25 Trends in Publishing: Crime Fiction

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 #21 of 25: Crime Fiction

Contributor: Hope Bolinger

It’s no crime that crime fiction sales continue to rise.

In December alone, publisher’s marketplace tracked 10 new publishing deals for crime fiction. Major houses such as Kensington and Soho (Penguin) made deals in just that month. According to The Guardian, crime fiction sales have increased 19 percent since 2015.

Crime fiction has also made a big scene in the movie and television industries. Crime shows such as Sherlock, Criminal Minds, NCIS, Bones, Breaking Bad, among others have captivated TV audiences and Netflix bingers alike. In 2018, movies such as Widows, Oceans 8, Holmes and Watson, Bad Times at El Royale, A Simple Favor, and more than 50 others killed it on the silver screen.

Why the obsession with crime?

One could argue a fascination with villains could play a role. We want to know how they got away with murder and what caused them to commit it in the first place. Others could assert the high quality of crime fiction.

Not only does the mystery genre require an excellence in execution, but to add a criminal mastermind takes an incredible amount of craft. Either way, we can expect far more titles of whodunnits and heists galore in 2019. 

Hope Bolinger works as a literary agent at C.Y.L.E. IlluminateYA contracted her YA novel Den while she still attended college (to be released June 3, 2019).

More than 250 of her works have been featured in various publications. She has received various writing awards 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.