Pre-Frankfurt buzz: 'up-lit', toxic relationships, and smart non-fiction

The Frankfurt buzz is descending later and later each year, publishers have told The Bookseller, leaving many guessing as to what the hottest trends and breakout books of this year’s fair will be. However, early signs suggest the market has moved on from psychological suspense novels and darker fiction, in favour of more uplifting, book-club titles and smart women’s fiction.

Trapeze commissioning editor Katie Brown, who specialises in women’s fiction, said she had received at least five “big” submissions confronting subjects such as loneliness and grief, themes typically explored and resolved in titles in the “up-lit” movement. “This phenomenon, in which many of us are more connected but lonelier than ever, is permeating the exciting submissions I’m seeing,” said Brown. “I’m also happy to see the UK is no longer pulling any punches. Earlier this year it seemed manuscripts coming out of the US were dominating, particularly historical fiction and dystopias—this is no longer the case. There have been some great contemporary UK submissions.”

Jeremy Trevathan, publisher at Pan Macmillan, said his team had seen more women’s fiction submissions and fewer psychological thrillers than in recent years. “While a great psychological thriller is still highly sought after—as any good book is—it really needs to stand out from the crowd. The market [for such novels] seems to have reached saturation point,” he commented.

Suzanne Baboneau, managing director of Simon & Schuster’s adult publishing division, said “toxic friendships” and relationships between women were dominating the psychological suspense submissions she had seen. Baboneau also revealed feminist takes on established tropes were taking off: “We’re seeing lots of ‘X but with women!’, for example, ‘Dan Brown but with women’, ‘Bond but a woman’, etc. We haven’t yet seen one that seems to have taken the world by storm, but it does suggest an appetite [for female leads] in the thriller market, following on from a similar trend in film that started a couple of years ago.”

In non-fiction, S&S publishing director Iain MacGregor said historical narratives with an emphasis on “overlooked” subjects were abundant, especially those centred on the Second World War, the Cold War, and—from US agents in particular—the “War on Terror”. While scouts have been whipping up excitement around Donald Trump books, “big-themed” books in science and medicine also have the makings of a trend, MacGregor ventured.

Bluebird publisher Carole Tonkinson also noted an increased demand for “intelligent non-fiction”. She said: “The decline of celebrity continues; we are seeing fewer of those books, and the amounts of money aren’t at the heady levels any more. I think more people are looking for intelligent non-fiction that has breakout potential and, of course, the angry young man market has picked up traction—[Jordan] Peterson, [Mark] Manson.” She added there had been “a flood” of feminist books in wake of #MeToo, but “the market can only take so many, so they have to be special or have a USP”.