Trends. Some people cringe, some people fist-bump when they hear this word. It's essential to the publishing biz and it also affects how a lot of us buy our books! Jackson Pearce, who's liveshow I attend (and YOU should to on Wednesday at 8EST), made the topic Trending this week and we had a pretty in-depth discussion on how exactly this works. I've made up my theory that there's always a catalyst for every trend, and here i'm about to name a few:
Harry Potter: After this? DOZENS of wizarding books and books about magic and crazy stuff like that. This went totally viral, and as a result, shifted the entire industry into everyone looking for something to be the next Harry Potter. Of course, nothing got more popular! (Off topic but, OMG 7 DAYS UNTIL HARRY POTTER)
Twilight: Yeah, I know you'll start cringing. We all have a love/hate relationship with this book, but the point of it all is, it opened the door for YA. Sure it didn't set a very good example for what YA is all about, but now, there are so many paranormal romance books out there. Whether it's vamps, witches, werewolves, faeries, or...kraken (nope, not Kraken), it mostly resulted from the Twilight explosion.
(A little smaller than the other two but HUGE nonetheless) Hunger Games: This one is the most recent but you can't tell me you haven't noticed a HUGE mass of Dystopians since this came out? Matched, Birthmarked, Delirium....the list goes beyond! We're in the middle of this trend right now, and it's gonna be going strong for a little while longer. And I surely don't mind, who doesn't love dystopian?
Sometimes, trends can be a bad thing. While I love awesome vampire books like Vampire Academy and Blue Bloods, there are SO many vampire books out there that it just makes your head spin. Paranormal is all starting to blend together, with few standing out (There some do. Examples: Firelight, Angelfire, The Replacement, Nightshade, etc.. etc..) The wonderful thing about dystopian is that it can go in so many different directions, so I think they're good for a while.
Now, my fellow readers, I want to hear from you. I want you, to tell me what you think the next trend will be. I have my bets on Contemporary as a whole genre, especially with all the awesome ones coming out. Also, High Fantasy is gonna return from after Graceling, or at least I think so.
But what do YOU think?
Happy Reading!
-Harmony
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