I have noticed that perhaps more than half of writers here and in other forums are writing in the fantasy genre. Is this because it is the best selling form or is it a fad of some sort? I wonder if agents are looking for fantasy more than other genres and if it is selling the most books. Romance mixed with conspiracy is my sort of thing. I don't have the imagination for fantasy and wonder if I am writing for a very small market.
Nope, romance is the biggest seller in the adult market by quite a margin. I believe around 50% of all adult books sold are in the romance genre. I'm not sure why WF attracts so many fantasy writers - other writing forums don't. Just a quirk of ours.
It's because it's such a - fantastic - forum Strangely I write fantasy because I don't believe that I have the imagination for romance which, as @Tenderiser says, is an enormous market.
I don't write a lot of fantasy because I generally dont' have the energy for it, though I used to play around with it a lot when I was younger, and I don't do a lot of romance because it's far too difficult to keep my natural cynicism out of my writing. I do actually like writing romance, but they usually end up sounding pretty dark and/or facetious, neither of which is really genre appropriate.
I too wondered about all the fantasy. And they always want the characters to go to a special school or take college courses and hope to mate with full humans, and...
Good to know that romance sells, thanks for the info. Re other forums I have noted most of the others are also predominantly populated by fantasy but I find it odd that most authors want to write in a genre most readers are not interested in.
I'm only really active in one other and there's a pretty proportionate spread of writers. Don't get me wrong, there are still big enough markets for all the mainstream genres; you can make a living writing fantasy for sure. But it is very much over-represented at WF.
I wasn't aware that fantasy was extra popular. It always seems to me that romance is number one. And I find it hard to NOT find romance books. I really don't think it's anymore popular than any other genre but I could be wrong. Harry potter and Game of Thrones probably has something to do with it's increased popularity but I'm not a fan of either one. I like writing all kinds of genres. I have written zombies, comedy and general fiction. (though nothing official)But I'm currently working on fantasy that I hope to publish and I can say it's one of my favorite genre because I practically live inside of my imagination. I live in the boring everyday life world, so I love letting my mind soar to the faraway land of fantasy books and to create my own laws and rules because...well, why not?. Plus due to my beliefs I believe everything they have written and shown in fantasy is REAL ,and that humans have done those things before and can still do them when they reach a high enough level. That Jinns,fairies, ghosts, demons,giants, and unheard of creatures are REAL.I don't think we are meant to live this shallow lifestyle and that there is a whole world of real life fantasy awaiting us but that's a whole nother story for another day.
I don't see it. And I especially don't see it for my preferred fantasy genre flavor, that being action-adventure fantasy.
The thought occurs that maybe fantasy authors often have gaming backgrounds etc. and may be more likely to get involved online whilst romance authors are busy reading poetry by streams in shaded dells?
No. no...fix your stereotype. Romance authors are chocolates, cats, passive-aggressive, aggressive Twitteratti mob - indoors and pasty. You're thinking the literature lady. A more significant tier, very delicate adorable goddess super-women, and men sometimes.
A special breed of cats with opposable thumbs. Not that other breeds of cats couldn't write romance, but they can't hold pencils very well and their paws are too cumbersome to utilize the keys on a Macbook. They could, of course get other cats to write for them, but the whole of cat society is based on a strictly upheld caste system that doesn't allow thumbed cats to do dictation for non-thumbed cats. Therein lies the conflict of our story, where a regular non-thumbed cat wishes to become a romance writer, defying societal norms, and meets a thumbed cat, who society pressures into writing romances, who neither wants to write nor can write. The two meet and begin a mutually beneficial business relationship that eventually blossoms into something more. Unfortunately, rumors soon begin to spread about the true authorship of the novels being produces, and the priest-like feline publishers are not happy.
I prefer fantasy like Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Chocolate factory fudge mountains and candy boats. And the Mouse and the Motorcycle - about a talking mouse who can ride a toy motorcycle just by making the noise Pb-pb-b-b-b-b. And Richard Peck's Secrets of the Shopping Mall - where a gang of mannequins come to life to terrorize some runaways. Kind of absurd surreal realism. That's the kind of fantasy I love but it can be hard to find, especially the grown up versions of these ideas, so I decided to write what I'd like to read. But I don't always write fantasy. My WIP is more general fiction.
I think you're onto something there. I've definitely heard the same thing about sci-fi, and fantasy is closely related.
Did I mention it's the story is back dropped by the Feline kingdom being attacked by Canine forces, led by the infamous commander Cerberus Rex, who's seeking to capture the cat's entire empire. He and his generals fight like cat and dogs on whether it's a good idea or not, but on the whole, they're pretty sirius about the whole invasion. ETA: I think I just accidentally wrote myself a treatment for a kids book.
Well, having more prospective customers doesn’t mean that YOU will get more customers. With very few exceptions, most authors get only a tiny, tiny percentage of the customer base anyway.
Well, I presume it is because a genre, in general, the public likes. It helps to the imagination and is something that is easy to create. But this is just my opinion.
Every time James Dean arrives on the forum we get this thread. Time to stand up for the fantasy writers. We can't all be writing 'my stools drop firmly, I clean my teeth with the electric brush, an incredible leap for technology, and my molars feel fantastic. Oh yeah, and hook. Where are my socks this morning?' [plus no 'like' for @Hammer. I was disgusted and offended by his avatar.]