Popularity of Different Genres

OnlyStones · Feb 2, 2012

Toothpaste said:
Why thank you .

Also what you say about it being a chore to do research is my point. For you it's a lot of work and you don't enjoy it. But for some they absolutely LOVE research, sometimes to the point where they prefer research over writing. You find it easy to determine the first inter-galactic emissary etc etc, but for me I'd find it tedious having to create that history in the first place.

Things are fun/easy for certain people and unpleasant/hard for others. I find writing for children, and getting inside their heads really effortless, others think I'm some kind of wizard to be able to do it. I loathe fantasy world building and find it really difficult to do, so I beyond admire people who can create such complex and believable universes. We all have strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes we seek out those genres etc that play to that which we find easier, other times we challenge ourselves by choosing the ones that don't. But to say there is a universally easier kind of genre is going down a dangerous path. Is my point.

Fraid it's a bit more complicated than that. I did say research was a chore but, I didn't say I didn't like doing chores. Research, as difficult and time consuming as it is, is one of my favorite things. I love digging down into something until my frontal lobes hurt. Fun doesn't necessarily mean easy.

Now, that said, I find it infinitely more challenging and rewarding to tell a story in historical fiction than in fantasy. Its like to trying to build a sky scraper in a grocery store parking lot versus attempting the same feat on a twenty-acre property. It's a difficult task either way, and both are great accomplishments, but the working space is quite a bit tighter in one. I like that challenge.

LindaJeanne · Feb 2, 2012

OnlyStones said:
Now, that said, I find it infinitely more challenging and rewarding to tell a story in historical fiction than in fantasy. Its like to trying to build a sky scraper in a grocery store parking lot versus attempting the same feat on a twenty-acre property. It's a difficult task either way, and both are great accomplishments, but the working space is quite a bit tighter in one. I like that challenge.

On the other hand, that only requires researching how things actually were, and only in that one time and place.

To realistically depict how things could have happened differently -- things being developed at different times relative to each other -- requires deeper and broader research to try to understand the connections and cause-and-effect between different developments, to try to reverse-engineer a different progression. Also to see the different ways things developed in different places and times, to have as many working examples as possible.

The challenges are different, but I don't think one can make a broad genre-based delineation of which is "harder"; it depends too much on the specifics of the story and the author's goal.

Cathy C · Feb 2, 2012

We have writing social groups? :Huh:

Apparently, I need to wander down some of the side corridors here.

KellyAssauer said:
Not that this is an indicator... but looking at membership numbers in a specific writing social group here at AW, here's the breakdown:
Fantasy with 239,
Literary with 115,
YA 104,
SciFi/Fantasy SpecFic(w/Horror) 74,
MiddleGrade 81,
Mystery 64,
Romance 55

Noting that members can belong to more than one... and how the actual post numbers in SYW might fall, may reveal an entirely different pattern!

=)

OnlyStones · Feb 2, 2012

LindaJeanne said:
On the other hand, that only requires researching how things actually were, and only in that one time and place.

To realistically depict how things could have happened differently -- things being developed at different times relative to each other -- requires deeper and broader research to try to understand the connections and cause-and-effect between different developments, to try to reverse-engineer a different progression. Also to see the different ways things developed in different places and times, to have as many working examples as possible.

The challenges are different, but I don't think one can make a broad genre-based delineation of which is "harder"; it depends too much on the specifics of the story and the author's goal.

True, but, I think there's a forgiveness, or "fudge factor" inherent in fantasy that invites imagination and, consequently, more writers.

Cyia · Feb 2, 2012

There's also the referral effect.

"I'm writing a sci-fi novel, do you know where I can get help?"

"Well, I write sci-fi, and I've gotten a ton of information from AW."

