Reading Trends Part II: Adult Fiction

So, now moving on to the latest trends in adult fiction ... What is the number one publisher which has seen the most growth and sales?  Harlequin. Gotta love that romance. Yet, as most of you know, Harlequin combines romance with a lot of other genres -- mystery/suspense, paranormal, historical. So, as long as you want the romance involved, there is something for everybody.
Genres that seem to have a growing audience are -- thrillers, Americana, literary, paranormal with an erotic touch, Christian fiction, and horror stories which are still making a ripple. Of course, anything offered in e-book format has a great chance of being read, especially romance novels. Such is the craze of the eReaders. What's most consistently popular, as readers have found in the past, will probably be such in the future. And that is anything by those authors at the top of the food chain -- James Patterson, Dan Brown, Nora Roberts, and the list goes on. What has changed is the path ones like James Patterson have taken. Several times he has linked up with a coauthor, and probably because of the growing interest in young adult books, he has ventured into that genre with novels like Maximum Ride. One more group to mention comes from the famous people who decide to write, maybe their memoirs or sometimes fictional works, and their books seem to sell, so publishers will keep on publishing them.

In my opinion, as a writer you may follow the trends, hoping to catch a ride on that rollercoaster while it's still flying high, but you need to be passionate about what you write. No matter what. Who knows? Maybe if you think of something entirely unrelated to the trends of vampires and werewolves or those other popular themes, maybe you'll be the one to start the next trend. Now, wouldn't that be something!