10/05/2026
It’s , which means it’s the perfect time to dispel common myths and misconceptions about the prevalence and impacts of book bans across the United States.
Here are five common myths about book banning that everyone should know the truth about.
❌ “Authors sell more books after being banned”
✅ Not only do book bans tend to decrease an author’s sales, particularly library sales, but they also typically cause an author to lose out on valuable opportunities to connect with readers — such as school visits, book tours, festival appearances, or other public speaking engagements — decreasing their income and their ability to promote and sell their books.
❌ “If you can still buy a book, it’s not really banned”
✅ Book bans render titles inaccessible to local communities across cities, districts, and states. Purchasing a book for one’s private collection does not negate or neutralize the impacts of a book ban, nor increase its accessibility to the public.
❌ “Book bans ‘only’ impact school libraries”
✅ Almost half of book challenges/bans are directed at public libraries. Additionally, with the introduction of amendments such as Arkansas Act 372, librarians AND booksellers can potentially be criminally charged for “providing harmful materials to minors”.
❌ “Book bans don’t have significant economic impacts”
✅ Book bans remove taxpayer-bought titles from shelves, and if they have to go through a review committee, all members of the community are required to have access to a copy for review. Adding in the human cost of public servants’ salaried time being spent on reviewing challenged books, this can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year — if not much more.
❌ “Book bans happen slowly”
✅ Starting in 2022, 90% of book banning attempts were aimed at banning multiple titles at once, with 40% involving challenges to 100 or more books at one time. Book bans can happen quickly and in high volumes, which means our efforts to fight back against them should be just as urgent.
Follow these orgs/groups for more:
☑️ Ad Astra
☑️ American Booksellers for Free Expression
☑️ American Library Association
☑️ Authors Against Book Bans
☑️ Authors Guild
☑️ EveryLibrary
☑️ Florida Freedom to Read Project
☑️ Freedom to Read Foundation
☑️ Massachusetts Freedom to Read
☑️ National Coalition Against Censorship
☑️ PENAmerica
☑️ Publishing Professionals Against Book Bans
☑️ Texas Freedom to Read Project
☑️ Unite Against Book Bans
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