Popular Book Genres that Authors Can Find Profitable
This year has made new readers from the previous year continually read books from the pandemic's start. Authors made predictions last year that for the year 2022, more readers will engage in reading books with different genres. As lots of tragedies and events where opposition from opposing groups of people arise, some genres have paved their way to be profitable due to some scenes reflecting today's reality.
5 Profitable Book Genres
According to comprehensive surveys, the top five profitable genres that authors can explore are the following:
1. Romance
The romance genre may come from fiction and non-fiction literature, and its main plot is about two people's love stories. Like any genre, romance has a conflict, but the main goal is to highlight the love story. It is the most common genre usually combined with other book genres.
This genre has the most widespread readers, and it is no wonder that it stays on top of the most profitable genre of all time. It also has many sub-genres listed like young adult, inspirational romance, historical romance, romantic tragedy, etc.
2. Mystery
Like romance, the mystery genre may come from fiction and non-fiction. However, it is usually associated with fiction literature most of the time. It is also called detective fiction as most books about mystery involve a detective trying to solve the case, and it is their goal to engage their readers to solve the subject as well.
An "exciting hook" is how authors sell their story with a mystery genre. They keep the readers sitting in suspense in every chapter and satisfy them in the ending by answering all the questions.
This genre ranks second as the most profitable after romance. Most Mystery books get highly adapted into movies and series widely popular on streaming services such as Netflix.
3. Fantasy and Science Fiction
Fantasy and Science Fiction are two genres that have relative creation of fictional characters, settings, and plots that will entice readers to widen their imaginative minds.
Sci-Fi is the shortened version of Science Fiction. It gathers inspiration for building a story involving discussions about science such as time travel, space exploration, psychology, and technology-driven society.
On the other hand, Fantasy deals with fictional characters from mythology and folklore. This genre usually touches on magic elements that are attractive for both children and adults.
These two genres continually have a safe place in terms of profitability since their market base is mostly the kids who are into the world of fantasy and science. We can't deny that these genres are primarily products of kids' imaginations.
4. Horror and Thriller
Horror and Thriller is another duo book genre that offers the same intensity of emotions. Both genres trigger suspense that cause the human feeling of fear.
Thriller serves stories that are mysteriously dark in general and provide suspense-driven plots. Plot twists, red herrings, and cliffhangers are the elements of the story that Thriller gives to their readers that make them guess in almost every chapter of the book up until the end of the story.
Meanwhile, Horror creates stories with themes of death, demons, evil spirit, and the afterlife. The characters that are generally involved in a horror story are the following: ghosts, vampires, werewolves, witches, and monsters. They intend to scare, startle, shock, overthink and even repulse their readers as their rule of engagement.
Even though Horror and Thriller trigger negative emotions in the readers, it is still part of the most profitable genres of all time. The stories make use of one's curiosity over some dark mystery.
5. Religion and Self-help
Although the Religious and Self-help genre is generally informative and does not necessarily venture into making stories about it, these books managed to save the last spot as the top-selling book genres.
Self-help books contain motivational content on personal, financial, career, and many other aspects that have room for improvement. They offer a manual that aims to empower and uplift their readers in overcoming their struggles in life.
In the same essence, Religious books also offer the same content as self-help books but with the interrelation of one's religion and faith.
These genres make their way to the top five list, especially in all that is happening globally. Reading books with these genres made the readers feel better as anxiety and fear grew in their hearts due to the everyday turmoil.
As a writer who wants to earn profit over the passion of writing, it is crucial to get a good headstart on what story to start working on, especially that now, millions of published books are trying to penetrate the book market.
Although the romance genre is a constant first placer on the list, it doesn't mean that it is necessary to create another romance book just to gain profit. Remember that it is still vital to create a compelling story regardless of what genre to use.