There are a lot of emerging literary genres that are growing in popularity and present opportunities for writers. In this niche genre exploration, we are going to focus on untapped market opportunities in the literary world as well as new and niche genres you could consider writing in.

Niche Genre Exploration: Why?

Before we dive into our niche genre exploration, let's look at why new and niche genres are always evolving.

Popular genres within fiction and nonfiction remain largely the same over time. Fiction consistently sees mystery and crime, romance, fantasy, and horror at the top of the bestseller list. Within these genres, there are subgenres, but they largely stay true to what is expected within the wider genre. In the world of nonfiction, self-help books and biographical books are typically popular.

So why, then, do new genre trends come about? Simply put, there will always be a longing for something different. As time moves on and the world around us changes, readers want different things from their stories. Whether it's a story that doesn't follow a classic narrative or a novel with a completely unconventional premise, a lot of readers want something new.

Niche genre trends tend to reflect modern life and society. And so, the development of new genres and types of books is often a reflection of the growth in society.

Modern readers are different from the readers of 100 years ago. Today's reader has a database of knowledge of common tropes and themes of stories. They have established expectations. It is only natural that modern readers want to challenge expectations and dive into new types of stories.

Untapped Market Opportunities: Emerging Literary Genres

We've broken our niche genre exploration into two sections:

Fiction
Nonfiction and poetry

We'll see there are new niche genre trends in both categories that have come from changes in society that impact the literary scene. These changes could be revolving around the technology that is now available to us, political and social issues, modern philosophy, and counterculture.

Niche Genre Exploration in Fiction

Fiction genres are constantly evolving. While the best-selling genres are consistently mystery, fantasy, and romance books that fly off the shelves, we consistently see with each new generation of authors emerging literary genres that challenge tropes and expectations.

Here are 13 new genre trends in the world of fiction:

Historical Slipstream: It's kind of like historical fiction meets fantasy. Have you ever wondered what the world would be like if a major historical event had played out differently? Historical slipstream looks at the ripple effect that could have been caused if things had been different in the past. Usually, this niche genre incorporates speculative elements into real-life events to give them a new outcome.
LitRPG: A huge part of modern digital culture revolves around gaming. LitRPG stands for literary role-playing game. Rather than the book telling a straight story, a piece of LitRPG gives the reader a task or a quest to fulfill to advance the story. It's a bit like if Dungeons & Dragons were incorporated into a book.
Bizarro Fiction: Think of the literary version of a cult film that is going against all conventions. The stories in this genre are absurd, sometimes grotesque, and just straight creepy.
Mundane Science Fiction: A lot of sci-fi revolves around fantastical elements that aren't grounded in reality. Mundane Science Fiction revolves around a more realistic view of technology and scientific issues. Basically, sci-fi is actually likely to happen.
Solarpunk: Rather than take a dystopian view of the future, Solarpunk approaches the future with optimism. This genre builds a world full of sustainable communities and positive environments. Basically, imagine a utopia.
Hopepunk: Justice and Resistance—this genre puts the focus on characters who are fighting for a better world. The opposite of a fiction story that revolves around a cynical viewpoint.
New Weird: The emphasis here is on the word weird. Involving aspects of horror, fantasy, and sci-fi but with non-traditional features in the story. And the narrative itself may even be unconventional in terms of the timeline or narrator.
Cli-Fi: Fictional stories with elements of real-world climate issues. Cli-Fi focuses on why addressing climate change is urgent and the catastrophic consequences of what happens when it's too late.
Afrofuturism: The popular superhero movie Black Panther is a good example of this. Basically, this genre covers futuristic sci-fi themes while incorporating African culture. Of course, Africa is a huge continent with a litany of cultures, so it's important when writing in this genre not to be reductive and to make generalizations across a whole continent.
Bitpunk: Who doesn't love a classic arcade game? Bitpunk involves telling a story with retro arcade game elements.
Lucid Fiction: Is it real or was it all a dream? Lucid fiction blurs the lines between dreams and reality. Oftentimes the narrative can be confusing, as it can be unclear whether or not what is happening in the story is real or a dream or hallucination.
Mythopoeia: Mythopoeia comes from the Greek word myth-making. Essentially, myth-making is more than just telling a single story; it's building a fictional world with its own history, society, and culture. In mythopoeia, an author is creating a whole mythology in the stories. Examples of this include Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings.
Fan Fiction: A fiction genre that has grown increasingly popular over the past few decades with the growth of fandom websites and forums. Fan fiction involves taking existing material and creating a new story with a new plot. The authors here could imagine if elements of a film, TV show, or book had played out differently or if the characters involved found themselves in different scenarios.

