If you’ve been contemplating what genre sells the most books, its important to understand that popular genres come and go, but there are some genres that seem to be constantly popular. Stories of the genres we’ve mentioned in this article seem to draw readers over and over again, year after year. Remember, the readers always want more stories that belong in the genres we’ve listed, especially if the stories are completely new and original. The genres below also offer plenty of different, special niches where your story is sure to find its place. Every writer should consider placing his or her book in the right genre, according to the story they are writing, of course. That might be harder than it seems, especially if you think your book will not fit in a popular genre. To help you find both the right and well-liked genre for your story, we’ve gathered the most popular genres of today below, along with the many different niches they offer.
1. Romance
Readers can never get enough of romance. In a romance novel, the hero and heroine meet, fall in love, conquer every obstacle in their path to happiness, and they succeed. There are many variations, or niches, of the romance genre, the most popular being YA romances, paranormal romances, etc. The most important thing to remember when writing a romance novel is that the hero and heroine must have a happily ever after. If your hero and heroine don’t find that, then you should look for a different genre, because this might make a lot of readers angry.
2. Mystery, suspense and thriller
We’ve put these three genres together because a good mystery/detective novel has plenty of suspense, and danger, which are elements that belong to the thriller genre. Of course, this is not strictly necessary, but if you’re writing a suspense novel, a good idea would be to add a mystery that the protagonist has to solve, while being in danger of the antagonist. Remember, everyone is and should be a suspect of committing the crime that has happened at the beginning, and red herrings only make the search more exciting and suspenseful.
3. Fantasy and paranormal
Fantasy is always fun, not only for its paranormal elements, but also for the strange worlds that take the readers in and don’t let go. There are plenty of niches where your novel can find its place, like urban fantasy, where there are fantasy elements and creatures, which appear in a big city, or paranormal thriller, where ordinary people are thrust into a situation of sudden terror, and they have to deal with a paranormal creature straight out of their nightmares.
4. Young Adult
A good portion of YA novels are labelled as YA romance, which might be incorrect, but nobody will make a mistake if they label their novel as a young adult coming-of-age story. The reason why this happens is because the protagonist of a YA story is, primarily, in their teens. A person in their teens will experience love for the first time, and they will deal with a lot of internal and external issues and insecurities to find their own place in the world and come of age and grow. As long as your story has these elements, then it will be a great YA novel, regardless of genre. Just remember that YA novels end on a hopeful note for the future.
5. Science Fiction
Science fiction might seem difficult to a lot of writers to achieve, because they believe they must get the science part correct. That’s true, and requires plenty of interest in modern and futuristic technology, but, if your story is set into the far future (be it a dystopian or a utopian world, or somewhere in between), then the technology is all up to you. What the readers look for in a science fiction novel is the humane factor – or more importantly, how the science affects the people in the story. A good science fiction story can have teenagers as protagonists, or adults, and the readers will enjoy it just the same as long as the story is original. There is no need to be extremely scientific in your science fiction story – your readers don’t want a textbook, but a story that has plenty of fun, exciting technology, drama, and maybe even a totalitarian regime.
Editor’s Note: This article was first published in January 2016.
Image credit: Pixabay
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/photo.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Georgina Roy wants to live in a world filled with magic. As an art student, she’s moonlighting as a writer and is content to fill notebooks and sketchbooks with magical creatures and amazing new worlds. When she is not at school, or scribbling away in a notebook, you can usually find her curled up, reading a good urban fantasy novel, or writing on her laptop, trying to create her own.
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