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It is already shaping up to be another exciting and fruitful year in book publishing! So, as we kick off 2023, I wanted to do an overview of what trending book genres we might expect to see. This might be especially interesting to you if you are a writer with a current work in progress and you potentially want to query literary agents this year. I did a similar article for 2022’s book genre trends, but this year I took a more data-driven approach.

I pulled all tweets that included #MSWL, or manuscript wishlist, from December 1st to January 10th. These tweets came from agents talking about what kinds of queries they wanted to see in their inboxes. When I pulled the data, I analyzed which phrases and words were being used most often in the tweets, and have compiled the top five trending genres I saw mentioned.

One thing to note is that sometimes the #MSWL is used by writers to describe their manuscripts, so there is going to be some of that information mixed in. But predominantly the hashtag is used by literary agents and editors at publishing houses seeking new manuscripts, so I feel pretty confident that we can trust that these are the top trending book genres for 2023

Also, remember that this is purely informational. I am in no way advocating that you should only write in these genres or you should trash your project if you're not writing in these genres.

1. Young Adult

The number one top trending book genre for 2023 is Young Adult—I saw 104 mentions of it in the #MSWL hashtag.

To give you a bit more color into what specific sub-genres I saw agents mentioning, there were references to YA with a magical element, YA science fiction and fantasy, YA with LGBTQIA+ characters, and some YA retellings of classic stories, such as Greek mythology or literary classics.

So, if you are writing YA, this might be a fruitful querying year for you because clearly this is a genre that more agents are interested in picking up.

2. Romance

Romance had 70 mentions in the #MSWL hashtag, making it the second trending genre for 2023.

Last year, one of the top trending book genres I mentioned was rom-coms, and rom-coms are actually number nine on the list this year, so that overarching genre of romance is continuing to be popular. I saw several agents mentioning the Netflix rom-coms series Emily in Paris.

Agents were also mentioning that they want sweet reads or swoon-worthy type reads. Other agents are on the flip side seeking romantic suspense novels. YA agents are especially looking for romance stories featuring LGBTQIA+ characters.

3. Fantasy

The next top trending genre for 2023 is fantasy, which had 63 mentions in the #MSWL hashtag.

Fantasy was on my list last year as well, and it is persisting into this new year as a popular trending genre. This spans from adult through YA and middle grade fantasy. I would say I did see a few more agents leaning into middle grade and YA fantasy, but there were a healthy number of agents also seeking adult fantasy. There were mentions of fantasy romance as well, so if your story has that romantic subplot, that could be intriguing.

To be more specific, some agents mentioned they'd like to see magic and witches in their fantasy projects. Plus, agents are especially interested in fantasy settings that are non-European or non-Western based.

4. Horror

The fourth top trending genre for 2023 is horror, which had 49 mentions in the #MSWL hashtag.

Horror, as a genre, is still on the rise.There is clearly an overall resurgence in interest in horror across media, and especially in book publishing. There is a specific interest in adult horror, and agents were mentioning being interested in supernatural and ghost stories. Some are looking for more light horror, which I interpret to mean having less focus on gore and violence. Others referenced being particularly interested in survivalist or isolation stories, meaning characters that are locked up somewhere and have to fight to live.

5. Middle Grade

The final trending book genre for 2023 is middle grade, which had 38 mentions in the #MSWL hashtag search.

From what I saw, agents are especially interested in middle grade stories that have a strong voice and strong main character, and that feature kids from diverse backgrounds. I saw references to agents being interested in both contemporary middle grade as well as fantasy middle grade.

In terms of structure, agents emphasized stories having a strong overarching theme or message, so if you are writing middle grade, make sure that that comes through strongly no matter what sub-genre you're working in.

A Visualization of the #MSWL

Here is a word cloud of all the top phrases and genre categories that came up in my search. In the word cloud, you're going to see some additional genres that didn't make it to the top five list, like “thrillers” and “mysteries.” You will also see some descriptive words that speak to the types of characters or stories that agents want to see, including “neurodiverse,” “indigenous,” and “Black.” Some of these words also give insight into the type of tone that agents are looking for, such as “dark,” “joyful,” and “immersive.” These speak to the more qualitative elements of your story.

I hope this article offers you some insight into a few genre trends we might see in 2023. If you are writing in one of these genres, great! Querying your story this year might be fruitful for you. If you aren’t, don’t fret. What’s more important than following a trend is having a solid manuscript that is polished, unique, and true to your own voice. Regardless of what genre you write, strong writing will always prevail–so if you’re looking to improve your writing, spend some time this year on that!

Thanks so much for reading, and happy writing!