[^ This applies to any genre you write in, btw]

Puma · Feb 2, 2012

And that's the appeal of fantasy, regardless of what world - there's the fudge factor. It doesn't matter whether hair combs had been invented or whether the father of the MC's actual death doesn't fit the plot - it can be because it never was. Same with sci-fi - it's a created world so even if two elements won't actually combine to make something faster than a speeding bullet, they can. Or horror - you can put Aztec gods in Montana and it's all right.

When you deal with the real world you have to resolve those issues on the basis of fact, sometimes at the expense of hoped for plot. It's more tedious, but not necessarily less fun if you enjoy the research and getting it right (but then you always worry there's something else you missed.)

But, I suspect some writers and manuscripts start out in the "real world genres" but then cross over when the writers discover insurmountable glitches in fact versus plot. It's a matter of how to salvage the story. My opinion, nothing more. Puma

LJD · Feb 2, 2012

ios said:
ETA: I just posted the same link as someone else, lol. Doh. But I'll leave the post as is.

Here's a link to an informal poll: http://www.rachellegardner.com/2011/04/book-genres-and-blog-stats/

The results are surprising, because I assumed for years that it was given that romance was the biggest seller year after year.

Those stats are just the % of deals on PM, not the total number of books sold. I think romance still is the biggest seller, certainly in paperback.

juniper · Feb 2, 2012

Cathy C said:
We have writing social groups?

Apparently, I need to wander down some of the side corridors here.

Yeah, I haven't figured out the social groups thing here either.

KellyAssauer · Feb 3, 2012

juniper said:
Yeah, I haven't figured out the social groups thing here either.

At the top of the page in the blue banner that says 'User CP' the next says 'FAQ' and the third says 'Community' - this one has a drop down menu listing 'Social Groups' 'Contact' and 'Member List' - obviously you want the Social Groups.

When the page opens to Social groups, the top left window will say 'Categories' - you want to click on the 'View All Categories' on the right of the boxes top banner - this will give you a list of group categories: 'party in progress' 'writing groups' and 'reading groups'.

If you find a group you wish to join, the top blue banner will say 'social group' on the left and 'join group' on the right... which is too obvious for me to explain.

The one nice thing about the groups is that they can become a more specifically narrowed clearing house for information about what is going on in that subsection of writing, and they help to create more community. I can think of several instances where I've stopped and done a crit simply because the poster was in our group... I'd have to say that so far, the group has been a help!

Cathy C · Feb 3, 2012

Cool! Thanks, KellyAssauer!

I think there's an attitude among those who want to write, but who have never actually written that there are some "easy" genres (and I use that term loosely) to write to get their feet wet. SF/F, romance, children's and erotica seem to be the targets of choice. I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "Hey, I have two weeks off. I think I'll write a romance & sell it for big bucks!". :ROFL:

Same w/children's. Wannabes seldom even bother to check out their chosen genre by reading one. But I suppose the same is true with other things too. I lived near Aspen, Colorado for years & the visitors who proclaimed the most loudly that they'd never even put on a pair of skis but were looking forward to going down "those double diamond runs" made me want to go buy stock in crutches manufacturers! LOL

Jamesaritchie · Feb 3, 2012

pfinucan said:
Does anyone know what genre sold the most books last year? Not exactly the same question but maybe it affects what people write.

For adult fiction, romance is more than forty percent of the market. If you lump romance and general women's fiction, it hits just about fifty percent. Mystery is another twenty-seven percent or so.

Despite it's popularity on every writing forum, SF and fantasy are pretty low in percentage of total sales. Usually not more than about eight percent.

MG and YA aren't genres, they're categories, and each has many genres within the category. YA romance tends to sell better than anything else under the YA umbrella, though the Stephanie Meyer type of fantasy is right up there with it. and,right now, MG fantasy is also pretty hot.

Jonathan Dalar · Feb 3, 2012

Jamesaritchie said:
For adult fiction, romance is more than forty percent of the market. If you lump romance and general women's fiction, it hits just about fifty percent. Mystery is another twenty-seven percent or so.

Despite it's popularity on every writing forum, SF and fantasy are pretty low in percentage of total sales. Usually not more than about eight percent.

