My Book Publishing Predictions for 2025

[@Gene1969]

I predict a good year for authors.

[@terence7025]

I like the optimism.

[@rad4924]

I was looking back on my reading this year and I can tell romantasy is big by the fact that, even though I'm not a typically a fan of fantasy or romance, both genres have appeared surprisingly often in my list of books I read in 2024.

[@martinpatrick8964]

Martin of London, here. Thank you kindly for all your Information, Advice, and Guidance. It helped me decide I will work without a salesperson aka as an agent. There are excellent publishing agencies that can do a great job for you, here in the UK. I’ve taken that route. My main reason for doing so is simple. I will own my I.P and earn a far greater profit for my novel. Agreeing to let the current publishing industry and an agent to take most of the profit for your novel is utter madness. There is no annual salary writers can live on from a traditional publishing deal in 2025. You must have a basic job pay for your life. We deserve to earn an annual salary because of the HOURS that go into writing the novel.

[@AFringedGentianToEnnien]

I really appreciate your predictions, Alyssa. I think that the popularity of genre fiction is very encouraging, and that a rising tide will lift all of us boats! I’ve feeling like the wait and see approach is best for the profit share deals, and see how authors feel about it. I found it really helped me, when I was beginning to be very discouraged about querying, to research and make a list of small presses I might want to query. I decided to continue to query every agent on my list because I would regret it if I didn’t rule out agents. However, I’m wondering if I might be happier with a small press that doesn’t require an agent, because I write sci fi, and there are so few Big Five imprints for sci fi. So I thought that small presses might be a better fit. I’m really glad you addressed the AI issue because it’s been worrying me. Thank you for everything you do for us, Alyssa!

[@arthur.filipe]

Hello! A fan from Brazil here. I recently discovered your channel, and I find your guidance invaluable for beginner writers like myself. I also find you extremely elegant. A happy 2025 to you! :)

[@timmeyer9191]

Butcher Cabin Books is a horror themed book store in Louisville Kentucky. I sure hope to see more genre themed book stores.

[@5Gburn]

Oh my lordy! Thanks for mentioning this! I'm taking the "widening circle" approach and this is a perfect bookshop to approach on my first round!

[@SamWaldein]

Hello Alyssa, I love your videos, I went through many of them but I haven´t found a video, how to tackle or what to beware of when you skip timelines and incorporate reminiscing into the past, childhood or so. I would be very thankful for any tips (writing a memoir).

[@timmeyer9191]

I love the profit sharing idea, and I hope the authors that join authors equity much success. I do hope they have a good reprint program or at least a POD option to keep past books in circulation.

[@InvestigatingDavidCrowley]

Thank you for another insightful and helpful video.

[@fluffyspunsugar]

Very insightful, thank you.

[@wordsmith101]

Good predictions. All quite plausible.

[@UrbanSwagger]

Your Chapter Break with Sarah Sawyer - the Importance of Writing with Joy - was a banger!

[@RichardJBarbalace]

You mention genre fiction, and especially series increasing. What are your thoughts on literary fiction series?

[@katiefjelstad]

I was hoping for genre predictions... beyond Romantasy and romance adjacent... maybe she did this in another video...

[@phillipsmith254]

Have you reviewed your 2024 predictions? That would be an interesting video.

[@WilliamStarGames]

I plan on publishing my first book, which is a psychological/supernatural thriller in 2025

[@TheEccentricRaven]

Good insight Alyssa 👏

[@VinnyTheory]

Will the influence of rising romantacy make fantasy with subgenre of romance also rise?

[@johnnam1380]

As a romance writer and reader I love prediction number one 😂 I went to my first all romance book store this year and a new one opened up about an hour away from me!

[@KeilahJude]

Hey Alyssa! I love your video and agree with your 2025 prediction about Romantasy. Could I quote you/share your video as a little snippet in a YT vid? I’d love to credit you, but wanted to continue the convo!

[@KramersRemarks]

Romantasy will keep crushing it, and yes, debuts will keep getting the shaft 😅

[@rolandwright3502]

I hope not.

[@EHBradley]

What about indie horror?

[@rowan7929]

If my previous work doesn't get representation, my current adult contemporary romantasy may get it. The day I'm waiting for.

[@martinsadl1936]

Thanks for this helpful video, Alyssa. Is modern historical fiction popular?

[@AnnieRMcEwen]

Excellent precis of where the industry can be expected to go in 2025.

[@damianmiller4026]

Hi my name is Damian Keith Miller I'm a self published author I tried finding an agent but I couldn't and had no idea how to bring my book up to a publishing house but eventually I would like to publish a book traditionally instead of self publishing like I have been

[@5Gburn]

Agents won't accept submissions of previously published work, if this is what you mean. Submit a new title.

[@theknightshiftvideo]

This video introduced me to a new term: "romantasy". I think that's the name of the genre of the novel I've had in mind to write. Of course I would be a debut novelist so my chances of seeing it published are next to nil, so there's that 😕

[@SteveJubs]

Start now and find out! Wrote just 200 words a day this year and ended up with a 72,000-word first draft. Can’t try to publish something that doesn’t even exist yet, so give it a shot!

[@terence7025]

My prediction is that more and more of the self publishing path will be clogged with automated scripts. It won't be for a few years, but the only decently edited and human written stories will be through the traditional publishing methods. That will make their copyright and trademarks valuable and the only reliable path to a good story. Not entirely a robot apocalypse.

