Is Cute, Girly, Wish-Fullment stuff like the Princess Diaries a dead genre? Is it all Serious now?

AndreaX

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I'm wondering, are there any really big YA titles these days that give you a Princess Diaries feel these days? Is that even something that would sell these days or is it all about big serious epic stories?
 

Kjbartolotta

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I'm wondering, are there any really big YA titles these days that give you a Princess Diaries feel these days? Is that even something that would sell these days or is it all about big serious epic stories?

I say right now there's a trend for real experience over wish fulfillment right now, but you can't go wrong with this combination. And the world needs it, and you should write it. :)
 

Roxxsmom

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My nieces were into the Princess Academy books for a while, but those were more MG and a fantasy setting. I don't know for sure, but it does seem like YA stuff has a more serious turn to it lately, in both "real world" and fantasy styles of fiction. Trends change, though, and a good escapist story might be all it takes to start a new trend.
 

Brightdreamer

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Not sure if it's worth anything, but I still see the Princess Diaries books and other "fluff" stuff go through the library on a fairly regular basis. There's always going to be a market for escapism, so write yourself a good story an let it sell itself.
 

Kjbartolotta

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Not sure if it's worth anything, but I still see the Princess Diaries books and other "fluff" stuff go through the library on a fairly regular basis. There's always going to be a market for escapism, so write yourself a good story an let it sell itself.

+1

Also, I love P-Academy. Those girls are fierce AF.

EDIT- HAHAHA, I somehow read Princess Academy instead of Princess Diaries. Well, sorry/not sorry, a shameless Princess Academy plug is never unmerited.
 
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Putputt

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The last fluffy book I’ve read was Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. It was so unapologetically fluffy and cute. The last in the trilogy was released not too long ago. So I think there is definitely space for fluff, although you’re right that there is probably more space for serious books.
 

thereeness

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I definitely feel that there's been a trend of "serious" stories with heavy themes in YA. Especially in fantasy. I don't read a lot of contemporary, but I'm thinking it's the same thing. Even if there's "wish fulfillment" in a story, like that one book "As You Wish" where everyone is granted a wish on their 18th birthday, it comes with dark themes. Personally, I'd love to see more fluff. I do think that YA is reflecting the rather grim worldview right now and could definitely use some lightness.
 

StaircaseInTheDark

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I'm sure I still see very girly looking books when I go into big bookshops; not having read them I can't say if they actually are as fluffy as they look, but I would be surprised if they were serious and dark. However, I agree they are not as prevalent as they once were. But I will also agree that if you want to write such a story you should; trends don't come out of nowhere, people were writing the darker stuff that's popular now before it was. I think there'll always be room for both serious and fluffy books, even if one is more demand than the other.
 

CoffeeBeans

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I am evidence of nothing, but I am getting ready to query an insanely fluffy girly-fluff wish fulfillment novel and it got good pop in #pitmad and from the one agent who saw early pages as part of a crit.

I have no idea if anyone is buying it from an industry perspective at the moment, but people seem to happy to see it.
 

CoffeeBeans

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Slightly off-topic - what does "wish-fulfillment" mean in this context?

Where a story takes on a subject in a way a reader might think "oh I wish that would happen in real life, but it won't, so I'll read about it instead" - Cinderella stories, unlikely love stories, circumstances that a reader might be willing to overlook something that probably wouldn't happen in real life because they want to see something good/happy happen.
 

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It wouldn't surprise me if there's a bit of a swing back towards cute fluff in a few years. The trend for real, hard-hitting, in some ways difficult fiction feels like it's been around for a little while now; though it shows no sign of running out of steam, publishing always works a couple of years ahead, so there's never any point being hung up about whether what you're writing at the moment is popular or not - it could become popular. I'd say the only times there geuinely were dead genres that were pointless to write in were when the market was utterly saturated in the wake of paranormal romances following Twilight, and also dystopian when that trend had been going a while.
 

Laer Carroll

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YA is a HUGE category, more than a genre. It contains all the genres: romance, SF/F, detective, historical, and so on, even occasionally horror. It's comedic and serious, and the serious is all over the place, from fairly innocuous areas such as identity issues in school and parental conflicts, to racism and school shootings.

It's affected somewhat by current events, though less than it might seem, since it takes something like two years for a green-lit book to percolate through to the bookstores. Trying to follow a trend is poor business.

So write whatever really matters to you. There's almost certainly a market for it.