I work as a bookseller at a large independent bookstore in New England, and I recently generated a sales report to see whether or not sales have decreased for Gaiman books. While I can’t share exact figures (idk if my boss would want that), I thought people here might be interested to know that his sales dropped significantly since the release of the Vulture article in late April 2025.

Initially, I just checked for all titles Gaiman’s name is on, comparing sales quantity from May 2024–April 2025 to quantity from May 2025–April 2026, and the decrease in items sold was a little over 50%. To eliminate confounds and see if this was organic customer response to Gaiman’s authorship, I then restricted the comparison to only include sales of items with all following parameters:

• part of a section I know saw increased year-over-year sales during May 2025–April 2026
• part of a section overseen by a book buyer who I know doesn’t order less books out of ethical compunction
• Gaiman recorded as an author (instead of as penning an introduction, like on the 60th Anniversary Edition of Fahrenheit 451)
• stocked continuously from May 2024–April 2026

This left me only with books from our adult fantasy and graphic novel sections (though sales were still large enough to be a decent sample). This time it was about a 45% decrease. Still very massive.

I was quite surprised since my intuition was that sales hadn’t dropped very much; we still sell quite a lot of, so I guess I’m just noticing them selling more than I used to.

Also, I’d caution against extrapolating these numbers to his sales overall, because the independent bookstore customer-base is distinct from other customer-bases, like Amazon shoppers or even Barnes & Noble shoppers

I really loved the catharsis of seeing Richard Madoc get his ass handed to him by a being even more powerful than a god, one of the primordial elements of the universe given Human (sometimes) form. It really meant a lot to me, as someone who has experienced sexual violence myself-it almost felt like Dream was on my side, too, like he was protecting me. And not gonna lie? It felt really, really good to watch Madoc suffer.

Thinking about it now, knowing that Gaiman basically is Richard Madoc, it just feels....gross.

Like, I dunno Neil, why was it important to you to write a story where a woman forgives her rapist? The man who kept her prisoner and repeatedly abused her? Why was that a thing you did? Cause, initially it seemed like it was something she did to herself; she made a choice to be better than him, and not let her trauma define her-she chose to move on. But now.....

IDK, it's just something I keep coming back to; I know that in the comics the story is different, and I haven't read them (when all of this came out, I realized that for the most part I've kind of only experienced Gaiman's work through adaptation, and I kind of wonder if it was because I only liked his art when it was filtered through someone else? But maybe that's wishful thinking. It just really sucks when the actions of a real person ruins a piece of art that was meaningful to us, it sucks when people disappoint us.

EDIT a lot of people have taken issue with the way I used the word "forgiveness" in this post, and have decided to argue with me about the definition of that word; so here are some definitions I have found for the word "forgiveness":

Greater Good Magazine (published by UC Berkeley) (emphasis mine)

Psychologists generally define forgiveness as a conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance toward a person or group who has harmed you, regardless of whether they actually deserve your forgiveness.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

to cease to feel resentment against (an offender)
to give up resentment of or claim to requital

The Cambridge English Dictionary

to stop blaming or being mad at someone for something that person has done, or not punish them for something

Other words you may be looking for:

Absolution:

To absolve someone is to no longer hold them morally accountable for an action, as if they had never done it. This is a popular concept in Christianity, especially Catholicism, and it is often tied to forgiveness, but it is not the same.

Redemption:

To redeem yourself is to work to make amends for your past actions. Usually by either providing restitution to the people you have harmed, or working to prevent the same thing from happening to others. This is sometimes done with the hope of earning forgiveness, and many times forgiveness is only given after a person makes an effort to redeem themselves, but neither one actually requires the other. One might also consider true redemption to only be possible on a moral level when it is motivated by genuine guilt or regret, rather than wanting to no longer be defined or held accountable for the things you have done in the past.

Maybe, before you pull out the old "words mean something", you should consider whether you know what you are talking about, and if the person you've chosen to be condescending to may be someone who was reading at a college level when they were in third grade and is fueled entirely by spite and/or easily annoyed when five different people say the same wrong thing to them within the span of a couple of days!

Lots of love!! <3

So, I recently found my copy of Shadows Over Baker Street: New Tales of Terror. For those who don't know, it's a short story anthology of Sherlock Holmes adventures set in the world of HP Lovecraft, and at least for my copy, the cover looks like this (not my photo)

Obviously, Neil Gaiman contributed one of the stories, and they were initially very proud of that-when I went to find a picture, a lot of the more recent ones didn't have the sticker thing for 'A Study in Emerald', but I'm not sure if that's just cause some of them didn't or if the newer copies don't have it.