MG and YA aren't genres, they're categories, and each has many genres within the category. YA romance tends to sell better than anything else under the YA umbrella, though the Stephanie Meyer type of fantasy is right up there with it. and,right now, MG fantasy is also pretty hot.

That's pretty much what I've heard as well. Fairly accurate snapshot of a somewhat movable metric. YA and MG are on the uptick right now, exploding with far more popularity than ever before. A number of reasons for this, but one of the things to remember is that categories and genres tend to wax and wane as fads and interests come and go.

Stephen King triggered a large horror movement; horror is now not a very salable genre. Harry Potter boosted fantasy and YA, but an incline now may not be an indication of what's hot years from now.

Romance has always been one of the best sellers. Fantasy and Sci fi not so much, but are more popular now than before. Essentially like the stock market, there are up and down trends, and key movers and shakers that will always make up a large chunk of the market.

Silver-Midnight · Feb 3, 2012

Amadan said:
My point was that it's perceived as easier, or at least, a lot of (mostly young) authors feel qualified to do so based on years of watching anime and Dr. Who, whereas very few of them think that they can write historicals or literary novels without doing some serious work and developing their writing chops.

Well, I'm technically a young writer, and I love anime. It was one the many things that got me interested in the Fantasy genre(especially Urban Fantasy with romantic elements) along with Romance and Erotica. Not because I thought it was easy to write entirely, but because I thought it was cool (and that's probably putting it mildly. Haha). I was interested it. However, I have been reading the genres, all of the ones that I'm interested in, especially Urban Fantasy, to get a feel for them.

You know, I wonder if people who cross genres, like doing some Romance and some Fantasy affected the results.

EDIT: I also like mystery novels. Although, I don't write for that genre as of yet.

Amadan · Feb 3, 2012

Silver-Midnight said:
However, I have been reading the genres, all of the ones that I'm interested in, especially Urban Fantasy, to get a feel for them.

But do you read anything else?

Silver-Midnight · Feb 3, 2012

Amadan said:
But do you read anything else?

No, but that could have a lot to do with my lack of time more than anything else though.

Amadan · Feb 3, 2012

Silver-Midnight said:
No, but that could have a lot to do with my lack of time more than anything else though.

Well, if you want to be qualified to write well, you need to read more than just the narrow category of books you intend to write.

Drachen Jager · Feb 3, 2012

Stats from 2006.

# of published titles:

40% category/series romance
17% historical
16% contemporary
9% paranormal
7% romantic suspense
6% inspirational
5% other (includes chick lit, young adult, erotic romance, women’s fiction).

Sales figures (USA):

Romance $1.37 billion (21%)
Religious/Inspirational (including the bible) $1.68 billion
Science fiction/fantasy $495 million
Classic literary fiction $448 million
Mystery $422 million
Graphic novels $128 million

http://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/romance-books-comprise-21-of-the-631b-book-industry

Silver-Midnight · Feb 3, 2012

Amadan said:
Well, if you want to be qualified to write well, you need to read more than just the narrow category of books you intend to write.

That's probably true, but I wanted to read a little bit more of fantasy before I started reading other things. Simply because I guess I like to make sure that I'm actually interested in a genre. However, you are right, I do need to branch out outside of my genre(s). I mean I've read a lot of short stories that are out of my genre, and short stories/novelletes/novellas are what I write truthfully.

Drachen Jager said:
Stats from 2006.

# of published titles:

40% category/series romance

17% historical

16% contemporary

9% paranormal

7% romantic suspense

6% inspirational

5% other (includes chick lit, young adult, erotic romance, women’s fiction).

Sales figures (USA):

Romance $1.37 billion (21%)

Religious/Inspirational (including the bible) $1.68 billion

Science fiction/fantasy $495 million

Classic literary fiction $448 million

Mystery $422 million

Graphic novels $128 million

http://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/romance-books-comprise-21-of-the-631b-book-industry

Wow. I'm surprised erotic romance is so low on the first list, and it doesn't even appear on the second. I'm shocked; I thought it would be a lot more popular than that.

