A lot of attention is spent on looking back this time of year. Of course I have been a great example of that. But I would also argue that the end of the year is also when we can begin using what we have seen to think about what is coming next.
That is the thesis of my upcoming, annual Year in Review program, as well.(it will be via PCI Webinars on 2/11/26; more info soon).
Today, I have another example-- the recently released SF/Fantasy Preview from Library Journal, but first let me back up a bit.
My long-time friend Kristi Chadwick is the director at Ballston Community Public Library in Burnt Hills, NY. She is also the SFF columnist for LJ. Back in 2018, Kristi helped me run Librarians' Day for StokerCon in Providence, RI. During that time, Kristi was the LJ SF/Fantasy/Horror columnist, but even back then, she was noticing that horror was gaining too much steam for her to be able to cover it properly. And so began the discussion of her dropping the Horror from the SF/Fantasy review column so that LJ could add a 4x a year stand alone Horror review column penned by me. That Horror review column appeared for the first time in January of 2020, with a column that included a review of The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones.
The rest, as they say, is history. I will have more to say about this in the next few weeks, but again back to today....In the October issue of LJ, Kristi did her genre preview for SF and Fantasy. All of the genre previews, inlacing my Horror one in the July issue, follow a similar outline. The authors, normally that genre's columnist, look at their genre and the books coming in the next 6 ish month from the publication of the preview article. We are then tasked with letting people know what trends appear to be on the horizon.
Also, every preview article has a full spreadsheet of all of the titles mentioned plus many more that we author's want you to know about. And everything is listed to make it easy for you to add them to your on-order carts.
These are not books we have read cover to cover and reviewed before these articles are written, but we all use our expertise covering these genres to alert you as to the books you should be placing on order AND we are helping you to prepare for trends before they happen.
While library workers encounter these genre preview articles throughout the year, it is worth revisiting them at the end of a year to get up to speed in that genre, its trends, its most popular authors, and how your collection reflects these conclusions. Do you need to order more of a certain subgenres of books? Do you need to be preparing for readalikes with backlist titles? What are your readers most popular titles and/or subgenres in these genres?
All of these are questions worth asking, by every library workers who helps readers, at the end of the year. And even though these previews are spread out all the year through, accessing them again at the end of the year, helps to give you a fuller picture of both that genre AND all of popular fiction.
Below I have the introduction to Kristi's SF/Fantasy Genre Preview but since LJ doe not make it easy to pull these all up in one place, I also have a linked list below to make it easier for all of you to peruse them all in one place.
- 2025 Mystery Preview
- 2025 Graphic Novels Preview
- 2025 Historical Fiction Preview
- 2025 Horror Preview
- 2025 Romance Preview
- 2025 SF/Fantasy Preview
I hope you utilize these genre preview articles as you go through your end of the year processes.
Violence, Vengeance, and a Cup of Tea | 2025 SF & Fantasy Previewby Kristi ChadwickThe forthcoming season of SFF titles navigates a landscape of books that lean toward danger, intrigue, and doom. While last year saw the convergence of SFF and a range of other genres, this year dark fantasy is the leading trend, followed by dark academia. Dystopian books have also returned to prominence. Providing books for all moods and readers, cozy titles still hold sway as well. Romantasy remains a leading category (see LJ’s romance preview in the October issue for detailed coverage), and series titles continue to dominate genre fiction, offering readers duologies, trilogies, and much longer runs.
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