25 Trends in Publishing: STEM

About the column: A handful of agents and interns who work with Cyle have learned the latest and (sometimes so, sometimes not so) greatest trends in publishing right now. Tune in each week to find out what’s trending, ranging from ABA to CBA, children’s to adult. The authors of these columns have included social media tags at the end to keep up with trends they are finding. They can also be found here. 

Trend #3 of 25: STEM

Contributor: Hope Bolinger

STEM. No, we’re not talking about the thing on a plant which sprouts leaves, unless you’re classifying a type of stem as a botanist.

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics. Children are encouraged by parents, teachers, and even the televisions shows they watch to explore these degrees. In particular, STEM careers need more girls to pursue these core subject areas.

And guess what, publishing wants to hop onto this, too. Especially children’s publishers.

Because writers tend to operate out of the right side of the brain (the creative epicenter), we tend to neglect the areas which STEM stems (buh dum tssh) out of. In essence, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics require a heavy reliance on the left side of the brain. Because the majority of writers neglect subjects in those areas, an extreme dearth exists in the fiction and nonfiction markets for STEM subjects, especially children’s.

And because there aren’t many books on this subject, that leaves a market wide open for writers.

If an author has an affinity for one of the STEM fields, say you know everything there is to know about the Pachycephalosaurus and paleontology (I may or may not be obsessed with dinosaurs and had to work one into this post), try to write a book including subject matter. Or, you MG and YA writers, have a character who enjoys a STEM-related field. The more nonfiction you go, the better (more on this later). And please, please, please do your research well.

Hope Bolinger is a literary agent at C.Y.L.E. and professional writing major at Taylor University. Her YA novel Den was contracted by IlluminateYA while she was still in college (to be released June 3, 2019).

More than 200 of her works have been featured in various publications. She is a multi-award winner from being a finalist in the Jerry B. Jenkins short story contest to her one-act earning second place in the Searchlight Playwriting Contest. She has served in various publishing capacities from working at newspapers, magazines, and publishing houses.

She can be found at hopebolinger.com.