trailblazing authors who bucked book market trends and achieved success
Emerging authors often struggle with the question, ‘Should I write what I want to write, or should I write what is on trend?’ While there is no right or wrong answer, it’s essential for any author seeking big house publication to carefully examine which parts of their book may be on trend and which parts of their book may contradict trends.
Trends may include such things as writing from a first-person point of view, popular tropes, diverse representation (more of a necessity than a trend), older protagonists, the style of writing, atypical word counts, or writing in popular genres like suspense, to name a few.
If, after careful analysis, you have found that your book is somewhat unconventional, it’s still possible to publish, but to pitch it properly and win over agents and publishers alike, you must first understand your intention to buck trends and then convince others why this choice is marketable.
Plenty of authors have bucked trends and amassed great success. Let’s look at what they did and how it differed from what was popular at the time.
Trends
Like the retail industry, trends in publishing shift quickly, and what may be popular today likely won’t be popular for long.
One of the biggest trends impacting the book market right now is the popularity of Romantasy books, which generated $610 million in sales in 2024 alone. While Romantasy is enjoying its moment in the spotlight, it’s only a matter of time before another genre replaces it.
Just as the Cabbage Patch Kids dominated the collectible toy trend in the 1980s, it was eventually replaced by Beanie Babies in the 1990s. In 2025, Beanie Babies have been replaced by Labubus.
While the publishing industry may feel like a fast-churning machine, with countless books available in several formats, behind the scenes, publishing is a slower, more methodical process, which affects the ability to target trends effectively.
For instance, an author might sign a contract with a publishing company in August, but their book isn’t in stores until the following Spring. In seven months, it’s possible that while the book may have been on trend in the Summer, by Spring, another trend has taken over.
The Benefits of Publishing Timelines
The time it takes to bring a book to the market may sound discouraging, but this prolonged timeline offers an opportunity. Since publishers know they might miss the mark on releasing books in alignment with current trends, they reserve space for material that is considered unconventional.
The thought is that either the author is ahead of her time and the trend will catch up, or the author is so revolutionary that she will create a new trend. A great example of starting a new trend is author Stephenie Meyer, of Twilight fame, who made the Romantasy genre so popular.
While it’s still considered a gamble for publishers to contract a book that falls outside the margins of what is trending, it’s a risk they’re willing to take on occasion.
The Trailblazers
Helen Fielding
Contemporary writing style tends to be one element within the publishing world that doesn’t hold a lot of room for alteration. As readers, we’re used to seeing dialogue separated, petite paragraphs focused on a single idea, and shorter sentences. However, a few authors have deviated from standard form and found success going against traditional standards.
Not long ago, “diary-like” prose, or stream of consciousness writing, was deemed unsellable. Agents and publishers disliked this style of writing, considering it “pedestrian” at best and, at worst, “lazy.”
Then came Helen Fielding’s book, Bridget Jones’s Diary, and well, we know how that ended – spectacularly well, with over $15 million in sales.
If your style of writing circumvents contemporary writing styles, keep in mind your purpose and what you’re trying to achieve. With Bridget Jones’s Diary, Fielding’s purpose and intention were to give readers an in-depth look at a single woman’s honest thoughts about her insecurities, friendships, family, and dating.
Lucy Score
Lucy Score is a New York Times bestselling author of contemporary romance novels. Known for writing steamy sex scenes, heartwarming small-town settings, and creating relatable characters, she has sold over ten million books worldwide.
While most contemporary romance heartthrobs and protagonists are in their late twenties or early thirties, in Score’s Knockemout series, the heartthrob is forty-three and the protagonist is thirty-six. The industry is beginning to see an increase in older character thanks to authors like Score, who fearlessly bucked the current trend at the time.
What’s remarkable about Lucy Score’s bestseller success is that her contemporary romance novels average a 150,000-word count. When the standard publishing “rule” or trend for Romance word counts is between 70,000 and 100,000 words, a 150,000-word book is a significant increase and deviation from the norm.
Score broke into the industry back in 2015 when she self-published a novella (between 20,000-40,000 words) and caught the attention of a small publishing company. The publishers reached out to Score and offered to publish her if she agreed to turn her novella into a novel, which she did, writing Undercover Lover. Score went on to write more books and, with the help of her publishers, established a large platform of readers.
Currently, Lucy Score is published by Bloom Books, an imprint of Sourcebooks Publishing. According to Jane Friedman, Bloom Books is one of the fastest-growing imprints today. Other well-known authors from Bloom Books include E.L. James, of the Fifty Shades of Grey series.
Score took a calculated risk on what readers and publishers were looking for and found great success. Her fan base is more than willing to read her more robust romance books of 550 pages. Together, Score and her readers have proven that sometimes, rules and trends around word count need to be changed.
If you are over your genre’s word count, is it a purposeful choice, or are you unwilling to kill your darlings?
