Before 2002, Quirk Books was a creative studio that would pitch novel ideas to other publishers. Quirk Books was founded as a publishing company in 2002 by David Borgenicht, co-author of
The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook. During its first years of operation, Quirk Books mainly targeted the
gift book category. which led the publishing company to commission more.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children sold more than 9 million copies and spent more than 108 consecutive weeks on the
New York Times Bestseller List for Young Adult fiction. Quirk Books has also licensing agreements with the production companies'
20th Century Fox and Universal to make children's books out of the movies
Home Alone and
Back to the Future. In June 2025, Quirk owner David Borgenicht paused the publishing program, laying off seven members of the recently formed union out of a total of approximately 20 staff members. The layoff included the entire editorial team. He denied that this action was in retaliation, citing the timing of the layoffs, which came days after Quirk Books management voluntarily recognized the union, as "unfortunate coincidences." The previous month, the NewsGuild of Greater Philadelphia had filed an unfair labor practice charge against the company. The allegations included "Coercive Actions (Surveillance, etc)" and "Coercive Statements (Threats, Promises of Benefits, etc)". In October 2025, it was announced that
Andrews McMeel Publishing had acquired Quirk Books. As a result, Quirk Books Union's dissolved; in an October 2025 post on Instagram, the Union wrote, "the positions of all the remaining union members have been eliminated . . . Given the acquisition of the company and the layoffs, Quirk Books Union will no longer exist." ==Publications==