The midnight book release party, which sees patrons descending on bookstores at 12 midnight to get their copy of a buzzy new book, is a relatively recent phenomenon. Still, it has evolved considerably in its short lifespan. The rise of the midnight release in the book business can be traced back to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, which debuted in the U.S. in 1998. But it was the strict embargo put on the fourth book in the series, before its publication in 2000, that helped popularize the late-night bookstore gatherings.

While this trend began with books for younger readers—Stephanie Meyers’s Twilight series and the final installment of Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games series also got the midnight release treatment—it hasn’t stayed that way. In the years since, bookstores have held midnight release events for the likes of David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King, Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman, Thomas Pynchon’s Bleeding Edge, and Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments.

And as 2024 draws to a close, two hotly anticipated fall titles—Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo and Haruki Murakami’s The City and its Uncertain Walls, translated by Philip Gabriel—have prompted a number of bookstores across the country to open their doors late at night and let the literati in.

Logistical planning

Jessica Stockton-Bagnulo, the owner of Brooklyn’s Greenlight Bookstore, hosted a midnight event for Intermezzo last month, and plans to host one for The City and its Uncertain Walls in October. While it may appear to be straightforward, such events require logistical planning, including getting the bookstore’s landlord to sign off on both of this fall’s parties.

Such event planning, Stockton-Bagnulo said, often requires coordination between stores and publishers. She added that both Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) and Knopf—Rooney and Murakami’s respective U.S. publishers—had been indispensable in the process. “They know the audiences for these authors, and they’ve helped with creating cool bookish swag, connecting us with refreshments, even creating playlists or trivia questions,” Stockton-Bagnulo said.

At FSG, planning the September 24 launch of Intermezzo began long before the book’s publication, in part because FSG was doing something it had never done before: working on a series of events around a book’s release without the author—Rooney, who lives in Ireland, rarely does promotional appearances in the U.S. The effort involved co-ordination with roughly 140 stores across the U.S. the week Intermezzo was released. Among the items booksellers were sent were Intermezzo-branded pencils, pins, and puzzles, and Baggu bags featuring the book’s title and its author’s name. From there, each store had the freedom to create their own events, such as raffles and trivia.

When it came time for Knopf to begin planning midnight events for The City and its Uncertain Walls, which is to be published on November 19, Ruth Liebmann, director of account marketing at Penguin Random House, pointed out that it’s essential to look for readers in markets full of night owls, who love to stay up late. “Every store does the parties a little differently, but the magic is always there,” Liebmann said. “You would think people would be exhausted when it’s over, but a lot of them stay up till dawn reading.”

Jazz records and spaghetti bars

So, what does a Murakami release party include? DJs spinning jazz records and spaghetti bars are in the works at several locations. And in New York City, Christina Tosi, CEO of the Brooklyn-based bakery Milk Bar, is creating Murakami-themed muffins—Murakuffins—for local release parties.

Midnight release events are an international phenomenon as well. Kinokuniya Books, the Japanese bookstore chain, has held midnight Murakami events for Japanese readers for years. “In general, midnight book release parties have been quite successful, especially for high-profile authors or long-anticipated releases,” Shigekazu Watanabe, the east coast regional manager for Kinokuniya U.S., said. “For Haruki Murakami,” he added, “we’ve seen a strong, dedicated fan base that enjoys these events in other regions,” particularly in Asia and Australia.

The enduring popularity of midnight release events suggests a path for literary events beyond the well-trod author reading, interview, and signing: one where the book itself, combined with a sense of community, is at the heart of things. As Stockton-Bagnulo put it: “It seems like a great way to create an exciting social occasion around books, bump up first week sales, and create cultural conversation.”

A version of this story previously ran in the 2024 PW Frankfurt Show Daily.