January 4, 2008
Endangered Species?
If you’re a fan of popular review sites, reader’s sites, agent listings, publisher’s requirements, or if you’ve just been paying attention to your rejections (cough, cough), it’s usually not difficult to tell what’s in vogue.
The business has been swamped with vampires. Readers are tiring of the “usual” creatures of the night (and how strange does THAT sound, lol). Erotica is hot, but the fans are grumbling that they want more than just sex. Navy Seals, Black Ops, billionaires, and shieks are still viable, but even these are sometimes met with a long-suffering sigh. Regular contemporary romance is becoming very hard to push to publishers, sweet romance is almost passé, and the state of humorous fiction/romance is not one bit funny.
Let’s make a jump of about five years into the future.
Whether you’re an author or a reader…
What do you anticipate being hot at that time?
What do you think will be extinct by then?
And what would you put on the endangered species list right now?
if I knew . . . No clue . . .
What do you anticipate being hot at that time?
Paranormal political satire. Also, the hard boiled detective is going to make a comeback.
What do you think will be extinct by then?
Vampires - Cold, dead flesh with teeth has got to start gagging normal folk soon, and the women in literature sleeping with it… eeeewwwhhhooo. :)
And what would you put on the endangered species list right now?
Zombies - Cold, dead flesh eating machines are already gagging normal folk now. :)
Ghosts & Ghost Hunters - I don’t see dead people anymore
I’d say take a look at what’s on TV and in the movies right now but after looking at the list of upcoming movies for 2008 I noticed two interesting trends…….
Remakes (ie Star Trek (if it was anyone but JJ Abrams I’d laugh my ass off), Motel Hell, Clive Barkers Hellraiser (YIKES), the Hulk–yes again–Scanners (yikes again!).
And movies based on……..BOOKS!!!!!! The one that really catches my eye (besides Prince Caspian) is 21 ( based on “Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions,” which i’ve had sitting in my amazon.com wishlist for quite some time) but also Harry Potter, Ironman (comic?), Nights in Rodanthe, Where the Wild Things Are (isn’t that a kid’s book), Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2.
So let’s look at TV…..what’s hot? Um reruns?
At this point, I haven’t a clue. Everything has been done to death at this stage, so maybe they’ll go back to basics. These things have a tendency to run in cycles, so perhaps we’ll be in a tried and true cycle in five years. Vampires may be back. Regencies. Contemporaries. I think Historicals will always be in vogue despite the many dire predictions.
I have no freakin’ idea.
Don’t tell Cece I’m here.
Don’t have a clue. I think some things that are super hot now, might not be as hot in the mainstream in future but will retain an almost cult fanbase. (And ain’t nothing wrong with cult fanbases,–StarTrek or XFiles anyone?) My candidates for this are vamps and *super* erotic stuff. Sex sells, and vamps have been around forever.
Some things that are ’soft’ now might cycle back in to popularity but freshened up a bit or with a twist (I’m thinking Westerns and Contemporary romances). I do see more opening up/experimenting of era/settings for Historical. But who knows how that will ultimately pan out. It sort of feels like editors are doing test drives with the new offerings rather than committing.
It’s all a gamble, Raine. That’s what makes this all sooo much fun!fun!fun!
Don’t tell Cece I’m here.
JAq’s right. It all cycles. Erotica could go out and come back again in five years, I definitely think at some point contemporary will re-emerge (god I hope so), though I dont know about comedy. Suspense is here to stay and I hope Urban Fantasy is too. I really LOVE it. I’d LOVE to see some good Sci-Fi romance (like Jaq mentioned on Wednesday). I really do believe that editors learned their lessons on the Great Chick Lit Bust and will never let the market get that saturated again–though it might not seem like it if you look at parnaormals, there’s a huge diversity out there and so far, what I’ve read has been great. Even with the erotica boom it never seemed to truly get as out of hand as Chick Lit did.
Ok back to work–you too Bailey
Lots of “don’t have a clue” comments here, lol.
I agree that these things run in cycles.
Also agree about historicals–there’s so much that’s still untapped there, and eras publishers seem uninterested in right now that could be so promising!
I’m waffling on the urban fantasy stuff. I think we might see it split into factions…urban fantasy romance, urban fantasy that reads more like graphic novels, and maybe even urban fantasy noir (which gives me OH so many ideas).
I take forever to catch up with a trend so I don’t dare try to predict the next one! However, I have always craved contemporary romance. A bit of steam is okay though.
I hope urban fantasy will still be around in five years. The ways it’s going, I may have finished my WIP about that time.
P.S. Did you have to post my picture?
My rule of thumb, whatever isn’t selling like hotcakes now. But the way I see the market is that it shifts to what’s been ignored for so long. Paranormals have been out there, they just weren’t every where you turned. Same goes for Erotica.
Now who’s turn do I think it is? Historicals. Mystery. (the gum-shoe private eye novels)
And hoping beyond hope that a new market opens up for first person contemporary romance. (no, I don’t mean chick-lit)
The last guest is my hope. The first two is what I’ve seen bought recently. I’m on the move for an agent. It’s very enlightening to see what Agents are selling, and what the publishers are buying right now, not what floods the market in two years.
I have always craved contemporary romance.
I’m with you, Lynn.
Did you have to post my picture?
Oh you need to stop, lol!
Good luck with the agent hunt, Mel!