How are mystery and thriller books being marketed? To discover the latest book marekting strategies, we surveyed over 1,000 authors, publishers and publicists representing mystery and thriller titles. Combined with third-party research, the results are never-before-seen insights into changing book formats, marketing channels, roles within book marketing teams and more.
In our fourth such survey over the past five years, we’ve seen some striking shifts in strategies, tactics and perceptions of the market.
We’re also seeing changes in demand versus supply in some genres. For example, the Romantasy genre (a.k.a. “romantic fantasy”) has taken off in earnest, while demand for horror appears to remain disproportionately high in relation to the number of authors working in the genre.
Among other sizable changes across the past five years are increasing delivery channels for audiobooks, the declining influence of online book community forums, and shifting social media channels. Read on for details.
About the Book Marketing Survey
Traditionally published authors represented 45% of those surveyed, with self-published authors at 22%. Book publicists and PR professionals represented 4%, while 28% worked at publishing houses. All respondents involved in publishing mystery and/or thriller titles.
Which Book Genres and Subgenres are Most Popular Now?
About 59% of book sales across the previous 12 months were fiction. Bestselling authors included James Patterson, Sarah J Maas, Colleen Hoover, David Baldacci, Kristin Hannah, Freida McFadden, Rebecca Yarros and Stephen King. The top fiction genres on the Amazon Top 100 list were Fantasy (colloquially known as Romantasy), Crime Thrillers and Science Fiction.
What’s more interesting is what readers are searching for. Category selection is one of the most important book marketing strategies, and publishers would be wise to pay attention to search trends.
Granted, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of subgenres underneath the mystery and thriller genres. Google Search data shows a huge rise in searches for the “Romantasy” genre popularized by Sara J Maas and others. Demand appears to be as high as longstanding popular genres such as detective fiction, murder mysteries and psychological thrillers.
Alternatively, searches for “Horror Books” still dwarfs all other genres. Internal data from BestThrillers.com, including the frequency of pitches by publishers and authors for horror books compared to other genres, indicates that there simply aren’t as many authors working in the genre relative to other mystery and thriller subgenres. Publishers on the fence about whether to market a book as “horror,” for example, versus “serial killer fiction,” may want to choose the former in order to reach a larger audience.
Which Book Formats Are Most Common?
Compared with other genres, surveys in prior years revealed that mystery and thriller authors and publishers had been somewhat slow to adjust to skyrocketing demand for audiobooks. That trend is finally changing. Compared with 2022, 63% of those surveyed are now publishing in the audiobook format.
eBook remains the most popular format for publishers, likely because of the relatively low cost of entry and relatively strong adoption by buyers.
Softcover and Hardcover publishing continues to increase among indie authors. This comes at a time when large publishers seem to be rethinking whether to participate in softcover printing for all titles. Meanwhile, the once-surging podcast format for books seems to be declining, likely because of how difficult the format is to monetize.
Audiobook Publishing is Changing, With More Options Than Ever For Buyers, Authors and Publishers
It’s remarkable how much has changed in just the last two years, but it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on how options has evolved since the 1970s. What started as a cassette format for cars (and later portable cassette players like the Sony Walkman) gave way to CDs, where the format remained for decades.
After Amazon purchased Audible, the service developed a marketplace that was fully vertical: an all-in-one platform where authors and publishers could audition voice actors, hire them, collaborate with them, and publish the resulting work on the platform, where it could also be sold on Amazon.com. That “one place for everything” approach made the platform incredibly sticky for over a decade.
Most recently, Amazon’s publishing platform KDP announced its beta for audiobooks, in which select authors can opt for a “virtual voice narration and reach new customers by publishing the resulting audiobooks on Amazon, Audible and even Alexa.
In other recent news., Spotify audiobook streams are booming and are open to indie authors. Other relevant players include downpour, Libby, Rakuten, Everand, hoopla and others. When it comes to audiobook publishing, authors finally have lots of choices.
