Discussion
Topic: Books
Does anyone else feel like romantasy has outgrown fantasy in popularity?
AutisticJester
in
Fantasy Book Club
6 comments
Road Master I think it's an age rating thing. I think romantasy is super popular in teen books. But less so in adult. But, just my own observation, there seems to be more female authors in teen books and more male authors in adult books. I also only read sci-fi and fantasy. I can't speak about any other genre.
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Madison C I think I'd have to agree with Road master. I feel like romantasy is more popular among teens and younger adults, Gen Z, while fantasy is more popular among the older generations. Also, I think romantasy tends to be more popular among the female population.
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AutisticJester Since it's more popular with the younger generation, they are more likely to make posts related to their reads...I'm guessing. I also found that there are more female book content creators. Maybe there's just something wrong with my algorithm on Instagram and YouTube to where I get far fewer male book content creators.
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Road Master You may have just watched more female booktubers and such early on, so that's what the algorithm gives you. Females are also more likely to talk about romantasy and such. I know of plenty of male booktubers. But they don't really talk about romance or romantasy. You may have set the algorithm early on. Or you may have an unconscious bias toward certain types of books or creators. The algorithms are weird.
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Brandon Reed I could make a full project of it, but I'll keep my analysis simple, for my own sake and everyone else's. The number one fiction book this week was "Somewhere Beyond the Sea," by TJ Klune, a non-romance fantasy novel. Number two, "Here One Moment" by Liane Moriarty, is another fantasy novel, this one concerned with an ensemble cast, some of whom have romance arcs and some of whom don't. Number eight, "A Court of Thorns and Roses," is the first romantasy book we see. This is according to The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/combined-print-and-e-book-fiction/
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AutisticJester It's hard to really make a sound assessment based on one week. I gather that you believe that non romance fantasy is still at the top of the genre.
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Brandon Reed As you say, I would want to look at a couple years worth of sales before I asserted that. I'd also want to look at more than a top 10 sales list. My method here was just a quick way to check the pulse without taking a full EKG. I would assert that both are at least still very pertinent to the contemporary pop-lit world.
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Courtney I think of fantasy as an umbrella term and romantasy would fall under this as a subgenre
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AutisticJester I know.
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Disgruntled Alchemist I think a large part of its popularity is overinflated a bit because of the visibility on social media. It’s targeting a demographic that is online more. And it doubles down by being easily marketable through keywords (aka tropes). Then add to that publishers like Red Tower who specialize in romantasy and have really aggressive marketing campaigns pumps up the perceived popularity of the genre. I might also add that to me the genre isn’t necessarily popular, but it has popular series (ACoTaR, Throne of Glass, Fourth Wing) and again, this hyper fixation on a few series is making it seem more popular.
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Olive Smith Me personally, I kinda have to have romance in my fantasy. Not saying I won’t read just fantasy, romance just adds to it and makes the story more engaging if that makes sense
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