Sex, Crime And Vam­pires: What Will Read­ers Fall For Next?

Book clubs have col­lected their fair share of risqué sto­ries in the past year, but now the ad­dic­tion for the scan­dalous seems to have waned, as the sales of other gen­res are on the rise.

Af­ter a few years filled with vam­pires, were­wolves, and ar­ro­gant busi­ness­men with weird fetishes, there has been a re­turn to the nor­mal top­ics of mur­der mys­ter­ies, crime thrillers and romances. 

It seems that the best sell­ers are re­turn­ing to re­al­ity as much, as fic­tion allows.

While some au­thors of vam­piric and fetish fic­tion have be­come overnight mil­lion­aires, it is not that easy to pub­lish a fringe book. Af­ter the first suc­cess­ful Harry Pot­ter book was pub­lished, there were other au­thors that tried to im­i­tate J.K. Rowl­ing, but with less suc­cess. They may have made some money, but they cer­tainly didn’t achieve her level of fame. Cer­tain au­thors are syn­ony­mous with their gen­res and they have made them­selves house­hold names writ­ing about top­ics that were pre­vi­ously not even popular.

Niche is not easy

It’s not easy to break into a pub­lish­ing niche, as many writ­ers have found. Writ­ers who as­pire to pub­lish their “dif­fer­ent” sto­ries should look at many pub­lish­ing houses, and per­se­vere in their at­tempts to get their book printed and on the shelves. Few au­thors are suc­cess­ful the first time they ap­proach a pub­lisher and it takes per­sis­tence, tal­ent and luck to be a suc­cess­ful writer.

Who knows what the next pop­u­lar topic will be?

While most read­ers tend to stick with their pre­ferred gen­res, they will al­ways be cu­ri­ous to scan the new book that tops the best seller lists, and many want to ex­am­ine the writ­ing styles and top­ics of new au­thors that rise to fame.

Just like the mu­sic in­dus­try, one hit won­ders are com­mon among au­thors, but it does not mean that their novel is not a clas­sic. Just like those songs that stick in one’s head, the nov­els of un­known au­thors have a last­ing im­pact. These nov­els are in­spir­ing be­cause they have a dif­fer­ent voice and theme.

A pub­lish­ing house that pub­lishes such a novel will have done re­search, so that they are con­fi­dent that the risk will bring rel­a­tively prof­itably returns.

But they might re­quire writ­ers to re­visit their books sev­eral times with sev­eral sug­gested ed­its. In this way, pub­lish­ers re­fine the se­lec­tion process and make books more reader-friendly. It’s then up to read­ers to choose the type of book that grabs their at­ten­tion and form their own opinion.

Sup­ply and demand

Many spe­cialised book clubs are be­ing formed on var­i­ous sub­jects, and there is a de­mand for all types of nov­els and non-fic­­tion books.

• Chris­t­ian book clubs are be­com­ing com­mon, with read­ers con­sum­ing both fic­tion and non-fic­­tion ac­counts of Chris­t­ian life and history.
• Fan­tasy and sci­ence-fic­­tion book clubs fo­cus on the al­ter­nate re­al­ity and have var­ied interests.
• There has been a move away from tra­di­tional ro­mances and Mills and Boon-type sagas to more real-life re­la­tion­ships where the cou­ple does not al­ways ride away into the sun­set on a horse. Read­ers are spoiled for choice with many op­tions in the ro­mance cat­e­gory and there is some­thing for every reader to fall in love with.

While there will al­ways be a pop­u­lar topic that will in­tro­duce new au­thors to the fa­mous writer’s cir­cle, there are also the same au­thors who churn out good books for a few years.

For ex­am­ple, most book clubs will have a col­lec­tion of Jef­frey Archer, James Pat­ter­son, and Dan Brown books. A mix­ture of old and new au­thors and a va­ri­ety of plots and plans make book clubs dif­fer­ent at every meet­ing. The book ex­change process also makes the cost of new books a bit cheaper when peo­ple share a par­tic­u­lar novel. The wine also helps the dis­cus­sion of the book that is be­ing dissected.