I know this might come as a shock to some of you, but trends change.
Whaaaaaaaaaattttttttt???
I know, it is early in the morning and I am trying to be Captain Obvious. The point is, a trend is just that. Something that comes in, hangs around for a while and then disappears. (Kind of like a great character in a romance novel).
Publisher and agents are always out there trying to figure out what the next trend is. Between the editors and agents, the editors really have the harder time at this because they have to put their money where their mouth is. For agents, we are often a couple of steps behind them. For us, we might not put our money out there, but we are putting in a lot of time on projects that may or may not sell.
So, what are we looking for?
We are watching society around us. We are watching sales of books. We are watching what people are putting out there on the bookshelves. We are still guessing. We tend to know a trend is on the verge of ending or slowing when we see both a combination of a flood on the market, followed by what seems a trend of everything looking or sounding alike, to a subtle shift in sales and what editors are buying. For this last point, if you see a trend where they are leaning more on their established authors for releases, this might be a hint.
At a conference over the summer, I remember sitting on a panel an we were asked the traditional question of what we thought were trends. I stated that I truly believed Romantasy was already dying out. There was a gasp. How could it be! But if you watched, following Sarah J. Maas and her incredible success with her series, suddenly everyone ran to their closets and spiced up those dragon stories (or something similar). The market was flooded.
And then that group of readers realized "seen it, done it" and moved on to Dark Romances.
One of my authors recently stumbled upon an article that was a bit disappointing for her. Historicals were slowing down... gasp!
But come on, now that I have pointed this out to you, it should not be a shock. When Bridgerton hit, and the public was ready for Quinn's series, (which by the way was already out YEARS earlier), the historical market went wild. Did you pay attention to the movies showing up on Netflix, HBO, and Prime? The market was flooded.
Now, does it mean these books will not sell. Absolutely not. As my author noted, it is time to just reshape what we are doing and stick to it. Good job!
The key is to find a way to recraft something. It isn't that the editors and agents are going to say, "Ewwww, another historical." They still love these stories (at least those editors who have always read and loved the stories). They will just be looking for something new. Give us a new spin.
So, if you want my thoughts, here is where I think we are heading to...
Contemporary romance stories are still going to be there, but I think these are going to be more in the line of a "real world feel" and more of something reading like a women's fiction story. These will still be romances but less of the rom-con feel like we are seeing now. Personally, I think the sports stories are gone or will be soon.
Historicals are still going to be there, but I do think that we are going to see some shifts to different time periods. I am still going to stick to the WWII eras. I am thinking these are going to give people more of a feel like we see with stories such as the new Tom Hanks movie and Young Woman and the Sea. Think that feel, but make it a romance.
Suspense and Thriller are going to take a shift from the "damsel in distress" to more of a feel like we see in something like Citadel.
Paranorma? Who knows....
Women's Fiction - I think these are going to be less about "drama" and "crisis" but more of stories about reflection. I think people are going to go in a different direction then feeling bad after reading a book.
Enjoy!
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