Best Trends of 2012
Day 3 in our week of list after list after list! Today I decided to go with my favourite trends of the year. Some of them have been going on for much longer than a year, and some of them may be things you're already totally sick of. But that's ok, this is my list. Which means no girls in random prom dresses. And once you've finished looking here, please feel free to let me know what your favourite trends of the past year are!
1920s
I love the 1920s. It's a fascinating time period, complex and rich, but until recently there wasn't a lot of fiction that went there. The past eighteen months or so, though, there's been a lovely explosion of books set in the 1920s, of all different genres. I approve, and can only hope it continues.
Awareness of sexism in cover art
I lay this primarily at the feet of Jim Hines and his attempts to recreate cover poses in an effort to demonstrate the ridiculous sexism of cover art. It went viral, and spawned a crazy amount of discussion about the differences between the way male and female characters are depicted on book covers, a conversation that doesn't seem to have lost momentum in the least. Which is both necessary and awesome.
E-book Sales
There were legality issues all over the place this year, and one of the biggest was five out of six big New York publishers were taken to court for price fixing through the agency model. They've since settled, and part of the settlement means they're no longer allowed to dictate to merchants how to price their wares, there have been all sorts of e-book sales and coupons. The eventual fallout of all this is yet to be seen, and things could either get very, very good, or very, very bad. For right now, though, I intend to enjoy the fact that coupons and sales are now available where they once were not.
Steampunk
It's no secret I'm fond of steampunk, and since it seems to have taken the crown formerly worn by urban fantasy as far as popularity goes, it seems I'm not the only one with a keenness for steampunkery. Alternate history is always fun, and when you fill it with shiny new gadgets, well, I am there. There's so much diversity in steampunk that there's something to appeal to nearly everyone, which might be part of the reason it's the new hotness. That, or we're all just a sucker for corsets. Either way, it's a win.
1920s
I love the 1920s. It's a fascinating time period, complex and rich, but until recently there wasn't a lot of fiction that went there. The past eighteen months or so, though, there's been a lovely explosion of books set in the 1920s, of all different genres. I approve, and can only hope it continues.
Awareness of sexism in cover art
I lay this primarily at the feet of Jim Hines and his attempts to recreate cover poses in an effort to demonstrate the ridiculous sexism of cover art. It went viral, and spawned a crazy amount of discussion about the differences between the way male and female characters are depicted on book covers, a conversation that doesn't seem to have lost momentum in the least. Which is both necessary and awesome.
E-book Sales
There were legality issues all over the place this year, and one of the biggest was five out of six big New York publishers were taken to court for price fixing through the agency model. They've since settled, and part of the settlement means they're no longer allowed to dictate to merchants how to price their wares, there have been all sorts of e-book sales and coupons. The eventual fallout of all this is yet to be seen, and things could either get very, very good, or very, very bad. For right now, though, I intend to enjoy the fact that coupons and sales are now available where they once were not.
Steampunk
It's no secret I'm fond of steampunk, and since it seems to have taken the crown formerly worn by urban fantasy as far as popularity goes, it seems I'm not the only one with a keenness for steampunkery. Alternate history is always fun, and when you fill it with shiny new gadgets, well, I am there. There's so much diversity in steampunk that there's something to appeal to nearly everyone, which might be part of the reason it's the new hotness. That, or we're all just a sucker for corsets. Either way, it's a win.