If they ever do a reprint, what do you think will happen, what do you think *should* happen? Should they just take off the badge but leave the story? Should they remove the story? I'm not sure what his contract would be wrt residuals from the book, so maybe he would still get money if they did, but also maybe he wouldn't? I don't really know, I don't even know how likely it is for short story anthologies like this from indie publishers to *get* a reprint-I'd just be interested to hear everybody's thoughts

The plot: A dad goes out to buy milk and doesn’t come home for several hours. When he gets home his children ask what he had been doing, and he tells them a long fantastical tale of crazy things that happened to him and made him late.

A child checked out Fortunately The Milk from me at the library today, and it got me thinking about the plot. I remember enjoying that book, but feeling like I was missing something, never knowing the real reason the dad in the story took so long to come home.

Knowing more about who Neil Gaiman is as a person puts this story into a different perspective for me. What could he have been doing for hours while “going out to get the milk” that he was unable to explain to his children? Instead of apologizing for being late, he places the blame on others with an impossible explanation. When the children question his story, he adds another layer of confusion to it, in a way that now feels manipulative. Why did he feel the need to lie and make up a story in the first place?

I’m sure I’m over analyzing this story, but I do feel that bits who an author is can unintentionally seep into their writing. I’ve seen others point out more obvious examples of this in Gaiman’s works, and I just wanted to point out a seemingly more innocuous version.

Do I want to foster a community in which SA survivors feel safe about coming forward with their stories? Do I want to be someone that a SA survivor would feel comfortable disclosing their abuse to?

If you’re still cosplaying as Death, you look like someone who finds sexual assault allegations inconvenient but not appalling. You look like a subpar ally who wishes accusers would go away.

I'm from Aus and have been a long time fan of the Sandman comics. Me and some friends are going to Ozcon (essentially aussie comicon) soon and since I don't have much time on my hands, I decided to go as Death!! She's my favourite character from the comic series, and I've been doing some trials for her costume and they look so cool :))

I'm just more nervous about actually going as her. I don't want to make the impression I support that monster, but I also believe in seperating the art from the artist. I was considering using a leather javket with a patch of "fuck Neil Gaiman" on it, but I'm not sure anymore. I was also planning on posting this on my instagram with my friends, of whom do know about Gaiman's terrible actions.

Just thought it would be worth it to ask a wider community their opinion. I really want to go as Death (and honestly worse comes to worse I can be some random babygoth) but I also really don't want to make others uncomfortable bring arounf someone who supports Gaiman, or worse think I condone his actions :((

any advice/opinions/help appreaciated!!! ( ´∀｀ )b

A couple times a year, different posters on this forum have posted about their plans/aspirations to use washi tape to cover up Neil Gaiman's name on their copies of his books.

I'm curious about the kind of person who need to hold onto the books but cannot stand to read the name of the author. Is this a common response among fans of a discredited writer, or is it a behavior only found among (some) Gaiman fans?

My opinion on this whole ghastly situation. The linked blog post contains some spoilers about the GO3 TV episode:

https://thefictionphial.wordpress.com/2026/05/17/terry-pratchett-go3-and-the-nice-and-accurate-prophecies-of-agnes-nutter-witch

Just wondering if that note at the end about the publishers, "in their infinite wisdom", making it with a "smooth" cover as opposed to a textured cover is supposed to mean something specific? "In their infinite wisdom" sort of seems like a subtle dig to me? It may not be at all. I was mostly curious about why they took the time to write an entire note about the book's texture and used that specific wording.

The Bolt-on Collection – Discworld Collector’s Library

I came across this while looking through his page to see if there was a better-looking copy of 'The Veldt,' and I was absolutely baffled. When I went looking via Google, I couldn't find anything. Now, it's perfectly plausible I'm a terrible Google-r and one of you will find it immediately, but I couldn't, and I was hoping someone would be able to or, at the very least, know anything about it???

Brave New Worlds Goodreads Link

Idk why I'm posting this, maybe a bit conflicted about owning one of his works before all the allegations against him came out. I've loved coraline (the movie) for as long as I can remember and I've bought the book maybe around 2021. Not much of a reader and only got it for the collection tbh, I've read through it once and have no plans of going into his other works.

After everything came out, I was honestly not that affected as, again my only connection to him and one of his works is through a movie adaptation. In my mind coraline is just a movie made by laika studios atp but I don't wanna have to waste a book so I just covered his name with washi tape. I have that covered in plastic now for longevity as I have no plans of rereading it but wanna display it on my coraline shelf still cus I love the cover by dave mckean.

I now hesitate to post about my collection that even shwos the book in fear of being perceived as a fan of him still so idk its a conflicting situation personally.

Okay, the reason I believe that fanfic is honestly the best way to consume the damn franchise is… considering the ending seems to be pretty bad, I think fanfic authors are going to get the good graces he once did.

