Fading trend: You already missed this wave
THIS IS WHY TRENDS ARE IMPORTANT
This is a follow up to our last post about trends. The reason I write posts that capture current trends is so you understand what’s popular and take advantage of it.
But many trends are just blips, and if you didn’t take advantage of them during the time span they were trending upwards, then you missed the boat. I’ll give an example so you know what I mean.
For the last four years, non-fiction travel books have enjoyed a climb in sales growth. If you consider that three of those years have been scarred by the pandemic, then it’s not so hard to see why this category has been doing well.
But travel is back to what it was before the pandemic (as far as regulations). In my opinion, that means this trend of non-fiction travel books doing well is likely on its way downwards.
Now, there are other factors impacting why travel books are popular. The proliferation of travel bloggers is one determining factor. These vloggers are turning their passion for travel into books, and their followings are tuned in enough to give these books a chance. But I don’t see that as a strong enough cause to maintain the year over year growth that travel books have enjoyed. In a year or two, this trend will die down.
But think about if you were tapped into this trend two years ago, three years ago. And think about if you actually have a passion for travel. You would’ve been able to put those two things together and sell some books independently or possibly get a book deal with a decent sized advance.
That’s the power of trends.
The publishing industry relies on trends to some extent. It’s not the only factor that determines if they give writers a chance, but it is important. It’s the reason you’re not seeing any more books on Donald Trump being published. It was hot while he was in office and directly after, but not so much right now.
This is why staying on top of trends is so important. It’s why Writers Are Superstars will do our best to research and share these trends with you. If any of them speak to you — meaning you authentically connect to the trend — then it’s your opportunity to leverage your skills and your passion and turn it into some dollars.