Untapped Market Opportunities in Nonfiction & Poetry

While a lot of emerging literary genres fall into the fiction category, we see new genre trends in the worlds of poetry and nonfiction too. Oftentimes, these emerging literary genres are informed by technological changes that allow creatives to share a story in a different way.

InstaPoetry: This is basically poetry that is written with the social media attention span in mind and published on a social media platform. It is short, has an enticing visual in the post, and is relatable to your followers.
Hyperpoetry: Similar to instapoetry, this is basically online poetry that's interactive. So there are hyperlinks and things that users can move or use. It's basically digital poetry.
Journal Blog: A lot of authors have blogs. They are a good way to continuously supply new content to your readers in an easy-to-write and produced way. If you're a nonfiction writer who can entertain, you could maximize your platform by starting a journal blog. This is essentially a blog talking about your life, whether that's your day, week, or month. You could take a humorous approach or a more philosophical approach to discussing issues big and small that come up in your daily life.
Social Media Threads: Everyone is on social media these days. As a matter of fact, as an author, you are expected to have some kind of online presence on a social platform. Something we've seen grow out of the explosion of social media as a communication method is people telling stories through the platforms. It's become common on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram for users to use their profiles to basically tell a story about their life or business. Of course, a lot of stories are, at the very least, exaggerated (if not occasionally fabricated), but they are presented as true stories with a moral or point at the end. Now, social media threads aren't exactly literature in the classic sense, but they are an adaptation of modern technology and the digital space we occupy to sell something. So it's possible to sell something (whether that's your book, your author brand, or your platform) or simply keep your followers entertained.

Niche Genre Trends and Challenges for Authors

One of the main challenges facing fiction authors is how competitive the literary scene is for fiction writers. When it comes to horror, fantasy, crime, and romance, there are so many authors that it can be hard to stand out.

Further to this, the challenge for an author within a niche genre is getting noticed in the first place. Readers often stick with what they know they are comfortable with and won't give books outside of the genres they usually read a chance.

Oftentimes, books within niche genres develop more of a cult following over time rather than being instantly successful. So, when writing in a lesser-known genre, you may have to be patient.

At the same time, we can see that niche genres offer untapped market opportunities. So, if you can make a name for yourself as one of the best writers within a certain niche, your work will become the book of choice for readers looking to dive into a new genre.

New Genre Trends

Emerging literary genres often involve elements of:

Incorporating modern culture and societal issues
Challenge assumptions within established literary genres

Society changes throughout different generations, with different issues rearing their heads. For example, LGBT+ themes have become more prevalent in society and now often feature more regularly in literature. Equally, we see with Cli-Fi that climate change and environmental issues are now more pressing. As issues become more prominent in society, they begin to be represented more within literature and media.

Another aspect of new niche genres is challenging established tropes that have been set in common fiction genres. We all know that in a romance the two main characters will probably get together, and in a mystery the detective will solve the case, but in modern niche genre books there is often a twist or variation on the expected formula. Sometimes things are not what they seem; there's a catch or a surprise along the way.

Literature is an ever-evolving, diverse field, so as time goes on, more new genres will emerge.

Final Thoughts

Our niche genre exploration shows us that book genres are constantly evolving and growing. While classic story formats remain popular, there is always space for emerging literary genres to become bestsellers.