As audiobook growth continues to increase, with smartphones being the dominant listening device, 42% report that they are optimizing or improving their audiobook strategy. This is a big jump from prior years, in which many indie authors in particular seemed uninterested or unable to meet rising demand in the format. This year, just 18% reported that they were not interested in audiobook publishing. At the same time, just 2.5% report they have an effective book marketing strategy, which is a sobering number.
When asked whether the rise in Audible competitors such as Spotify, Rakuten and others had affected their audiobook publishing strategy, most reported that they weren’t aware of competitors, while 18% reported that they were interested in exploring the alternative platforms.
Who takes primary responsibility for planning and executing book marketing efforts?
Ultimately, the division of responsibilities for book promotion varies depending on factors such as the author’s level of involvement, the publishing model (traditional vs. self-publishing), and the resources available to support marketing efforts. Since our 2022 survey, authors are taking an increased role. When asked who takes primary responsibility, here’s how it shook out:
- 63.2% The author
- 18.4% The publisher
- 18.4% It’s a team effort
- 0% Publicists/PR
Where are mystery and thriller books sold?
One thing is for sure: books are being sold in more outlets than ever before. Showing only responses that charted above 10% of respondents, we see Amazon participation fall below 100% for the first time ever. Usage of local book stores is increasing, and platforms Rakuten, Overdrive, BookShop.org and Spotify have significant share for the very first time.
How important are reader communities to book marketing efforts?
Sites like GoodReads and StoryGraph are still important, but have fallen somewhat from 2022. The most popular response was “somewhat important” at 36.8%, while 21.1% reported that it was “extremely important.”
It seems possible that GoodReads in particular is slipping in importance, as this chart was firmly up-and-to-the-right as recently as last year.
What may be replacing these communities is not clear.
How important is email marketing to book marketing?
In 2022, over 44% of respondents rated email marketing as “extremely important,” but that number is clearly falling, with just 28.9 making the same claim.
While email is still effective across industries, one theory as to why this has fallen is price inflation from email service providers. As tech costs have gone up, and the technology is now mature, it is increasingly difficult for small businesses to find affordable vendors.
How important is advertising to book marketing?
55% of respondents feel advertising is important or very important, while just 20% rate it not very important or not at all important.
Respondents are more mixed on advertising than in past years – a surprising finding given how powerful ad targeting has become on platforms like Meta and Amazon.
How Important are Coordinated Book Buys to Book Marketing?
For the first time, we asked respondents to rate the importance of coordinated book buys in their book marketing strategy. For those not familiar, coordinated book buys are the longstanding practice of hiring paid buyers to purchase books within the first few days of a book sale date with the goal of increasing the likelihood that a book enters the bestseller chart.
While common among traditional publishers, it’s a somewhat shady practice, and it’s possible that some respondents may have been reluctant to reply honestly. For whatever it’s worth, it’s worth noting that nearly half reported that it was at least “somewhat important.”
How Important are Book Awards?
The validation of this book awards as a marketing tactic is virtually unchanged from prior years, with nearly 40% reporting that it was very important, and 28.9% reporting that it was “very important.”
16% reported that it was somewhat important.
Just 3.9 reported that it was not at all important.
How Important are Book Review?
How important are book reviews in a book marketing program?
Book reviews were the most important tactic in the survey, with just 3.7% reporting that they were not very or “not at all important.”
The popularity of both independent book reviews as well as reader ratings and reviews has been consistent in every iteration of the survey.
How important is social media in a book marketing program?
When asked about the importance of social media, the ground appears to be shifting. Social is still viewed as important, but the channels are changing quickly.
Usage of X (Twitter), GoodReads and Threads has fallen considerably year-over-year but are still significant. 21% report using Bluesky, along with 10.5% for Storygraph – the first time either network has appeared in our questionnaire.
Elsewhere, Facebook / Instagram usage is virtually unchanged.