Jamesaritchie · Feb 4, 2012

Drachen Jager said:
Stats from 2006.

# of published titles:

40% category/series romance

17% historical

16% contemporary

9% paranormal

7% romantic suspense

6% inspirational

5% other (includes chick lit, young adult, erotic romance, women’s fiction).

Sales figures (USA):

Romance $1.37 billion (21%)

Religious/Inspirational (including the bible) $1.68 billion

Science fiction/fantasy $495 million

Classic literary fiction $448 million

Mystery $422 million

Graphic novels $128 million

http://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/romance-books-comprise-21-of-the-631b-book-industry

Those numbers, or at least some of them, are waaayyyy off.

KellyAssauer · Feb 4, 2012

Jamesaritchie said:
Those numbers, or at least some of them, are waaayyyy off.

Drachen Jager went to some time and trouble to find and post those stats - and to include the source of the information - Thank you Drachen Jager!

Unless you can refute those findings with a proven and factual rebuttal, any personal opinion as to there validity is just that: an unsubstantiated opinion bordering ever so close to disrespectful to the person who took the time and trouble to find a source and post it here.

Please, give me a proven & reliable source so I can formulate my own conclusions.

KathleenD · Feb 4, 2012

Drachen Jager said:
Here are the top 10 requested genres by literary agents on QueryTracker. That ought to be as accurate a representation of what's selling (or likely to sell soon) as any.

I could be wrong, but I have the sense that romance isn't usually agented, unless we're talking about the fancy foil cover single title variety. So that list is more representative of what agents want/sell... which is not quite the same as what sells, as we saw later in the thread.

Cathy C said:
We have writing social groups?

Apparently, I need to wander down some of the side corridors here.

Me too!

Silver-Midnight said:
Wow. I'm surprised erotic romance is so low on the first list, and it doesn't even appear on the second. I'm shocked; I thought it would be a lot more popular than that.

I think erotic romance is a big seller in e-book, not print book. That list looks like a break down of print sales.

writerinthenorth · Feb 4, 2012

One comes easier than another

I found writing my (factually-based) historical fiction novel Mr Stephenson's Regret much more difficult to write than my contemporary thriller 11:59. The thriller took me about ten months, the HF nearer three years. Research was the obvious difference (though I had to do a certain amount of research for the thriller too) but the hardest part was getting the diction right for the Regency/Victorian setting of 'Regret'. While trying to avoid 'faux-Victorian' I had to make my characters sound plausible for their time; and in some cases I was using their actual speeches, so the real and the invented had to work together. The narrative too had to work with the dialogue. All in all, it proved a challenge that I hope I managed to get approximately right by the time of the final draft.

Silver-Midnight · Feb 4, 2012

KathleenD said:
I think erotic romance is a big seller in e-book, not print book. That list looks like a break down of print sales.

That makes a lot of sense.

shaldna · Feb 4, 2012

Sea Witch said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I have the impression that most of the writers here at AW write fantasy and/or SF and/or YA.

Hmm.

On some boards there is a higher percentage of certain genre writers than others. Yes, there's a lot of YA writers here, and a lot of sci-fi and fantasy writers, but there are also a lot of romance writers and non fic peeps, and all the folks from the western board.

I think it's more a case of individual writers being more active in certain boards.

jaksen · Feb 4, 2012

shaldna said:
Hmm.

On some boards there is a higher percentage of certain genre writers than others. Yes, there's a lot of YA writers here, and a lot of sci-fi and fantasy writers, but there are also a lot of romance writers and non fic peeps, and all the folks from the western board.

I think it's more a case of individual writers being more active in certain boards.

What she says...

Some of us hang out at different forums. I write mystery short fiction but most of my posts are in novels.

Go figure.

Popularity of Different Genres

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