2024 Book Trends

Book Trend Predictions for 2024

While researching book trends, I noticed a few shifts happening.

Romance is holding steady as the number one fiction genre (that will probably never change) and fantasy is hovering around the same popularity, but there are a few genres sneaking up in the ranks.

Crime, mystery, and thriller! So excited about this. And the book deals for horror novels have jumped by almost 60%, according to Publisher’s Marketplace!

I believe these trends will continue in 2024.

To me, it’s clear what readers want.

They want love, to discover new worlds, and to find the truth.

Truth is something we rarely get in real life, so the desire to find it in novels isn’t surprising. We enjoy sleuthing and uncovering secrets. I mean, who doesn’t love a secret?

We all look for an escape and want to experience the mystical. So, our fascination with fantastical worlds isn’t startling either.

And as for horror, it seems we also love being frightened. Delving into the macabre facets of life and the dark parts of our human nature is entertaining and enlightening.

Of course, we need romance to balance it all out. We need those uplifting books to help us experience the best parts of being human.

So, if you are writing romance, fantasy, and crime fiction or publishing in 2024, it should be a good year for you!

The popularity of audio books has taken a downturn. This is probably because things are calming down from 2020s lockdown environment. Though, I think the numbers will level off soon, and be consistent throughout 2024.

Nonfiction is always going to be popular as we are interested in facts, reading about cover-ups, how to increase our income, and how to be better people.

Memoirs are still prevalent, though, unless you are a celebrity or have overcome a traumatic experience, you may struggle with selling your book. A tip for marketing memoirs is to be specific with your target audience and aim all your marketing at that specific group.

I’m so excited about 2024. I hope yours is fantastic!

Happy Writing and Revising!

Kristin Noland – Speculative fiction and crime fiction editor

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