What are the most popular book genres on the market? Whether you’re looking to write your own book and wondering what sells or looking for new genres to read, there are so many exciting and popular book genres to choose from
Book genres are just ways of classifying books into certain styles or types, which means that sometimes you’ll find that a book can fall into multiple genres (or a main genre and subgenre) at the same time. But with that said, here are some of the best-selling book genres to check out!
1. Romance
Romance novels are some of the best-selling books on the market, making romance one of the most popular book genres of all time!
According to Romance Writers of America, romance book sales make up around 23% of all total fiction sales on the US market. That’s a crazy high statistic, especially considering how many other genres there are!
Romance books always have a central love story, but you’ll often find subgenres of romance that crossover with other genres too—such as historical romance, young adult romance, contemporary romance, and more.
2. Fantasy
Another of the most popular fiction genres is fantasy, which involves magical elements and is often set in a fictional universe.
There are lots of different ways fantasy shows up, from high fantasy like Lord of the Rings to children’s fantasy like Harry Potter to sci-fi and fantasy like Dragonflight. With so many different subgenres of fantasy, this is a popular book genre for those who love magic and escaping into another world through their reading!
3. True Crime
True Crime is one of the bestselling book genres for non-fiction books and also one of the most popular book genres for adults.
This genre often reads like a thriller or a mystery, but has the added element of being an actually true story about crimes that actually have happened. True crime is popular for a lot of reasons, and readers may be drawn to it because it gives an adrenaline rush, because they want to try to solve the mystery, because they like the sense of justice with criminals getting their due rewards, and more.
4. Young Adult
Young Adult novels have been super popular for a long time, and continue to be popular today.
This genre is primarily written for audiences of 13-18ish years old, although the boundaries between children’s fiction, young adult, and new adult fiction can be somewhat flexible.
This genre is practically always paired with another genre, such as young adult romance, paranormal young adult, or young adult fantasy. There have been waves of popularity of all these subgenres, but the overarching genre of young adult has remained consistently popular with young adults and adults alike.
5. Science Fiction
Another of the most well-liked and often-read genres is Science Fiction, which is usually fiction based on imagined future scientific advances or other future technological changes.
This genre often includes some element of space or time travel, but at its most basic simply explores concepts that aren’t realized in our current day and age or reality. Some of these concepts might become real later (a la Jules Verne predicting submarines in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea), and some might not.
But regardless, the possibilities are fun to explore and think about and readers love being transported to new worlds and new versions of our world!
6. Mystery/Detective
Spend any time in the book world and you’ll also discover that mystery and detective fiction are hugely popular genres. Just ask Agatha Christie—the Queen of Crime and Guinness World Records’ best-selling fiction writer of all time!
Mystery fiction can be pretty similar to true crime at times, but is fictional instead of real which means you more often get a satisfying and complete ending. In this genre, you’ll find murders, disappearances, stolen heirloom jewels, secret societies, secret codes to break, and plenty more exciting circumstances!
Mystery literature has long remained popular, especially since it often allows the reader to participate by trying to piece together the clues to solve the mystery or crime. So if you’re looking for a popular genre to read or write, this is one you shouldn’t miss!
7. Thriller
Any discussion of popular genres wouldn’t be complete without including thrillers as well. While thrillers are sometimes considered a type of mystery (which is true), they also stand apart as their own genre.
This is because thrillers have more of a focus on spiking adrenaline. You can expect lots of anxiety, tension, and fear in a plot-driven story with all sorts of plot twists to make your blood pressure spike. For those who love adrenaline and heart-racing excitement, thrillers are super popular reads!
8. Dystopian
Dystopian is another genre that over the last several years has made it to be extremely popular, especially within the young adult genre…though there are also plenty of incredible dystopian books for adults.
Dystopian fiction is characterized by an imagined world where oppressive societal control takes place and things are extremely bad because of deprivation, oppression, disease, and more. There are so many different ways this could look—from The Hunger Games to The Handmaid’s Tale—but you’ll usually find oppression, political corruption, and a future that looks very, very bleak.
But often, you’ll also find hope as the characters fight against these corrupted power structures! So it’s both a slightly scary (sometimes dystopian fiction feels a little too real) and a hopeful genre, and one that has established itself among the most popular genres of our day.
9. Humor
As far as the most popular book genres go, humor is another genre that we’d be remiss not to mention!
We all love to laugh, and humor is a genre that allows us these moments of levity and enjoyment. This genre can span a wide range of novels, but you’ll find both fiction and non-fiction books that utilize humor. Sometimes you’ll find it attached to romance or sci-fi, other times you’ll find it in hilarious memoirs by comedians or others.
But as everyone loves to laugh, humor is sure to be a popular genre for many years to come and is a great one to try if you want a more lighthearted read!
10. Memoir/Autobiography
Speaking of memoirs, memoirs and autobiographies are two other related genres that can be really popular as well.
While at first glance it can be hard to tell memoir and autobiography apart, memoir focuses more on a collection of memories of the person telling the stories whereas autobiography usually means telling the whole life story from start to finish.
In both cases, though, this genre of telling one’s own life story can be incredibly popular—especially if you’ve the author has had unusual or fascinating life experiences!
11. Adventure
The adventure genre is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: books that feature adventure. And there are so many people who love stories of adventure, that this definitely makes it into the most popular reading genres!
Adventure stories can feature anything where the protagonist goes on an exciting journey, including traveling the world, going on a treasure hunt, swashbuckling on the high seas, and more. Adventure can often be found combined with other genres, but a key feature of this genre is action and excitement so you’re sure to spot it everywhere now that you know what it is!
