GoodRead - Trend Setters?

I was wondering this today at work about authors and how/why their work got popular and how?

Think about it, if you will. When Harry Potter became popular, wizards suddenly became the “In” thing to read. The UK publisher ever printed an Adult Cover for those “grown-up” fans who were ashamed to read Harry Potter with the kiddy cover.

Then Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy came along and then, people started to read epic books that question religion.

Then conspiracy theories suddenly became popular due to one Dan Brown with his Da Vinci Code.

Then vampires became very popular due to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga.

And with every successful novel or series, there have been an upsurge of books that it linked in somewhere to the original. Look at vampires at the moment. Stephenie Meyer got popular, now we can’t go into the Young Adult section without seeing a supernatural or a vampire series waiting to catch your eye – ie. House of Night series, True Blood, MorganVille Vampires, etc.

Some people call these upsurges a fad. Some don’t, but they call them trends that will stay with us for quite some time.

So, with these authors that start a trend, are they trendsetters or were they at the right place at the right time, making them lucky?

I go with luck. But maybe the world of the internet has changed. I discovered two/three authors last year via podcasts and sites such as Twitter and YouTube. Both couldn’t exist without the internet. Whether people like it or not, the internet and social networking sites are playing a part in what books we decide to read or pay attention to.

So, what’s the next trend to hit the Teen section of a book shop? Well, by the looks of it, there are three contenders. We have the werewolves (and not a vampire in sight), Angels or dark human nature stories.

The best 3 examples from each of these 3 areas, I have read and reviewed. And they are, as followed:

Werewolf – “Shiver” by Maggie Steifvater
Angel – “Hush, Hush” by Becca Fitzpatrick
Dark Human Nature – “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins

Each of these seem to be making headway in the Young Adults section and all these books have got attentions of, not only readers and other authors, but also by film companies. The film rights to Shiver has been bought by Warner Bros (?), Hunger Games has been bought by Liongate and an angel-based story Fallen by Lauren Kite (with its three unwritten sequels) have been bought by Disney.

Each book within these 3 areas have fiercely loyal fans (and I class myself as one of them), but I have a feeling that angels might have the edge over the other two areas over the course of this year.

But whatever happens, it looks like fantasy or paranormal will be hanging round in the Teen Section for quite some time to come…