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May 1, 2006

What’s Hot, What’s Not: Publishing Trends from Industry Insiders

With thanks to Heather Craven, Nutley Public Library, for her notes!

 Readers are becoming more savvy, books are in the news, cable TV has increased promotion of books, circulation is on the rise. Readers seek smart, sophisticated, but still accessible reading.
 Chick lit and lad lit are declining. The hip, fresh books that made the trend popular are being followed by derivative, formulaic, less interesting books. It’s not known what will replace this genre for women in their 20s and 30s; possibly memoirs with a chicklit feel.
 Some up-and-coming genres: erotica (steamy sexy romances for female audience), “fratire” (non-fiction humor for men, often based on websites), urban fantasy, narrative non-fiction exploring subcultures (ex. Eat This Book, about competitive eating), food and fashion narrative.
 Publishers are seeking ways to draw attention to books. Media attention has been largely scandal-driven.
 Publishers like to release their biggest titles in the fall. This summer and fall will see many books by brand name authors, several rock memoirs, and several political books – more serious political and economic books are becoming popular. There is no one big blockbuster book predicted for this fall, so there may be room for some new authors to emerge.
 Current trends for children’s and YA publishing:
 The Harry Effect – fantasy genre, high page counts, adult crossover interest, series, release date events.
 Graphic novels and manga, esp. for girls.
 Edgy content for older teens.
 Paper Engineering (artistic pop-up book, like those by Robert Sabuda).
 Fairy and pirate themes.
 New takes on old classics.
 Interactive websites for authors.

Posted by at May 1, 2006 4:11 PM

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