Trends in books and other entertainment.

Status
Not open for further replies.

Christyp

Lizard Lady
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 10, 2010
Messages
537
Reaction score
42
Location
STL, Baby. Go CARDS!!!
Okay, I'm more coherent today and less frustrated by my muddle search for places to sub my UF.

My husband and I recently had a discussion about the newest trend on tv moving to witches. Just like everything else trends tend to move. Everyone loved shifters, then vampires, on to zombies, and now the big thing is witches. Anyone want to guess at what will be the most popular "creatures" in books/tv/movies?

Erotica is extremely popular in books right now as is YA. Do you think the erotica will fizzle or is it here to stay? I will always love paranormal of every kind, and will read erotica as long as the story is strong, but I have a hard time reading most YA. What kind I say, I like my characters to be in my age group. :tongue
 

Wanderingauthor

Banned
Flounced
Joined
Oct 14, 2013
Messages
19
Reaction score
0
I have a samurai novel coming out in paperback about a month before the "47 Ronin" movie comes out. I'm desperately hoping samurai will take off as a trend! Movies can be quite influential in that respect.
 

Christyp

Lizard Lady
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 10, 2010
Messages
537
Reaction score
42
Location
STL, Baby. Go CARDS!!!
Don't follow trends. Start them.

Eh, I never follow trends. I was into vampires when my friends were reading Nancy Drew. lol I'm not real big into witches, but I've always loved zombies and other monsters. I'm just curious as to what society will decide is the "next big thing". ;)
 

KimJo

Outside the box, with the werewolves
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 17, 2005
Messages
4,028
Reaction score
356
Location
somewhere in Massachusetts
Website
karennacolcroft.com
I don't think anyone can predict the "next big thing". I doubt anyone would have guessed that Twil... you know the book I mean, would have become absolutely ginormous. Vampires became a trend at least in part because of that series.

The problem with writing to trends in some cases is that by the time *your* trendy book is written and published, the trend may have passed. Everyone jumps on the trend, and then there are so many projects that meet that trend, that it isn't trendy anymore. If that makes any sense.

Trends toward certain *categories* are not the same as trends about certain types of creatures, sub-genres, etc. Erotic romance and erotica are popular in part because of that 50 something book, in part because e-readers make it easier for people to read those books without worrying about what their neighbors might think, and in part because... who knows? YA fiction is popular, in my opinion, not only because teenagers like to read about people like them, but because adults want to relive the simpler times. I write both erotic romance and YA (different pen names; see my sig). The bulk of my YA readership is cross-over from the erotic romance; the adults who read my ER want to read YA because they like remembering their own teen years, or because they want to see better teen years than their own. At least that's what my readers tell me.

That isn't necessarily the case for everyone, of course.

Those are trendy categories right now, and I don't necessarily see that changing. People are always going to have sex and look for true love, so are likely always going to want to read about people having sex and looking for true love. Unless some massive apocalypse hits, there will always be teenagers, and therefore there will always be those who want to read about them.

Within those categories, however, and of course the other categories that exist, there are more specific trends. Vampires. Werewolves. Witches. Dystopias. etc. Those trends are likely to not be as long-lasting. There might always be people who will want to read erotic romance, but not all of those people will always want to read about werewolves. There might always be people who want to read about teenagers, but not all of them will always want to read about teenagers in a dystopian society where they have to fight to survive.

This post may be tl:dr for some, but what it boils down to is: Topic trends might be fleeting. Category trends, not so much. Don't write to a trend. Write what's in your head and heart, and, as Neurofizz said, start your own trend.
 

Christyp

Lizard Lady
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 10, 2010
Messages
537
Reaction score
42
Location
STL, Baby. Go CARDS!!!
I used to enjoy writing about vampire, but they became the "thing". Couldn't stand the thought of adding another to that pile. lol I don't generally write about any specific creatures, rather what ever tickles my fancy at the time.
 

jjdebenedictis

is watching you via her avatar
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
7,063
Reaction score
1,642
I don't think anyone can predict the "next big thing". I doubt anyone would have guessed that Twil... you know the book I mean, would have become absolutely ginormous. Vampires became a trend at least in part because of that series.
Eh, vampires became a larger trend because of Twilight.

