I didn't know Beautiful Creatures was a goth-type story. I'll have to give it a look.
The next big thing
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I didn't know Beautiful Creatures was a goth-type story. I'll have to give it a look.
BEAUTIFUL CREATURES has a lot of the traits of Gothic lit--family secrets, family curses, hidden passages, creepy old house, recluses, supernaturalism, damsel-in-distress, femme fatale, dark atmosphere, etc. But it's also decidedly Southern, so it's not going to be Gothic so much in the British sense but the American sense. I really enjoyed it.
I'm hoping sci-fi is the next thing because, well, the book (that's in a series) im trying to publish is sci-fi/romance/humor/it's hard to put one genre on it 
I'm hoping epic fantasy is the next big thing. I'm writing the first book of a series right now where the characters are in their late teens. I feel it fits as YA, but I'm not sure. A lot of adult epic fantasy has teenage characters, or characters even younger.
how would you describe your epic fantasy? just because I know a lot of people consider the vampire realm to be fantasy
Vampires are fantasy, usually Urban Fantasy in the current market.
Epic fantasy is more like sword and sorcery type stories. New beings, new worlds, quests, etc.
Epic fantasy is more like sword and sorcery type stories. New beings, new worlds, quests, etc.
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Oh, to the genre confusion: aren't superpowers and/or psi abilities Sci-Fi, not Paranormal? I've seen a few books about telepaths in secret labs and such labeled as YA Paranormal. I mean, yes, ESP *is* paranormal, but I thought YA Paranormal as a term was meant to lean towards Urban Fantasy.
It sounds absolutely fascinating, and also a little chaotic, as I guess every business related to creativity is. I can see the beginning of the Sci-Fi wave, though, and more thrillers are slated for release already. I wonder how much time will pass before all those paranormal romances will sell again. Though maybe established authors still sell them, even if it's not a hot trend, they can't just up and disappear from the market, right.
It can go either way, technically. Yes, the fantasy-based paranormal has come to dominate what we think of as that genre, but technically science fiction that revolves around events or naturally occurring phenomena or people rather than technology or aliens could be considered paranormal.
It's a fine line, and a subjective one, but from my understanding a story about scientists genetically engineering babies in a lab to have superpowers would be considered sci-fi, while a story about scientists collecting children who showed evidence of having psychic or superhuman abilities to study them would be considered paranormal.
Basically, paranormal sci fi would be the 'beyond normal, but occurring without human instigation'.
The genre label question is an odd one. I've sat on panels where adult authors adamantly declare X is PR whereas Y is UF. The line between paranormal romance and urban fantasy is, quite bluntly, arbitrarily drawn by Sales & Marketing based upon which imprint they decide to put the book under and/or where they want it shelved in a a store.
I think the same is true of "dystopian" vs SF, or paranormal vs SF. Within the SFF community, the terms are a topic of debate but the average reader doesn't care what genre label a publisher assigns it--nor, often, do editors or agents. There are agents/editors/imprints who specialize in SFF, & in those cases, the label matters more. OTOH, my agent--who also reps the lovely Neil Gaiman & a plethora of folks who write things that fall under the SFF--would simply refer to my books as "fantasy." My YA editor (who edits Sir Terry Pratchett) would use the same word. My adult editor actually calls my books "fiction." The point is that the genre distinctions that I fussed over initially have turned out not to matter so much, esp in YA.
When I hear the buzz on YA trends, I hear "soft SF" and "more traditional fantasy" discussed. Softer SF has been creeping in under the loose umbrella of "dystopian," & it seems to be dividing out/coming out from under the umbrella.
I don't think people mean that a sub genre will die when they talk about the next trend. More often it means that newer authors have a harder time selling something that publishers would've fought over at the height oft he trend. It also means that promo coverage is easier to get when you hit mid-trend. Publicists always pitch articles, but if a book is one the 547 read-alikes, it's harder to get those articles, displays, & bigger marketing. It's also harder to sell foreign or film rights.
That said, there are still going to be books that are under that general genre label that jump forward in attention.
I think the same is true of "dystopian" vs SF, or paranormal vs SF. Within the SFF community, the terms are a topic of debate but the average reader doesn't care what genre label a publisher assigns it--nor, often, do editors or agents. There are agents/editors/imprints who specialize in SFF, & in those cases, the label matters more. OTOH, my agent--who also reps the lovely Neil Gaiman & a plethora of folks who write things that fall under the SFF--would simply refer to my books as "fantasy." My YA editor (who edits Sir Terry Pratchett) would use the same word. My adult editor actually calls my books "fiction." The point is that the genre distinctions that I fussed over initially have turned out not to matter so much, esp in YA.
When I hear the buzz on YA trends, I hear "soft SF" and "more traditional fantasy" discussed. Softer SF has been creeping in under the loose umbrella of "dystopian," & it seems to be dividing out/coming out from under the umbrella.
I don't think people mean that a sub genre will die when they talk about the next trend. More often it means that newer authors have a harder time selling something that publishers would've fought over at the height oft he trend. It also means that promo coverage is easier to get when you hit mid-trend. Publicists always pitch articles, but if a book is one the 547 read-alikes, it's harder to get those articles, displays, & bigger marketing. It's also harder to sell foreign or film rights.
That said, there are still going to be books that are under that general genre label that jump forward in attention.
YA erotica was mentioned here before and kind of dismissed, but I think we are going to start to see YA erotica in the coming years thanks to 50 Shades. Only Publishers are going to get away with it, because they won't call it YA erotica.
