I just renewed my PM account, and I'm so excited for all the sci fi that seems to be selling lately. It's a genre I love to read, but am super intimidated to explore.
The next big thing
- Thread starter Windcutter
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I've heard mermaids are the next up-and-coming thing. Anyone know? I know they are making a movie out of the book Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale.
Also, how long to these fads (sorry if I misspelled) last? I just finished the first draft of a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, have an idea for a retelling of The Little Mermaid and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I don't want to miss the boat!
Also, how long to these fads (sorry if I misspelled) last? I just finished the first draft of a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, have an idea for a retelling of The Little Mermaid and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I don't want to miss the boat!
Mermaids were supposed to be the next big thing like, two years ago. It never really took off.
You can't accurately estimate how long a trend will last, but I advise you not to worry about trends overmuch (unless you're writing about vampires), because chances are you will miss them, even if your ms is polished to a sparkle and ready to sell now. Like, even if mermaids were a trend right now, those books were likely sold two years ago. So, your book likely be published in that same time frame of two years, and so you'd miss out on the tend. Don't worry about writing to trends, just worry about writing to a good story.
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In that case, how do trends come about? Did editors start looking for vampires when Twilight took off? Or did the usual proportions of vampires, magicians, fairies, and regular humans already exist on the bookshelves and everyone rushed for the vampires because they'd loved Twilight so much?
How do trends come about? I don't know. *shrug* ETA: What I posted above was really just what I gathered from reading agent and publishing blogs. I'm no expert on the subject.
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From the Bologna Book Fair threadI feel like fairytales are the current big thing. Considering the movies and television shows of late, and all the novels (not just CINDER). It's not some trend coming our way, we're living it baby!
You were right!
Both.
There's the usual unintended pile-up of a certain kind of book that always seems to happen. Then, when a book starts to make an unusual impact on the market, publishers start wanting/searching for more of that sort of book, specifically.
On it own, the vampire trend might have yielded, say, 20 new vampire novels across the board. But with a phenomenon among the genre, it yielded hundreds.
The "micro-trend" of mermaids is what happens when someone tries to anticipate a trend.
Rather than have the usual accidental pile-up, this one had help. There were a few people already writing their mermaid stories, of course, but then, S. Meyer said she wanted to write a darkish mermaid book. Knowing that anything she put on shelves was going to be an instant mega-seller, mermaids became instantly buzzy - only, she didn't write a mermaid book. She wrote sci-fi.
sarahdalton
Banned
I'm getting a vibe that regular Sci-Fi might break through. All we need is one decent Alien romance and I think it could explode.
Perhaps when Stephanie Meyer's Host movie comes out? I know it's not the best-case scenerio, but it might work for that genre.
I would love for sci-fi to be the next big trend, but I fear that there will be a wave of books that use sci-fi as a poorly constructed background to support a romance.
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Or as a code word for "paranormal which was tinkered with a bit and glossed over with a sheen of pseudoscientific words" xd/
Ooh, wait for it, sparkly aliens! Sparkly... shape-shifting... blood-sucking aliens! Yes!
"I've seen things you wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near Tannhauser Gate. But all I care about now is to hold you in my arms, Jane Average."
Well, that just goes to show you how far I am behind the times. My agent has one of those out now for me. I'll cross everything to see it come to realization.
tri
The next big thing is edgy romance and will be brought on by people chasing success after Fifty Shades of Gray.
I'd love if it was realistic fiction or sci-fi, since I'm working on books in both genres. I doubt it, though. Sci-fi seems less likely because space travel just isn't on kids radars these days and they are basically living with many of the tropes we saw as fantastical as kids.
I'd love if it was realistic fiction or sci-fi, since I'm working on books in both genres. I doubt it, though. Sci-fi seems less likely because space travel just isn't on kids radars these days and they are basically living with many of the tropes we saw as fantastical as kids.
The next big thing is edgy romance and will be brought on by people chasing success after Fifty Shades of Gray.
I think this might be correct for a very short, flaming stint. I saw an article or some such in PM about classics going XXX to cash in on 50s coattails. Like Holmes and Watson portrayed as a gay couple, and many other classics about to get the fan-fic dressing over, retrofit. Total-E-bound was one of the publishers going full swing into this. Dunno, seems like it would be a very quick burnout though.
tri
I think this might be correct for a very short, flaming stint. I saw an article or some such in PM about classics going XXX to cash in on 50s coattails. Like Holmes and Watson portrayed as a gay couple, and many other classics about to get the fan-fic dressing over, retrofit. Total-E-bound was one of the publishers going full swing into this. Dunno, seems like it would be a very quick burnout though.
tri
Well, I think the big thing is that romance and erotic writers feel empowered by the hoopla over 50 Shades and will pursue getting signed more. I also think pubs will be looking to capture the wave.
Still, I'm a bit more optimistic that some worthwhile books will get picked up that may have been ignored before.
Still, I'm a bit more optimistic that some worthwhile books will get picked up that may have been ignored before.
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Oh God... *coffee on keyboard*
Probably.
I must say though that I prefer my sci-fi about people, not technobabble. More like Ray Bradbury-- not new but timeless...
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But he had an endless stream of wonderful imagination--which can't really be said about the swarm of YA paranormals that are now going to mimic as Sci-Fi once/if it takes off. I mean, I won't miss technobabble if it isn't there. But I'll miss the cool Sci-Fi ideas. It's like with this YA Sci-Fi I read recently. It was long for YA, maybe around 90k. Yet if you took the Sci-Fi element out and omitted all the bland romance and whatever, you'd have a hole-y and tired Sci-Fi short story. Same with lots of YA paranormal--the special thrill of powered-up imagination just isn't there. Vampires are rich boys next door.
Off before I get my own soapbox and paint it, too.
Yess. This. Probably I shouldn't be snickering here but writing this with a firestorm under my butt, lol.
Or not.
Another thing about Sci-Fi. Saw a blog post by an agent, can't find the link now. Maybe someone else saw it, too. It said something along the lines of "funny how people keep saying Sci-Fi's gonna take off any moment now, but I can't say I'm seeing a wave, just some random important deals, maybe it's going to do down before it had a real chance to fly." This is not a quote by any means, more like a retelling.
I don't think it'll be full-blown (ugh, that's not a pun) erotica, but I do think you will see more sexual content and writers and publishers trying to capture a large audience by using something that looks similar to 50.
Oh yeah, anyone looking to capture 'the next big thing' would be smart to look into writing non-fiction for the YA audience. Many school districts and states are moving to the Common Core Standards. These call for higher lexiles for the books students read, and also calls for a lot more non-fiction work from ELA and Literature teachers.
Anyone who has an idea for non-fiction works might want to start looking into them now. I don't know if agents and publishers are up on this yet, so they might not be looking for non-fiction yet, but it is coming.
Anyone who has an idea for non-fiction works might want to start looking into them now. I don't know if agents and publishers are up on this yet, so they might not be looking for non-fiction yet, but it is coming.
Maybe schools want more of it, but I very much doubt non-fiction would become a trend in the same way as vampires and werewolves.