Romantasy is everywhere. You will have noticed that not only in this column but wherever people are talking about books, whether in traditional media or social media. It feels as though this has been going on for as long as I can remember but, of course, it hasn’t. The big boom in the genre has been gathering steam for a year or so.
ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway
A few days ago, Jane Friedman gave a fascinating analysis of the romantasy boom that is particularly noteworthy because it suggests that the trend has the legs to run for years to come—and is already spilling over into other genres. This would mean that, on the one hand, it’s not too late for writers cutting their first teeth in the genre right now, and there may be new ground to be broken for those looking for interesting crossovers.
I highly recommend subscribing to Jane’s blog, and I won’t lift many of its details, but the key points are sufficient to carry the message for writers: romantasy has time left and potential for new ground.
What the Data Says
Some of those key points, as Jane Friedman discusses with Alex Newton from K-lytics, are as below.
Publishing trends tend to last for five to ten years. They cite the billionaire romance trend sparked by Fifty Shades of Grey, which peaked and then fell off over that timescale, along with subgenres of that trend that seem to be following a similar trajectory.
Romance continues to dominate bestsellers on Kindle. In the charts at the time they write, romance accounted for sixty-one of the top 100 titles.
New Niches Are Emerging
The thing that struck me most was that science fiction and fantasy genres are currently dominated by romance rather than what we might call high fantasy or giant world-building sweeps and sagas.
And a final key indicator of the direction of travel is the emergence of romantasy subgenres. It is here that surely things will proliferate in the years to come. And with so much potential for new niches, it is possibly here that the greatest potential for staking out a claim to new ground now lies.
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