See, what I think will happen more and more is that YA authors will come out with erotica stories, labelled 'adult,' based in their YA universes. Some pubs are already acquiring such books. It's an attempt to cash in on 50 shades as well as the cross-over quality that some YA have (adults AND children are reading them) without having to create a new world so there's that pre-built audience in there. It's selling erotica to adult fans of YA but also, because it's YA, to the teen fans as well. From a marketing standpoint, if the story is set in the same universe as a book they know and love, that increases the chances of that younger age group buying it, especially since it's not like the cover will come with a stamp that says: ADULT EROTICA ONLY READ IF YOU'RE 18 +. Which means you've not only got money from the adult fans, but you've got profits from the younger fans too. Marketing erotica to teens by association. More profit all around. Come on, let's get our 12 year old fans reading hot BDSM sex scenes featuring our characters, who were ALREADY sold to them as being part of a Young Adult world (which is how they originally appealed to said 12 year olds in the first place) because 50 Shades of Grey is turning massive profits! Oh, but no, it's actually an adult novel! We're labelling it adult as a safety precaution, so we don't have to be held accountable for what we're actually doing, which is far far creepier and unethical.
As you can tell, I'm not a fan of this and I don't care who knows it. We're going to be seeing more of this - books labelled 'adult' with lots of explicit S+M 50 Shades sex but set in originally YA universes (yes, we've seen this before, but we're going to see more of it, and in YA universes that are fresh in young people's minds). Nevermind the fact that it's basically seeing authors write NC-17 fanfic of their own books. Like, hey kids, it's me Suzanne Collins. I've come out with a NEW book writing about how Joe X and Jill Y survive in District 12 at the time of Katniss's Hunger Games. It's basically them just having tons and tons of sex. I don't expect you to read it, of course, even though I'm using the same name I used to originally sell you this YA universe, which you now already love and are a huge fan of. And since it's set in the same world, there might be little tie-ins with the characters you know and love so that's actually more incentive for you to read it, but you won't because in the press-release (and the press release alone) my publisher will specify that this is an 'Adult' book which implies (but doesn't explicitly state) that kids really shouldn't be reading this. Problem solved!
I understand the desire to make profit, but we really need to rethink this whole culture of making profit at the expense of ethics. I mean yeah some people might say 'well it's not like teens don't know about sex.' But when you're basically using semantics to justify your making money off of writing erotica for eleven year-olds and their moms, then there's something very wrong with the industry.
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@Roly I agree for the most part. If you write YA and then pen erotica based in your YA world, it's essentially YA erotica. And for the author in question, the publishers have no doubt that her YA audience is going to read the erotica.
It's just very transparent. Imagine if JK Put out an erotica trilogy set at hogwarts?
And I don't actually have a problem with the idea. Sure, write erotic fanfics of your own books (???) but the claim that this *isn't* meant to be read by YA readers is just really insulting to my intelligence. Also, there are probably a lot of authors who would write something like this and immediately get turned away because "YA Erotica" is a big no-no. Except when it's not.
It's just very transparent. Imagine if JK Put out an erotica trilogy set at hogwarts?
And I don't actually have a problem with the idea. Sure, write erotic fanfics of your own books (???) but the claim that this *isn't* meant to be read by YA readers is just really insulting to my intelligence. Also, there are probably a lot of authors who would write something like this and immediately get turned away because "YA Erotica" is a big no-no. Except when it's not.
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I was browsing through the future releases on goodreads yesterday and noticed lots of stuff called "sci-fi thriller" now--whereas, like, in 2009 they'd be called "paranormal". Especially books about psi powers and such.
"Fiction" is interesting, is it because of the issues raised? A literary flair? Or because that editor doesn't deal with SFF so much?
I wonder which one used to be a tighter niche.
At least before dystopia started paving the road for SF. So it seems one has to be at the front--or come right after the big wave went down a little, but the heat is still on, so the book won't get lost?
Well, it looks like a YA author Andrea Cremer just inked a three book deal for a trilogy of erotica books. I'm not familiar with her but the erotica books will be set in the SAME universe as her werewolf YA series but will feature the adult characters. So, you just know the young fans of her Nightshade series will check these out too.
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Wow, Roly is a prophet.
The deal was announced a couple of days ago. I'm pretty sure that's what spurned Roly's rant.
I loved R.L. Stine's Fear Street series and the Scream movies as a teen so I was really excited to read about Stephanie Perkins' new book deal this morning. It would be fun to see teen slashers get popular again.
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There's been buzz about mermaids, but I've been seeing agents tweeting for months that they don't want them. 
At this point, I don't think we're going to know until it's here. And it'll probably come out of nowhere when a book the slid under the radar explodes in popularity. I mean, I certainly hope it's non-dystopian, non-post apocalyptic science fiction or epic fantasy, but for all I know it could be killer penguins.
At this point, I don't think we're going to know until it's here. And it'll probably come out of nowhere when a book the slid under the radar explodes in popularity. I mean, I certainly hope it's non-dystopian, non-post apocalyptic science fiction or epic fantasy, but for all I know it could be killer penguins.
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I do see more Sci-Fi/Thriller stuff when I look at the new/upcoming releases, though. And I can't say there's lots of Steampunk.
To be inevitably followed by a slew of derivative works featuring killer puffins, killer auks, killer albatrosses, blah, blah, blah...
Right now, steampunk's being used as a flavor or add on rather than a focus. I think publishers may be testing the waters to see if there's wide enough appeal to warrant marketing it as the center of a story.
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I wonder if STORMDANCER gets as much promotion as it seems to get. From the buzz I heard, it seemed like a dreadnought of the steampunk army for its autumn march.
I dunno, my money's still on distopian for some reason. The end of the world variety or aftermath thereof.
tri
tri
Yes, but dystopian can hardly be considered the next big thing when it just got done being the most recent big thing. Now if you mean apocalyptic or doomsday stories are the next big thing, that's different. And you never know, entirely possible.