In this post we look at bestselling fiction genres and top-selling books from 2025 and which book genre you should be writing in 2026.

Looking to be the world’s best hack in 2026?

Then here is what you need to know.

The Book Genres

According to 100 agents’ profiles, and agent Alyssa Matesic, the genres agents want the most are:

1. Young Adult
2. LGBTQIA+
3. And Horror.

Meanwhile, in the UK, The Guardian  claims that Science Fiction and Fantasy sales increased by 41%.

An emerging book genre like Cli-Fi (Climate fiction) is growing. (Although, they only represent 3.5% of the market, according to writers’ stats. To be fair they said, “booming” which seems like an exaggeration to me.) Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior is a prime example of literary cli-fi that drew wide audiences.

So, what does this all mean?

Nothing really.

As always, Romance is the number one bestseller followed by YA, Horror, then Science Fiction and Fantasy.

But, there are also the largest number of people writing in these genres. So, in order to be noticed you need to either be the best choice out of tens of thousands of romance novels or come up with a novel hook.

If I were to guess, I think Hopepunk (hopeful visions of the near future), a sub-genre of Speculative Fiction, will be a good place to slot into in the coming years. But, there is also an increasingly large demand for out of space crossover genres.

Horror-Romance and Cozy Horror seems to be popular. It’s the writing equivalent of sweet and sour sauce.

Which Book Genre Should You Be Writing In 2026?

Summing up you need to write:

You must write something comforting, but creepy that has YA Romance, probably with queer characters, that is familiar and balanced, about climate change, with a hopefulled message about the near future.

This is a depressing task, so of course I set an AI to make a concept cover from this data (keywords):

It’s actually not that bad… ahem moving on.

What Can We Learn?

Now what we can actually learn is that there is no longer one market for books.

We live in an age where there are niches and large groups of people willing to pay to see their particular vision of reality.

Which you can take as good news! This means you are able to write whatever you want and someone will read it.

On the other hand, this does not mean a large publisher will be willing to publish it or even look at it.

Here is a list of the bestselling books of this year.

Top-Selling Books (2025)

What does this mean?

As we can see, standard book genres still sell the most books.

So, while some new craze is becoming popular, it does not mean that individual authors are selling millions of books.

Although The Ministry For The Future by Kim Stanley Robinson sold almost a million copies – a climate book.

The Last Word

Probably, just writing what you want and making it as interesting and entertaining as possible is the best way of getting published. But, if you were interested in writing one of these fiction genres anyway then go for it! Now is the time to strike.

Christopher Luke Dean writes and facilitates for Writers Write. Follow him on Twitter: @ChrisLukeDean

More Posts From Christopher:

1. 1. The Rules For Writing An Excellent Time Travel Adventure
   2. 5 Good Things About J.R.R. Tolkien’s Books
   3. Press Kits For Authors – What Authors And Publishers Need To Do
   4. 5 Great Characters From Science Fiction & What They Represent
   5. The Logic Of Setting When Writing In Another World
   6. A Quick Start Guide To Writing Science Fiction
   7. The Greatest Fictional World Builders: Akira Toriyama
   8. Creative Things I Learned During The Pandemic
   9. The Writing War Machine
   10. Why Writing A Book Is Like Going To The Dentist

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