Support for Indie Authors discussion

I'm not planning to jump on it and write a book on it or anything, but I'm curious what's the current in thing? Kind of like how vampires were so popular a few years ago.

Well, I mostly read romance and one thing that I'm seeing a lot are novels written from a Male POV.

Werepandas are all the rage, especially set in 15th century Africa. And there must be a million books out about man-eating termites. Octogenarotica is huge.

Dwayne wrote: "Werepandas are all the rage, especially set in 15th century Africa. And there must be a million books out about man-eating termites. Octogenarotica is huge."

Haha oh man that cracked me up!

Marie wrote: "Haha oh man that cracked me up! "

Kinda my way of saying I have no idea of what is "in", but whatever it is, I ain't writin' it.

For YA there seems to be a growing trend of "secretly magical teenager" thing going on, as well as "secret magical teenager who solves mysteries." But I'm basing this mostly what I've been seeing in BookBub.

An interesting and useful question and I wish I knew the answer!

Dwayne wrote: "Marie wrote: "Haha oh man that cracked me up! "

Kinda my way of saying I have no idea of what is "in", but whatever it is, I ain't writin' it."

I'm with you Dwayne. Even if there was a magic bullet I'd rather not...

Torsos. I write in many genres from sci-fi to fantasy to romance to ya to humor and I swear, every single one of those genres including YA is littered with bare male torsos. Sometimes accompanied by an actual bear, leading me to believe bear is the new wolf. I guess it really doesn't matter what you write*. Slap a torso on it.


*Sarcasm should not be considered real advice. What I'm saying here is popularity is fleeting and unpredictable. We no longer have the big five dictating what we should love, so diversity and genre bending is becoming more popular.

Personally, I'd rather be a trendsetter than follow a trend. And then I'd get mad at everyone imitating me and go do something else.

I tend to work outside the universe and the box, so far outside the box you can't see the box. I don't do what's in. I'm incapable of writing the usual "what's popular," what's in" thing that overly saturated stuff. I write the unusually intellectual, not able to be exactly categorized kind of phenomenon. So I don't try to keep up with the "in" game. I could never fit in with that group. Never wanted to.

I feel like this changes every season. But when in doubt, blame Hollywood. If it is on the silver screen, it gets a sudden surge of popularity, in the bookworld.

Isaac wrote: "I feel like this changes every season. But when in doubt, blame Hollywood. If it is on the silver screen, it gets a sudden surge of popularity, in the bookworld."

I completely agree. I think Hollywood is a huge influence. I've been keeping my eye on children's movie releases lately and questioning whether to push books that I've already written related to that media. (I'm a children's book author & illustrator for reference)

Isaac wrote: "I feel like this changes every season. But when in doubt, blame Hollywood. If it is on the silver screen, it gets a sudden surge of popularity, in the bookworld."

True! I remember the Time Travel craze after Outlander landed a TV deal.

In erotica, I'm also seeing a lot of authors going down the M/M route.

Yeah, I don't think I'd just be able to write something just because it's popular. I was just wondering cause the market just seems kind of quiet lately.

Kristin wrote: "Yeah, I don't think I'd just be able to write something just because it's popular. I was just wondering cause the market just seems kind of quiet lately."

That is true, There's nothing like the Vampire craze or the BDSM craze of a few years back.

Well that's probably good. Gives everyone a fair shot.