I wouldn’t call myself an industry professional, or any sort of expert yet, but that doesn’t mean I can’t make an educated guess about book trends and publishing based on what I see now. And I’m sharing these opinions because I’m really, really happy about where this is going.
Diversity (yay!)
We still have so much to learn. There are so many people who are intolerant, ignorant, and plain evil. And as long as those people teach their children to be like that; intolerant, ignorant and evil people will always exist. That’s what makes it even more important fo us to push back and carve a space for us in our communities.
Art in covers is cool again
Have you noticed how there are less Young Adult fantasy covers featuring real life models? I’m not saying they’re bad, but we can all say that this style lends itself to so many tropes one does get sick of after a while.
However, when cover artists let their imagination run wild, they create some beautiful things! Like the covers of Rebel of the Sands, The Sun is Also a Star, and Under Rose Tainted Skies.
Trends change so fast, but I think we’ll have a healthy amount of this kind of covers lying around in the publishing industry.
Original storytelling
We have examples like Everything Everything, Illuminae, and so many other books that tell their stories in an unique, or unusual ways.
A lot of people were daunted by the idea of Illuminae because we’d never read something like that before. The reason why we raved so much about it, wasn’t so much about the plot. If you think about it, it wasn’t anything ground-breaking and so incredibly original. It was the way it was told. It was such a creative use of the story itself to make it as realistic as possible. To literally bring it to life.
I’m looking forward to more books incorporating different types of storytelling aside from the traditional prose.
Stereotype and cliche-challenging books
This goes hand in hand with diversity, but I wanted to talk separately about it because it’s more than that. It’s about every stereotype and cliche that doesn’t work.
- The romanticized bad boy that has highly unhealthy behavior (I love bad boys from time to time but I can’t turn a blind eye to some who just cross the line and can’t be forgiven.)
- The Mary Sue that thinks she’s plain even though everyone says she’s beautiful
- The girl on girl hate
And countless others.
I think people are speaking up more about these problematic things, and in the future, more of these books will be called out, and books that highlight healthy behaviors and situations will receive the appropiate support and praise!
Writer Bloggers
I’m so excited about this omg! I have the feeling that so many of us who are currently book bloggers will be the next generation of writers and that means all of the above will be multiplied. Because we see all of the issues with books, and we know what to steer clear off, and what matters… We’re gearing up and preparing ourselves, and I can’t wait for all the writers I know to finally publish their work. I know it’s going to be amazing!
I agree that it seems like there are great things on the horizon! People are becoming so much more sensitive to so many problematic topics—it can only be a good thing.
I am all for these new art covers!!! I’ve seen so many beautiful ones already! Also I’d love to see some of my favorite book bloggers release books, it’d be super cool!
I know right? I can’t wait for all these things.
I’ve been awaiting the return of art covers for a long time. However, I have to say I don’t think we’ll ever be free of stereotypes. New ones always emerge. The geeky girl who feels like she doesn’t belong probably started out as a realistic character written by former geeky girls, not as a stereotype. But when things become successful, they are copied by others until they are old and tired.
Huh, I hadn’t thought about that. You’re so right. *sigh* At least we have the covers! There are already so many new 2017 releases I have on sight to buy just because of that cover art!