Hey, squiders, hope March is treating you well!
As part of my SkillShare class on interconnected short stories, I did some market research in order to show my students what they might do with the stories after they’ve written them.
(This is for if they’re planning on publishing the stories separately; if they’re doing a composite novel or short story cycle it’s different, of course. But the idea is to help them think about what they might be doing with the stories when they’re done.)
The stories I’m working on as part of the class all take place in my sentient Forest from the Trilogy and World’s Edge. That makes them secondary world fantasy, which, if you’re new around here, is fantasy that takes place in a made-up world that is not Earth. Secondary world fantasy tends toward epic or high fantasy, but not exclusively. Many cozy fantasies or romantasies also take place in secondary worlds.
Now, cozy fantasy and romantasy aren’t dying, obviously. In fact, they may be the only secondary world fantasy being published these days. Oh, and LitRPG is often secondary world fantasy.
Actually, now that I’m writing out my thoughts, maybe it’s really just traditional high/epic secondary world fantasy that is dying.
At least, the amount of publishers buying stories in these genres seems to be down. I’ve found that with my querying too, that agents that are listed as taking fantasy tend to be looking for “grounded” fantasy, which roughly translates as fantasy that is easy for non-fantasy readers to pick up, which tends to be real world-based with only some fantastical elements.
My market research pointed to much of the same. I use the Submission Grinder to look for open markets, and then of course you have to actually read the magazine/anthology descriptions to see what they actually want. A fair amount wanted dark fantasy on the horror side, for example, rather than straight “traditional” fantasy, and several of the more major fantasy magazines that I’m used to seeing seem to be closed for submissions.
Sad times for me, I guess. Horror is having a renaissance, but I’m not feeling it at the moment, of course.
What do you think, squider? Do you read fantasy, and if so, what books/movies have you been into lately? Is the “traditional” fantasy of magic and world-ending stakes dead? Does it deserve to be?
