer and this dazzling crime-world thriller or this Lovecraft-in-the-Old West horror tale — had been snapped up. I’ll have more on this in the New Year, when I do a roundup of still-available IP, so make sure you’re on the list. Subscribe to The Optionist right now for more information about IP year-round.
Now, onto today’s edition, where I go deeper than the usual year-end recap — pulling real sales data, candid agent intel and unvarnished industry sentiment to answer one core question: What actually moved the market in 2025, and what does that mean for selling IP in 2026?
Here’s what you’ll find below:
What the actual bestselling books of 2025 reveal about buyer behavior — based on real sales numbers (not bestseller lists) — and why fantasy, romantasy and fanfic-adjacent hits are being misunderstood by Hollywood at its own peril.
How the shrinking magazine business is quietly reshaping the IP pipeline, with writers going straight to screen deals, holding onto rights and using (or skipping) publication as a secondary move — and why that’s changing who gets in the door.
Why specific genres quietly worked this year while others stalled, according to agents and managers on the front lines — including the surprising resurgence of short stories, the strength of nonfiction (with one major caveat) and the growing resistance to straight drama and period pieces.
The one kind of story everyone is desperate to find — and no one can seem to crack, from epic romance to modern love stories that feel big, commercial and emotionally honest in a way buyers can rally around.
What insiders really think about the state of the business heading into 2026, including blunt talk about consolidation, Warner Bros. Discovery, attachment pressure, shrinking patience in development and why selling IP now feels harder — and more random — than ever.
If you care about where the IP market is actually headed — not where the hype says it’s going — this is the clearest snapshot I’ve seen of how 2025 played out and what it means for the year ahead.
Lessons from 2025’s Bestselling Books
 | A guest post by
|