Prior to Twilight, however, literary agents who repped urban fantasy were moaning about how vampires were dead--done--overdone.

The sub-genre had been glutted with sexy-vampire-boyfriends for a good ten years already, thanks to Anne Rice and later, Laurell K Hamilton.
 

Christyp

Lizard Lady
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 10, 2010
Messages
537
Reaction score
42
Location
STL, Baby. Go CARDS!!!
Eh, vampires became a larger trend because of Twilight.

Prior to Twilight, however, literary agents who repped urban fantasy were moaning about how vampires were dead--done--overdone.

The sub-genre had been glutted with sexy-vampire-boyfriends for a good ten years already, thanks to Anne Rice and later, Laurell K Hamilton.

You know, we could have been friends. But, since you decided to put Anne Rice in the same sentence as LKH...this love affair is over.
 

milkweed

Abuses commas at will.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 2, 2013
Messages
2,119
Reaction score
151
Location
Somewhere between here and there
Hmmm what about aliens and droids, altered realities has been done with the Matrix, etc.

Witches, I can see that with Harry Potter and the Once Upon a Time series on ABC.
 

jjdebenedictis

is watching you via her avatar
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
7,063
Reaction score
1,642
You know, we could have been friends. But, since you decided to put Anne Rice in the same sentence as LKH...this love affair is over.
Does the following sentence help make things better?

Anne Rice's books are way better than Laurell K Hamilton's (imo).
 

Canton

A tethered mind
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 3, 2013
Messages
448
Reaction score
94
Location
Right here
When I think about trends I can visualize it better with toys. The brandnames of Transformers or Power Rangers made huge successes on toystore shelves. But then off-brand types such as mega rangers were soon occupying toy shelves, as if to ride the coattails of other successes. I agree with another poster in this threat. Start trends. Don't follow them.

I'm just curious as to what society will decide is the "next big thing".

And I do realize the original post was born out of pure curiosity. I guess what I'm trying to say is some people like certain books like some people like toys.
 
Last edited:

Shara

Fix it in the Rewrite
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 16, 2006
Messages
1,388
Reaction score
116
Location
London, UK
If you try and write to publishing trends, you'll go barmy.

Publishers are out to make money, like any other business. It seems to me that if one book becomes a mega-best seller, if someone finds something in the slush pile that's very similar to that mega-best seller, it may well get picked up in the hope that it will also make money.

If you happen to be the person that wrote the best-selling book, then kudos to you.

For the rest of us, though, I think we should write what we want to write. The depressing reality is that most of us will never get rich from our writing.

But since trends in publishing can't be predicted, there's no point in trying to second-guess them. Consider also that it takes at least a year - often longer - for a book to go from acceptance to publication. By which point the trend may have died.

Just write what you want to write, and keep submitting.

Shara
 

lemonhead

Life isn't all beer and skittles.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 24, 2008
Messages
944
Reaction score
130
Location
The water.
Website
www.sarahnicolelemon.com
I was *just* browsing for a thread like this. I am querying a "high concept" book I kind of thought agents would jump on. And hearing the crickets is making me worried I somehow missed some sort of plain/drug dealer trend a few years back. I even had a dream last night that some agent finally wrote back to me and was like "even though this concept was huge like four years ago, I'm kind of interested in seeing if you did anything new to this super dead genre" and I woke in a cold sweat. lol.

I have no idea what the next trend will be....but chances are, whatever you start now will be more trendy than you realize in four years (ehem, thank you breaking bad/amish mafia...NOT).
 

itsmary

have faith, restart
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 24, 2012
Messages
298
Reaction score
12
Location
Mississippi
Contemporary is supposed to be the next big trend in YA.

Have you researched agents or publishers who rep UF yet?
 

Filigree

Mildly Disturbing
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 16, 2010
Messages
16,441
Reaction score
1,529
Location
between rising apes and falling angels
Website
www.cranehanabooks.com
Does the following sentence help make things better?

Anne Rice's books are way better than Laurell K Hamilton's (imo).

I'll stick with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, as far as brilliant vampire novels. But I'm weird

Derail over, I'd be nervous at trying to follow any trend in tv or movies - by the time trends percolate to that level, they are often played-out in publishing.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.