Genre Fiction is a landscape populated with many different species, including subspecies. Authors and publishers need to know the layout because their livelihood depends on it. For genre and subgenre read “readers’ tastes” and for Genre Fiction read “marketplace.”
Fiction authors tend to specialise in a fiction genre and/or closely-related subgenre(s). They serve that marketplace, and publishers too, except for the big beasts which have divisions or imprints for specific genres. Readers know what they like, but many read different genres, depending on their mood. Authors and readers successfully collide in the sweet spot where writers provide genre archetypes and tropes, and readers have their expectations met. The old aphorism from the movie-making world applies here: give me the same but different.
USA Genre Fiction Trends
What are current genre fiction trends in 2024? Here are the takeaways:
Fastest growing is Romance, in particular subgenres Romantic Comedy (rom com) and Romantasy, a fusion of romance and fantasy. The soaring success of the serialized drama Bridgerton, based on the novels by Julia Quinn, has given Regency Romance a boost, reflected by recent charts in Publisher Rocket (link further down). Authors like Emily Henry, Curtis Sittenfield and Annika Martin write popular rom coms, and Sarah J. Maas, Carissa Broadbent and Jennifer L. Armentrout lead the field in Romantasy. Cozy Mystery is gaining popularity, and thrillers, including psychological and police procedurals, are evergreen in fiction trends.
Young Adult Dystopian appears to be falling away. This genre exploded at the turn of the century with The Hunger Games, Noughts and Crosses and The Maze Runner. Now that dystopia has become real for the majority, readers want positive escapism. I predict YA dystopia will be replaced by YA fantasy fae romance-dystopia, like my all-time favourite series, Supernatural Penitentiary.
Take Me to a Happy Place
Review site Book Riot predicts Romantasy will grow strongly this year. Books across the board will be co-authored by humans and AI. Book Riot feels that readers need cheering up after the pandemic and explosion of war and cost-of-living crises. The site also predicts more subgenres and a huge moment for paranormal and time-travel romance.
“People are wanting more escapism, out-of-this-world energy in romance.”
Book Riot contributor Julia Rittenberg
The Machines are Coming
Technology has a growing influence in the publishing business. AI-assisted books are increasingly present. With more powerful writing apps for authors, it is possible to turn out a genre novel in a day. Functions for producing marketing content like videos, mood boards, social media promotions and apps to create covers are on tap. For readers, review sites, platforms like Tik Tok and huge online libraries like goodreads, drive sales . A crucial choice for authors is how to divide their time and energy between writing and promoting.
Authors have valuable resources like Kindlepreneur, the USA’s leading site on all things Amazon. Kindlepreneur monitors the zon continually for authors. Publisher Rocket is an essential tool for authors and publishers for book placement on the Kindle platform. Another essential resource is K-Lytics which analyses trends and produces reports.
Genre Fiction Trends in the UK and Europe
The surge in the popularity of certain fiction genres has impacted classic authors too. Consequently, familiar icon author names are enjoying a boost. Genre tastes over this side of the pond largely reflect those of the USA. In Europe translations of big-name authors also do well. Particularly in the UK, cozy mysteries and crime thrillers are continually popular. Romantasy exploded in the UK with the release of Rebecca Yarros’ The Empyrean series. In Romance, Lessons in Chemistry (Bonnie Garmus) has been described not so much rom com, more of a tragicomedy and it topped the sellers’ charts for weeks.
I wrote a rom com which is still one of my favourites and it’s a time-travel, too. You can find it here, Twin Flames . I predict the return of fantasy adventure quests in the style of Indiana Jones. I wrote one of those: Tomb of the Ruby Heart
Conclusion
Successful authors and publishers need to keep an eye out on emerging trends and tweak their product accordingly. That said, there is always (as Donald Maass put it) the “break-out” novel. The days of spending a decade writing the perfect novel with legions of editors at your disposal are over, unless a writer has A Room of One’s Own (Virginia Woolf). Quantity is at least as important as quality these days. Remember that organic brains are competing with AI which can produce a novel in the blink of an electronic eye. As my YA dystopian novel Far Out predicts, humans will be riding bikes to generate power to run the servers. Fiction authors, don’t let fear put you off, keep writing!
References
Credits
Thanks to the mighty Picjumbo for the header image.
Recent Comments