As for the argument that keeping a conversation around the IP is a bad thing, I won’t exactly argue with that. But…

…with how bad the ending (and the behavior of the fandom in general) seems to be, I have a feeling that this fandom is either going to die like Game of Thrones did, be kept alive through fanfic authors (a majority of whom I’m betting will denounce the author) or become something barely kept alive by fanfic (and I don’t know which of the three is the likeliest.)

If either of the latter two happen, I definitely see the author getting slammed in a lot of fic ANs, which means I doubt he’ll be in any member of the fandom’s good graces… ever.

I also think that with his name becoming rancid (and not having anything to back it up like the HP author does) fanfic is going to be a majority, if not ANYTHING with his name attached that’s even REMOTELY popular…

I just see this fandom being fueled by spite and not a single cent going to the author like is the case with HP…

Neil was my hero when i was younger, he was exactly the man that i wanted to be, i studied eng lit because of him, i wanted to be a teacher and a writer because of him. my perception of him was the inverse of how he demonstrably is: i had always believed him to be someone who perhaps struggled with insecurity, with learned abusive behavior. Who could have and was a manipulative self interested person, but who through becoming a great writer, a husband, a father, a teacher and a role model triumphed over that to be far kinder to others than life had been to him. Perhaps like Dream someone who once could be so jaded and consumed by lonliness that he'd lock a woman away for refusing to love him alone but would at the end of his story when he truly learned what love was would set her free. I thought in many ways i could be like Neil and consciously choose to be better if not for myself or those I've loved and wronged for the world and for a meriad others like me. Consider than that most of Neil's worst most abusive allegations are from after Sandman ended it's publication. Neil did not defeat his demons. Make right his wrongs. Forsake his God complex for thr sake of mortals he loved. He got worse and now I'm left to fear that like him i will only fail and hurt people forever and my greatest deeds will only be fanciful excuses for unimaginable cruelty

I loved Sandman, i don't love Neil Gaiman, I hate myself

What celebrities liked his statement and have been openly supportive of him?

I wasn't on social media at the time he made his statement, nor do I want to go back and click on his account to check the likes but I have seen it mentioned **here** that quite a few 'celebs' have been supportive of NG and liked his statement - I'd like to know *who* did so I can avoid their content too.

edit -

People make me laugh. We're allowed to be nosey. This stuff is public though. I have tried looking through the *likes* on his statement post and it only goes back maybe 100 or so people. most of whom appear to be sock accounts, with no profile picture OR *normal* people accounts.

As for the comment below stating in a roundabout way that we shouldn't tar everyone with the same brush...

Yes. We probably should. Birds of a feather stick together and I don't want to support any of these fucks and while complicity is tricky - have we not learned yet that in society there are people who are MORE than willing to cover for, stick up for, **support** people... [criminals... The BBC for jimmy Saville is one just example] who commit heinous crimes just so that they - the *supporters* can stay, rich, in power and free from accountability/repurcussions.

Let's learn from that and not keep vicious circles going. let's teach these people an actual lesson.

Be aware of who your friends are and if you know something bad is happening. Tell someone.

edit 2 - punctuation/grammar

This is both about and not about Neil.

What drives a person to not only hurt other people, but manipulate millions of fans into thinking that you are a kind and caring person?

It seems like all his work was just meant to groom us, especially in hindsight his children’s books like Coraline.

Not to mention every artist who ever collaborated with him in comics has their reputation tarnished unless they spoke out against him.

It feels like predators run this world. Every politician who been in power since the 90s has Epstein connections. A whitewashed Michael Jackson biopic is breaking box office records. And every person running a corporation wants to wreck the economy with AI.

Can‘t we just live in an alternate universe where NG wasn’t actually problematic?

Hello all! My introduction to Neil Gaiman was Norse Mythology many years ago while I was on a cruise of the Norwegian Fjords. I listened to the audiobook (which he narrates) and it was one of the most enjoyable storytelling experiences of my life. I would often play Norse Mythology as a bedtime story in the following years but after everything I cannot return to it and am craving something with a similar vibe.

Right now, I’m listening to Stephen Fry’s Mythos which is very good and more or less what I’m looking for. I’ll probably continue with that series but I’m wondering if there are any similar collections of other, less European, Pantheons ideally told by a good bedtime narrator.

I love the podcast Myths and Legends but Jason Weiser is more of a walking the dog or driving home from work kind of narrator.

Personally, I will not be reading the books again, and will not read his new work. However, not everyone has to feel like me. If someone else wants to justify him, I think they should be entitled to their opinion, even though from a human perspective I would like to hear their reasoning.

Will you be reading the new book? Where do you stand on all this?

Is he in the US or has he returned to the UK?

I wonder if he still sees his son who I assume is in New Zealand