Quote:
Originally Posted by Giovanna Clairval  So, asking...
Can you tell us what are the great trends in Fantasy in 2008?
What are the publishers reflecting on?
Is the interest in series holding? Is the range of novels (sub-genre and themes) getting more broad, as in the past years, or can we foresee greater polarisation?
Is the supernatural sub-genre living up its past?
And how are the new authors published in 2007 doing? Can their results teach us something about the future?
Too many questions? |
There is no one trend. Big books still sell, small books don't (120,000 words on up).
I have no idea what publishers are reflecting on, other than sales figures!
Series have outsold one-off novels for twenty years and more in fantasy, and will continue to do so. The majority of the readership likes a setting they know (however spiky and difficult the story is). Not 'polarisation', just breadth of imagination. That's good.
Supernatural fiction is living up to its present, which is all any commercial genre can do.
There is no template re. 2007 authors - or any other year. It's subjective. The main thing to say is that fantasy is a broader genre than it was twenty or so years ago, when anything that didn't have wizards, magic artefacts, etc., was considered uncommercial in major-league terms.