26 Comments
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Jennifer Caloyeras's avatar

interesting! Thanks for sharing!

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Katie Holloway's avatar

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing!

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Anette Pieper's avatar

A great analysis, thank you so much! I am a German writer and I wished there were something similar about the German book market - I'll look for it!

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Heather Garbo's avatar

You're welcome! Unfortunately I have zero to offer about the German market, but would definitely be curious to know if there are similar trends. Please come back and share if you can.

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Anette Pieper's avatar

I'll check and will definitely get back to you if I find something.

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Colleen Scott's avatar

Great insights! Thanks so much for sharing!!

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Alexandria Faulkenbury's avatar

So interesting!

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Stephanie Gray's avatar

Thank you for your work on this! As an aspiring women’s fiction novelist, I found this analysis very helpful. Always fun to see the data!

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Heather Garbo's avatar

So glad it was helpful to you!

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Amanda Karch's avatar

i LOVE this summary — my data day job is geeking out with my writer second life 🤠

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Heather Garbo's avatar

Thank you! It's funny when our inner wordsmith meets up with our inner data geek, isn't it?!

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Jeni Anderson's avatar

This is incredible info. Thank you!

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Heather Garbo's avatar

So glad you found it helpful!

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Michelle Marie McGrath✨🌿's avatar

Sooo interesting thank you. Is this mainly US based? I'm in the UK and my wip has a sprinkle of magical realism but I've not seen many agents in the Uk that specify it in their wish lists. Maybe I should look at US agents when I pitch mid-year. Thought provoking.

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Heather Garbo's avatar

Thanks for stopping by and for asking! This is based on the debut deals reported through Publishers Marketplace in 2024 which includes US, UK and Canadian deals, and narrowed down to those that meet women's fiction criteria. Although keep in mind not all deals are reported here, so this is not a comprehensive analysis. My understanding is a majority of US deals are, and that UK agents also report to The Bookseller, and some deals aren't reported at all. If you follow the link in the post, you can download a copy of my raw data, which includes the keywords and themes for each book (so you could look up by "magical realism") as well as publishers, and you could use that data to see who the agent for the deal was. I didn't include the agents in my data as I wasn't looking at that, but the info is available on Publishers Marketplace (which requires a paid subscription) or you can usually just google the author and discover who their agents are. Glad you found it helpful! Best of luck!

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Michelle Marie McGrath✨🌿's avatar

thank you, much appreciated.

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Linda Lefler's avatar

Excellent data, well presented! Thank you.

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Heather Garbo's avatar

Thanks for the kind words! Glad you found it useful.

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Jodi Janz's avatar

Wow. Thank you for sharing all the data Heather. Super helpful!

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Heather Garbo's avatar

Thank you! I’m so glad you found it helpful.

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Shelley Burbank's avatar

Thank you for sharing this analysis! I’ve published two mystery novels with strong women’s fiction elements, and I’m looking to lean into general women’s fiction in the future. This is helpful info. Glad I stumbled onto your newsletter.

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Heather Garbo's avatar

Thanks so much, Shelley...I'm so glad you found it helpful and happy to have you here!

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Beyond the First Draft's avatar

What a fabulous analysis!! Thanks, Heather, for all that work!

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Heather Garbo's avatar

Thank you, Monica! 😊 It was actually a lot of fun to dig into the data to see what’s coming!

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Shelby Tutty, MHA's avatar

This was so interesting to read as a huge reader and someone who was once in the bookselling industry. Fresh authors! Hoping the trend for "girl" books are finally out (aka "The Girl on the Train, etc...). They were all starting to look alike. Yet, looking forward to women's fiction growing and there are some interesting genres listed. In my opinion, the master of magical realism is Sarah Addison Allen. Not my typical genre, but once I discovered her I was hooked. I'm excited to see magical realism mentioned and see if other authors can pull it off. My first introduction to women's fiction was Alice K's Guide to Life so many decades ago and around the time the term "chick-lit" was invented which is probably considered derogatory now. I haven't heard it used in a very long time. Your data review is helpful to both readers and authors alike. Thanks for writing this up for us!

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Heather Garbo's avatar

Ooh, yes! I’ve always cringed at the “girl” trend too…it feels infantilizing. One thing I’ve loved seeing lately is more stories where MCs are women in midlife who are enjoying romantic lives too. I’ve noticed popular reads in recent years with older MCs, and also see a lot of writers working on stories with midlife MCs too. Unfortunately, there’s not enough info in the PM announcements to determine that here but I hope we continue to see that. Thanks so much for sharing your perspective! And for the rec on Sarah Addison Allen… I wasn’t familiar with her books, but see she set stories in NC, where I just moved(!) so it feels like I definitely need to read her. Booksellers (even former ones) always know all the best books!

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