Queer Authors Report Steep Royalty Declines Amid Surge in US Book Bans Targeting Queer Titles

LGBTQ+ authors in the United States are facing significant financial strain as royalties plummet amid a surge in book bans targeting queer-themed titles, especially those for children and young adults. Publishers, agents, and editors report heightened caution in acquiring, marketing, and distributing such books, citing commercial risks from school and library markets.

The trend has intensified following Donald Trump's return to the presidency in 2025, with industry professionals linking it directly to a political climate hostile to LGBTQ+ content. Book challenges have overwhelmingly focused on children's and young adult fiction, creating uncertainty for publishers reliant on wholesalers supplying schools and libraries.

PEN America tracked more than 10,000 book bans across US schools during the 2023-2024 school year, many targeting works by Black and LGBTQ+ authors. In the 2024-2025 school year, the organization identified nearly 7,000 bans across 87 school districts, affecting around 3,752 to 4,000 unique titles.

While some banned books experienced short-term sales spikes, these have not compensated for broader losses in institutional markets. Wholesalers have grown "more hesitant" to purchase LGBTQ+ books for schools and libraries, according to Irene Vázquez, associate editor at independent publisher Levine Querido.

Author Adib Khorram, known for the award-winning young adult novel "Darius the Great Is Not Okay" featuring a queer main character, reported a 70 percent drop in his twice-yearly royalty payments for the title. "It has certainly led to more anxiety about how I will pay my bills," Khorram stated, though he intends to continue writing for young readers.

Literary agent and author Rebecca Podos, a senior agent at Rees Literary Agency , shared that editors have explicitly rejected queer projects due to market pressures. "This is the first year in like a decade that I’ve had responses from editors specifically citing that it’s difficult to place queer books in stores," she told reporters.

Dahlia Adler, young adult novelist and creator of the website LGBTQ Reads, observed publishers prioritizing "safely going to go on shelves" projects unlikely to face challenges. She noted fewer public announcements of new queer YA novels, with marketing language deliberately subdued: "I think that language is kind of being more intentionally left out to keep it from being a target."

Jim McCarthy, vice president at the literary agency Dystel, Goderich & Bourret, recounted an editor passing on a client's LGBTQ+ novel explicitly due to "book bans and so much concern about decreasing school library sales of queer content."

The American Library Association's April 2025 report found seven of the top 10 most challenged books featured LGBTQ+ characters, including "All Boys Aren’t Blue" by George M. Johnson and "Gender Queer" by Maia Kobabe.

A 2025 US Supreme Court ruling allowing parents to opt children out of reading queer-themed books for religious reasons has further pressured the industry.

Many LGBTQ+ authors are pivoting to adult fiction to sustain incomes, even as queer themes persist in subtler forms. Xtra Magazine reported in a January 14, 2026, video that publishers are acquiring fewer queer books overall, with LGBTQ2S+ authors citing rejections and royalty drops.

This chilling effect raises concerns for transgender people, gay individuals, and other LGBTQ+ communities whose stories are increasingly sidelined in youth literature, limiting representation for young readers.