What a cover tells you

Today I met a friend for coffee and a catch up in Bluewater shopping centre and after a long chat, very many laughs, we decanted to Waterstones because I always like to see what the new books are and what is 'trending' in the Fantasy and Hardback section.

It is good to keep an eye on the market and how it varies.

There has definitely been a change over the past year or two with Epic Fantasy (bar Sanderson) dropping off the radar of publishers and stores in favour of... CozyFantasy?

I am unsure if that is the right term.

Anyway, the store and shelves which focus the eye and advertise the current push were full of of that genre. I took a photo!

This is where the market currently sits for fantasy and we know that the genre goes through phases; epic, grimdark, cozy... and onwards

I did see some other books there, some recent, and by that I mean within the past five years. New books seem to hit the shelves as hardbacks and then find it hard to compete for space against all the other great older books which have proven track records of sales.

Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman is ubiquitous in Waterstones. I have read it, likely when it came out all the back in 2010. I've read the sequels too though I was much less impressed with them - indeed confused at many points. However, it must sell as it continues to be on sale in the shop and there were three or four copies of it available today.

There were older books for sale which date back all the way to 1982 when I was very young and the author has written prolifically in that world - from a magicians early life, to death, and now, I understand, to rebirth or reincarnation or rejuvenation, resurrection...

Covers tell us, the reader and writer, what is popular and what was written a year or two ago. What the future holds is anyone's guess which is why it is hard to write for a market that constantly changes.

So read and write what you enjoy... and maybe give some other things a go too.

You never know.

I bought the new Jack Reacher book, by the way, because I always do. It's a habit.