12. Horror/Gothic
While there’s lots of overlap with the thriller genre, horror and/or gothic literature are genres that are also quite popular and gaining in popularity today.
This genre’s purpose is to create and instill feelings of dread, fear, terror, etc. They’re often highly realistic (or at least realistic enough to make you feel like it’s real), and are meant to scare you. So if you’re scared, it’s working!
Gothic literature is a specific subset of horror lit, and focuses more on fear and haunting…but it’s having somewhat of a revival currently so is important to mention it as well!
13. Historical Fiction
Historical fiction is a subset of the fiction genre that is constrained to a specific time–the past.
This genre takes place in real places and during actual, recognizable times, but the story itself can be a mix of real events and made up ones (or made up characters). This can be combined with all sorts of other genres, from romance to mystery and more, which means it’s super popular since it can appeal to a variety of people who love different genres!
14. Poetry
While most of the genres we focus on here fall into the category of prose, poetry is also a genre that deserves a mention!
Poetry contains words that follow rhythm and/or structure and often include rhyme. It’s meant to evoke emotion and thought, but you can find it in all sorts of forms–from short to medium-length romantic poems like those of Wordsworth to long epic poems like Dante’s Divine Comedy.
While prose tends to make up the majority of the literature most people read, poetry also can be extremely popular especially with certain subsets of the population (hi, English majors!).
15. Biography
If you’re looking for more of the most popular non-fiction genres, then biography is another genre you’ll want to investigate.
Biography is similar to autobiography in that it tells a real life story, but it is different in that it is written by someone other than the person it is about. While autobiography is self-written, biography is told by someone outside the story. This means you get an outside perspective on the life of the person being written about, which is often a fascinating look into the lives of famous people!
16. Cookbooks
Another non-fiction genre that is quite popular is cookbooks.
Cookbooks can be both practical and entertaining: practical, because you need to eat, right? And entertaining because sometimes they have fun themes (here’s some great literary cookbooks!) or beautiful and tantalizing food pictures to go with the recipes.
Since everyone needs to eat, there’s always demand for cookbooks. And also since everyone needs to eat and sometimes gets tired of eating the same old thing every week, cookbooks can be a cool way to discover some delicious new food or try food that your favorite cooking celebrity makes!
17. Classics
“Classics” is an overarching genre category that refers to a variety of books in a variety of genres, but generally they tend to be old and widely read. (sometimes you get “modern classics,” but as a rule they are generally older).
What falls into this genre can sometimes be debated, especially as we look to add newer classics to the ranks of the older ones. But in general, classics are novels that are timeless and quality reads that make a contribution to literature.
Classics can be short or long, and can fall into genres such as romantic classics, adventure classics, Gothic classics, and plenty of other subgenres. You’ll often find classics on high school English or college reading lists, though there are tons more classics out there that you could read beyond just the most popular classics that make it into courses all the time!
18. Children’s Literature
Another genre that is quite popular (with adults and children alike!) is children’s literature.
This genre consists of books meant to entertain or teach young people about a variety of topics, so typically falls into the 12 or younger age group. Like young adult fiction, children’s literature offers a variety of subgenres to suit any tastes—from fairytales, to fantasy, to historical fiction, realistic fiction, biography, sci-fi, and more!
And while this genre is aimed at children, adults often find some of children’s literature to be timeless and exciting as well and can also enjoy reading this fun genre of books!
19. Self-Help
For those looking to improve themselves or their lives, self-help books are also exceptionally popular.
This non-fiction genre is one where you’ll find books written to instruct their readers on how to solve personal problems or improve various aspects of their lives. Whether you want to learn good habits to make you successful, learn how to get rich, learn how to organize your house, or plenty of other things, self-help promises to help you succeed in these endeavors and more!
20. History
History is another non-fiction book genre that has a wide share of the purchase market of books, so if you’re looking for a popular genre to read you might want to try this one!
History books focus on true accounts of actual events that happened in the past. These can be events considered to be significant in the history of the world, or can focus on more localized historical topics for specific regions or time.
If you’re interested in a specific time period, then this can be an especially good choice for you as you’ll discover new facts, stories, evidence, and more related to the time periods and events of the past.
21. Religion
Religion and spirituality books are also highly popular genres to read, and can be some of the best sellers on the market.
The books that fall into this genre range from actual religious texts, to books about beliefs, culture, spirituality, and more. If you’re interested in a specific worldview or want to learn more about different religions and worldviews, these are the books you’ll likely turn to in order to know more!
22. Travel
It’s a well-known fact that books can transport us to new places, and when books transport us to real-life places in our modern era those books are often classified into travel books.
This popular genre helps transport you to a new place through “armchair travel” that lets you experience new places, people, foods, and culture. Many of us today have bad cases of wanderlust but might not be able to travel as much as we’d like to, so travel books are a great way to transport readers to new and exciting places without ever having to leave our homes!
23. Contemporary Fiction
Contemporary fiction is another genre marker that is larger and more widespread, rather than being as specific as some of the other genres on this list.
Essentially, contemporary fiction is any story that is made up of what feels like real people in real, modern-day settings that could actually happen today (generally referring to anything post-WWII). It depicts imaginary characters in a realistic way, so you feel like you’re seeing your own world and society in a book.
While some people like to escape into the past with historical fiction, contemporary fiction is also highly popular and coincides with many other genres on this list. So when you’re looking for popular, overarching genres this is one to remember!