Dancing With Trends

Posted by: Jenna Bayley-Burke
Currently working on: getting the house sale-ready
Waiting on: word on the twice re-worked partial

Mood: exhausted and tired of being sick
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Writing is a labor of love. It can be lots of fun, but it is also loads of work. Your heart must be in it, or it really shows in the writing. However, as authors we need to sell what we write, and to do that we must create a story our publisher reads and sees great sales numbers adding up. Often, that means a book that takes advantage of what is hot in the market.

Unfortunately, writing to market is a double edged sword. By the time your book is finished, the market migt be saturated with the type of story you've created. With this uncertain economy, romance is one of the genres expected to stay strong. There are rumors inspirational and historical will be the next romance market boom. Why? Faith that the world will improve, and pure escapism.

The biggest 'trend' in romance novels seems to be ebooks. Not just ebook publishers putting out more stories, but traditional publishers making the ebook transition. While audio book sales are dipping, and adult mass market is flatlining, ebooks are on the rise. Oprah and Martha Stewart's on air praise of the Kindle can't hurt. Neither can the new focus on living a less cluttered life. You can compress an entire bookshelf onto a flash drive. No one can see your book addiction. Not that I'd know ANYTHING about that.

One of my publishers puts novels out in ebook form first, so I'm covered on the ebook front. As to the subgenre trends, I can't write to either of them. I'm holding on that Dear Authors' Save The Contemporary campaign generates sales for what I write. It all comes back around. :)