Most Popular Book Genres for 2024 | Book Publishing Trends

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While you shouldn’t worry about writing to trend, it’s still helpful to understand the current publishing marketplace — especially if you’re planning to pursue publishing in the upcoming year. In today’s video, I break down the most popular book genres of 2024 and discuss what publishing professionals have been asking to see more of.
 
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GREAT BOOKS ABOUT WRITING/PUBLISHING:
 
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MORE BOOK PUBLISHING TRENDS:
 
GENRES AGENTS ARE LOOKING FOR IN 2024:
02:59 – Romance
04:05 – Fantasy  
04:39 – Contemporary fiction
06:18 – Romantasy
07:27 ­– YA  
 
ABOUT ME: 
My name is Alyssa Matesic, and I’m a professional book editor with nearly a decade of book publishing and editorial experience. Throughout my career, I’ve held editorial roles across both sides of the publishing industry: Big Five publishing houses and literary agencies. The goal of this channel is to help writers throughout the book writing journey—whether you're working on your manuscript or you're looking for publishing advice.
 
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[samp]

Historical romance, yes! Im currently in the querying trenches and hope to get a literary agent soon. Good luck everyone. ❤

[donnaandrus]

Alyssa's videos are very helpful. Keeping writers up to date while exuding positivity has encouraged me to keep my focus on quality work rather than daunting negative statistics in the publishing world.

[lindseywritesstuff]

As someone who writes contemporary romance and will be starting my querying journey this year, this is great news.

[authorsmjohnson]

As not only a writer, but an avid reader, I am so excited to see the increase in genre-blending. When done correctly it is *muah!* chef's kiss!

[TheEccentricRaven]

YA itself is so broad as that's pretty much every genre written for that age group. YA dystopia. YA fantasy. YA romance. YA historical fiction. YA contemporary. Lots of possibilities.

[haterzzbehatinn]

Working on a light-hearted fantasy adventure so thats good to hear

[andeeharry]

Nice to see Fantasy and YA is back again.. heeh, I'll carry on working on my stories and wait for the next bus. I am not in a rush

[AngelaKHarrell]

Well, thank goodness I love what I'm writing (historical and literary fiction) because I don't think either has been "trending" for quite a few years now. LOL. Thanks for putting in the disclaimer; it helps me to know that my work still has value. Great video!

[michaelakainz]

Glad to hear this, since my adult fantasy romance is almost ready to query!

[markf]

I'm happy historical fiction is not trending yet as I have a long way to go before my ms is completed 😂

[AsclepiusPress]

I remember watching your video about publishing trends in 2023! My 2023 release was right on the money: Greek mythology retelling called ‘Pharmakides’. My 2024 release is a travel memoir and I hope it finds the right people💘🫶 Thank you for your insightful videos.

[sophiestj]

Whenever I see how trendy YA and fantasy are, I feel tempted to dust off a manuscript I wrote years and years ago that falls under these genres... There is even a sweet romance in it... But I'm not sure I would want to put my current project on hold for it, or that I could handle both projects at the same time... Food for thought, though! :)

[nicholasmordin]

It would be interesting to know how many authors there are in each genre. My suspicion is that in genres where authors can rely on internal data, based on their own emotions and fantasies, the numbers are very high. However, in genres which rely on external data, such as research and empathizing with a wide range of active characters with complex emotions, the number of authors will be much smaller.

[tinahoffman]

Great video, and as always, so timely! Thank you 😊

[JimPen-wj]

One of my favorite youtubers right now. Keep up the good work

[maliacortez]

Great info! Thanks for doing this research Alyssa! 🙌

[TheMadisonglory]

Curious to know if Romance is the most popular genre globally or just nationwide?

[paulalansmart]

Interesting video, my current novel is historical fiction, I put on hold a fantasy novel to do it...😆
Though my book does cover one of the most amazing historical romances, so this has been really useful, i was going to leave it out of my blurb but after watching this I'm going to put a line in about it. Thank you 😊

[BudsCartoon]

I agree 100% with the end, though Alyssa has such a pleasant way of putting things. If you use this video as a tinder for your ideas, you're already lost. If you're not truly passionate about what you are writing, it'll show. If your work is good, regardless of genre, it will get attention. I can't imagine sniping trends as a real writer. That's commercial sh*t.

[waynegathers]

My genre is YA sci-fi (fantasy) novel. I appreciate your take on the current trend that are popular in the writing industry which I do not write according to trends (btw thanks for pointing that out) but I write according to my creative imagination and what my spirit inspires me to write about. As always thank you kindly for the tidbits of info that you give to your audience. Alyssa, I'll talk to you later.