Lucy Score defends her word count choice because she needs the words to develop numerous characters, her small towns, and sub-plots, all of which continue throughout her series. Since she developed a fan base before being published by Bloom Books, she was able to provide evidence that readers are interested in more in-depth characters and longer romance reads.
If you are considering a higher word count, clarify why and for what purpose. In your Query letter, make sure to list one of your comparison authors as someone who has successfully sold books with higher word counts and draw a parallel to your manuscript. This will inform agents and publishers that your word count is intentional and not due to a lack of editing.
Colleen Hoover
With over twenty million books sold, bestselling author Colleen Hoover is renowned for her fast-paced romances, plot twists, and characters with complex pasts. While her average word count is on par with industry standards, she’s defied popular romance trends in other ways.
For example, in most romance novels, it’s rather conventional to describe the love interests’ looks in depth and create unique personalities for each character.
Colleen Hoover’s characters, however, can best be described as the “everywoman” or “everyman.” Often, they are introduced with scant physical descriptions. Fans of hers have cited this as a positive aspect because it helps readers envision themselves as the protagonist, or they can picture the love interest as someone relatable rather than the typical movie star billionaire descriptions one might find in other romance novels.
Aside from limited physical descriptions of her characters, they also tend to be less developed and unique than Lucy Score’s characters. While Hoover’s characters are compelling, engaging, and often come from complicated backgrounds, their personalities are somewhat vague. In other words, if I were to interview all her characters from all her books, I’m confident that many of them would present as interchangeable.
Using the show Friends as an example, every character in the cast is so well developed that you can easily predict how they will act and respond in any given situation. With many of Hoover’s books, this isn’t the case, and perhaps, this is part of her intentional goal in enhancing her plot twists and turns.
I should mention that I’m a fan of Hoover’s, so in no way is this a negative commentary on her work. Instead, it serves as evidence that she doesn’t always follow the trends, such as developing holistic characters that exhibit depth and unique perspectives. While I tend to gravitate toward books with deep characterization, like those written by author Wally Lamb, I also enjoy Hoover’s characters.
If you choose an unconventional characterization, understand your intention and make sure to find parallels in works of successful authors to help pitch your story.
Rupi Kaur
Rupi Kaur is a bestselling author of poetry, known for her feminist subject matter, straightforward prose, and avoidance of figurative language. She is one of the trailblazers who wasn’t deterred from producing poetry despite the prevailing literary trends. Kaur has sold over eleven million books and continues to push boundaries in the poetry world.
Poetry is notoriously a hard sell, and if Kaur had followed the rule of submitting only what was on trend, she would have missed out on becoming one of the most successful poets of our time. In trusting her intuition and writing with authenticity, she made the right choice, rejecting contemporary rules about what was selling.
Figurative and lyrical writing styles are considered a convention of most poetry. Yet, Kaur wasn’t drawn to using “flowery” language and instead expressed her thoughts through unadorned, plain language.
While some critics found this almost vulgar within the poetry world, others, such as her eleven million readers, liked the simplicity of her words. For them, it felt raw, real, and honest. In following her intuition, Kaur went against current trends and was highly successful in her endeavor.
Should I Write What I Want to Write or Write What’s on Trend?
If you are writing what you want to write, your story will be more authentic and compelling than if you’re forcing yourself to write “on trend” and it doesn’t feel like a natural fit for you as a writer.
Many writers attempt to follow popular trends because they believe it’s an easy sell for agents and publishers. Writers who choose this path are often unsuccessful because their story comes across as forced and inauthentic. It’s best to use trends that fit your tone, voice, message, and intention rather than to follow a trend ambivalently.
If you have written a story you believe in and feel passionate about, and you have had it reviewed and revised, it’s worth submitting regardless of whether it goes against current trends.
Of course, just because a writer trusts their intuition and is passionate about their story doesn’t mean their book will sell. Still, the authenticity and passion of the writer will stand out in the agent’s mind, and it could be the deciding factor for an agent requesting to read the author’s other work.
Don’t forget to do your research and submit first to agents or publishers who have previously taken chances on other unconventional stories and have found success.
Remember too, that just because a story may not be publishable now, doesn’t mean it won’t be publishable in the future, since trends change often.
It’s Okay to Go Against Trends with Purpose and Intention
Traditionally, most romances were written in third-person limited, and many with dual points of view. In recent years, however, many romance novels have been written from a first-person point of view and have been markedly successful.
Bucking trends requires first knowing what the trends are and then understanding your intention to break them. As Pablo Picasso famously stated, "Learn the rules (trends) like a pro so that you can break them like an artist.”
If your intuition and creative spirit compels you to rebel against a current trend, your story has the potential to be successful, even groundbreaking. Not only are you staying true to yourself, but you are also helping to pave the path for other authors to follow.