[@nyxcole9879]

Alyssa-is there any hope for a horror debut author?

[@ericduran5818]

I've been wondering this myself, my novel is a historical horror.

[@melvindodson6827]

😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

[@sunshinegirlonbeach1993]

Ohhhh no no. No advance sounds bad for regular authors

[@MarkLaw-xy9vf]

Ikr

[@neasanicdhomhnaill7112]

It's shocking, it's just another way to try to exploit writers. The transnational companies that are using AI technology are pushing to monopolise on every industry including the creative arts. I'm glad to see penguin/random house take a strong stand against that and hope other publishers will follow

[@5Gburn]

"But it's so great! Celebrities can do it--why can't you paeons?!" Gooooood grieeeeef. AE must think most authors are devoid of brain matter. Also: it's pretty obvious they're not going to rep the little guy.

[@roberthulett8500]

Here’s to all the aspiring authors! May 2025 bring you success!

[@TheMemeMachineMatt]

I just hope that I have a really good year lol

[@timmeyer9191]

Does "Fair Use" complicate limiting the use of publications to train A.I.? In the U.S. copyright laws, there are allowances to use copyrighted material for educational/training purposes. Of course, it was not intended to train computer systems, but the laws do not forbid it as long as the copyrighted material is not being copied directly. If authors studied a book and used an outline of its plot as inspiration to their own book, I don't see any violations there. We've all seen "retellings" and fan fiction being converted into new comercial publications. If a teacher can use a book to inspire the creative writing in their students, why can't a programmer do the same with their A.I. students? Another question, if the A.I. is not passing off copyrighted material as a new product it created, why can't it's programmers be protected by fair use when training their programs?

[@lewiscrow]

I predict that I will sell fewer books than I want.... ☹

[@michaelburke4048]

Genre fiction will continue to rise. Me: Woo hoo! All your examples are romance. Me:

[@bevgreen8165]

Thanks for getting rid of that e-book spammer with the fake votes and comments.

[@sejensen92]

I've already been disenchanted by the traditional publishing market. Yes, self-publishing is a ton of work and can get expensive really fast, but I'm honestly tired of jumping through hoops and singing someone else's tune. Time to take matters into my own hands. I also wish we could boycott Audible with the continued rise of audiobooks. They promised better royalties when Brandon Sanderson got after them, and I feel like they did the bare minimum to make him happy. I say it's not enough.

[@marcelolage1395]

Traditional publishing will eventually disappear if they don't adapt fast

[@rolandwright3502]

Fourth wing oh what a terrible written book. I had to question the author's writting skills. Does anyone know how to write well these days. And that make me push harder on my writing skills.

[@ericduran5818]

It doesn't matter, it sells, skills have nothing to do with it. It's what's popular and it's less of a risk when the genre is so successful and there is a demand for it. It sucks but that's how business works. There is a boom in the market similar to comic book movies 5 years ago when they dominated the box office and there was 5 or 6 of them a year. Same thing with this genre.

[@rolandwright3502]

@ericduran5818 You say skills have nothing to do with it...well every writer out there should have a book deal.

[@rachdanaelee]

2500 to let ai learn off of you so that it might make millions in the future while also making less room for human authors seems like a massively bad deal

[@scifidesign2]

Many genres are on the rise. Its because, the film industry is failing miserably at the moment. More people are turning to books, because books can fire the imagination more than a film.

[@BruceWayne15325]

I doubt publishers taking a hard stance on AI companies will amount to much. The AI companies raped the author community back in the day so they could get their initial models, but nowadays they use machine generated training data rather than user data for the most part. They can tailor the data to whatever aspect they are trying to train. I'm not excusing the AI companies, they should be sued into the ground for their blatant theft years ago, but those days are largely over. At least for the flagship models.

[@larssjostrom6565]

I suspect that the worse real life gets(inflation, etc.), the more we need escapism like fantasy, and the more people remain single the more we will need romantic fiction as replacement. When it comes to AI, while I appreciate that a licence that gives the author payments for using the book to train an AI, much will happen in AI development in the future and I fear that it will primarily benefit the AI companies, not the writers and other creators. But it might also make it easier to produce content like movies with less recources, which could benefit creators. Think an AI coming up with different plot developments and the writer can chose between them. (Did I come up with a sci-fi novel here? 🤣)

[@mattringler5410]

kinda waiting for all the woke crap to die down, my writing isnt woke.

[@5Gburn]

Mine, either. I have one that seems that way at first, but soon enough you get the "Surprize, b**ches!" score of 11 and it ends up a tragedy. Definitely self pubbing.

[@katgreer6113]

woke is such an overused word. Sheep minded people just use that word to describe things they don't like.

[@ladyursala]

Preach. My book is pro America pro gun pro masculinity pro life anti communism, and I’m a white woman so I’m pretty much screwed 😂

[@5Gburn]

​@@ladyursalaI wonder if you could pitch to shops that sell g-nz?

[@5Gburn]

Same. It seems that way, though...big twists show otherwise.

[@bevgreen8165]

(Looks at western manuscripts) Number 1. Great - insert eyeroll here. Number 2. Could be good. Number 3. That might be the best option for a first timer. Number 4. Nope. Nope. Nope. Like reading the comments, but Alyssa, take care of the spammer, please....