2023 book genre trends

#shorts #publishingtips

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ABOUT ME:
My name is Alyssa Matesic, and I’m a professional book editor with 7+ years 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. This 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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MUSIC:
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[Nate-a-Guy]

I just stood here taking in that my favorite, Historic Fiction, wasn’t on the list.

(I know not many people talk about it but dang! How can you pass up books like “The Book Thief” lol)

[kiwifruitkl]

YA
Fantasy
Romance
Horror
Middle Grade

I usually don’t read fiction by genre. I read fiction because I like the cover art or the book reviews. Otherwise, I would usually pass. 😅

[munteanmihai]

I just start querying fantasy and got the first rejection, 😊 wish me luck!

[jimgilbert]

Hmm...

My first novel kind of fits two of those genre. It's a paranormal romance featuring plenty of ghosts. It also has plenty of humor. It's a first person account of the father of a six year old boy who can call up and command the spirits of the dead. While it may seem to be the son's story, it's actually the father's tale as he learns to put up with the ghost as the living pair live in a bona-fide haunted house, all while he continues his career and tries to woo the local sheriff. When it was an ebook, it got great reviews, won an award, and was a finalist for another award.

My third novel is a MG magic realism story, the first in what I hope will be a series. In my MG universe, magic is returning to the world. The first to benefit from magic's return are children because they hold magic and the hope that magic is real in their hearts. In each book, a 4th or 5th grade child will gain a magical power. While this seems like a lot of fun, the kids must learn to handle the responsibilities that go along with their powers. This becomes especially critical as not-so-nice creatures are returning along with the magic (along with nice creatures, who will be allies to the children), and it will be up to the empowered children to defend the rest of us from the evil magical beings.

So far, though, I haven't been able to get an agent to represent me and my books.
Sigh.

[BeaufortRyan]

Thank you so much. I'm working on a Middle Grade Horror/Fantasy book

[fullmooninbloom]

Can you make video for publishing poetry?

[kiwifruitkl]

Diverse backgrounds: anybody who is not part of the normal or typical character in western fiction such as ethnic minorities and sexual minorities and disabled folks

[allhopeabandon]

It sucks that they push featuring kids from diverse backgrounds...this stuff comes naturally, and it should never be pushed or forced by publishing houses and agents...they are gate keeping and pushing their agenda onto authors. Now, bf anyone loses it, just imagine if they said they wanted something pushed that you don't agree with, like fiscal responsibility, social accountability, or sensibility...

[hafsa]

Thank you so much for sharing. Do you know of a specific agent or publisher that is looking for MA with strong characters with diverse backgrounds? Or is it just a general trend?

[MrDanroche]

Well that’s good. I’ll be querying my YA, The Joker X The Alchemist, by the end of the year/beginning of next year

[susanmarie]

What about memoir from a non-famous person? An underrepresented and marginalized main character? A paid senior caregiver.

[starklingspars]

Alyssa, why are you calling YA and middle grade "genres" when they are age categories.

I imagine you might have said it like this for the brevity of the video but putting it like this will just confuse people. Not trying to be rude, love your videos.

Also doesn't surprise me horror is on there. I think not many people write horror