What will happen in the book world in 2026? Which genres will be popular? Which reading and publishing trends will continue or fall off? What do readers and book clubs need to know going into the new year? Let us be your crystal ball. Here are some predictions we have for 2026, including what will happen with historical fiction, BookTok, audiobooks, book bans, book club content, and more.
Genre melding and hybridity will expand. Genres are arguably mixing more than ever before, and literary fiction readers might notice more speculative elements showing up in books that are primarily character-driven. For example, Quan Barry’s recent The Unveiling, released in late 2025, is a horror novel that focuses heavily on character and may appeal to readers who don’t normally read horror or speculative fiction. This type of thing has been happening for a long time, of course, but will only increase as authors seek to imagine possible futures beyond our current climate crisis, and as more diversity in publishing paves the way for story formats and subjects that have historically been taken less seriously in the Western canon. Certain genres have expanded beyond their traditional publishing niches, too, with romance in particular becoming a hot commodity in recent years. You can easily find romantasy (a mix of romance and fantasy), historical romance, romance novels with complex themes woven into their structures, and even sub-genres as specific as sports romance. According to literary agent and BookTok influencer Alyssa Morris, we’re in “a golden age” of romance with expanded areas for every taste.
We’ll get more underrepresented history and new takes on old books. Marginalized perspectives in historical fiction and in retellings of classics are also nothing new, but they’re only increasing with time. Among January and February releases, we can look forward to Xiaolu Guo’s Call Me Ishmaelle, a new feminist retelling of Moby-Dick, Emma R. Alban’s Like in Love with You, a queer Regency romance, and Avery Irons’ Belonging to the Air, which features Black queer characters during the Great Migration.
Audiobook usage will keep going up. Audiobooks have been trending upwards for a while now, and this is a trend likely to continue. The Audio Publishers Association reports that as of 2025 more than half of Americans eighteen and older have listened to an audiobook, and interest in audiobooks has risen by 6% from 2024. Why the increase? It’s partly the convenience factor. While audiobooks have always made reading accessible to a wider audience, more people than ever are benefiting from the flexibility of listening to books while engaging in other activities, like driving, particularly as they become more readily available through listening platforms like Spotify. There are also simply more audiobooks now due to AI narration, but it’s worth pointing out that interest in listening to AI-narrated books is waning, having decreased by 7% between 2023 and 2025. Audiobooks in general, though, seem poised to keep growing in popularity.
Deluxe editions will also continue their upward trend. Another phenomenon that seems likely to continue is the rise of deluxe editions, or special limited editions, which often include features like sprayed edges, ribbon bookmarks, feathered pages, and other embellishments. Once mainly reserved for classics, fantasy, and YA books, deluxe editions have become more common in the genres of historical fiction and contemporary literature for adults. This seems to be happening at least partially in response to the increased presence of digital formats (e-books and audiobooks) as readers crave more elaborate details in the physical books they own.
Less official publisher content will be available online. With the rise of widespread online content for books, like study guides for students and reading guides for discussion groups, some publishers seem to gradually be offering less of their own official content for books, possibly because of budget cuts combined with a drop in perceived interest. So it might be a little harder in the coming year and beyond for book clubs to find discussion questions and related material on publishers’ pages. At BookBrowse, we’re filling that gap with our own original reading guides and Ask the Author interviews, and by working closely with publishers to bring you content that might not be publicly available on their own sites.
BookTok’s influence will level off outside of the romance genre. In recent years, BookTok has undeniably become an important marketing tool for publishers, but according to some, it’s passed its peak. This doesn’t mean that it won’t have a significant role to play in publishing in the future. In fact, Amazon’s Audible has just partnered with TikTok, a development that suggests the continued relevance of both BookTok and audiobooks to publishing. But we’ve begun to see BookTok’s limitations. It remains highly useful for certain genres, namely romance and romantasy, but is no longer the next new shiny thing, and was probably never going to take over book marketing as a whole.
Book-banning culture will continue to be normalized, but we’ll see increased resistance to bans. The number of book bans actually dropped during the 2024-2025 school year compared to 2023-2024, but PEN America and others have pointed out that this is a small part of a larger disturbing trend. Challenges and bans are now an everyday part of the American cultural landscape, accessibility of books is still affected by bans from previous years, and books may be removed from school and library shelves in anticipation of challenges without officially being banned. However, the reduction in the number of bans may be indicative of stronger resistance, including the passage of “freedom to read” acts in several states and organization against bans at the local level. Keep up with news about book bans in our community forum, and see how you can get involved with our guide to fighting book bans.
