Writing in Time

A Century of Publishing Trends

Writers often hear, ‘know the market,’ and ‘understand the trends to position your book accordingly.’ There’s practical sense in that advice, because publishing is, at its core, an industry. Agents and editors live inside market realities, and books need readers. And while writers aren’t harmed by understanding the room they hope to enter, I still don’t think we should write toward trends.

Photo by micheile henderson

For one thing, publishing moves very slowly, and the timing rarely lines up. By the time a book goes from concept to zero-draft, revised seven* times, beta-read, queried, cried over, queried again, edited, sold, designed, printed, marketed, shipped, reviewed, and finally placed into readers’ hands, the trend has probably changed. But more importantly, writing toward a trend can flatten the instinct that brings a book alive in the first place. Lasting work feels like someone was paying attention before most of us knew how to name what we were feeling, and less like a well-designed product.

That is the mercy of the craft: if you write honestly from what is pressing on your heart, you may already be closer to the cultural pulse than you think. After all, we share a world: absorb the same anxieties, inherit the same griefs, move through the same technologies, economies, wars, losses, longings, and hopes; and some believe we share a higher consciousness.

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Photo by Nick Fewings

While looking back at bestselling books across the last century, popularity is typically shaped by the following influences: marketing, distribution, censorship, literacy, class, race, school systems, book clubs, film adaptations, celebrity, prize culture, and pure luck. And while bestseller status and literary value are not always the same thing, the lists still tell us something. They show us what readers were hungry for.

• What they feared.

• What comforted them.

• What they wanted explained.

• What they wanted to escape.

• What they were finally ready to confront.

A Note on the List: This essay uses selected U.S. bestseller-list examples, mostly from The Bookman, Publishers Weekly, and later BookScan/Circana-era rankings. The books themselves are not all American; this essay is focused on books that reached large U.S. readerships. Early lists are especially fiction-heavy, and bestseller methodology varies by source, year, format, retailer reporting, and category. Popularity is not the same thing as literary value. This is a cultural reading of widely read books and the social moods they seem to reveal, rather than a definitive ranking of the most important books of each decade.

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A Century of Publishing Trends

1900s: American Origin Stories

To Have and to Hold, by Mary Johnston topped the 1900 list, while Owen Wister’s The Virginian led in 1902. These books helped feed an imagination preoccupied with origins, conquest, individualism, and the romance of early national identity.

A young and expanding nation often reaches for myth before it reaches for self-interrogation. At the turn of the twentieth century, American readers were drawn toward historical romance, frontier myth, and national self-imagination. These books became part of a country narrating itself to itself! Who are we? Where did we come from? What virtues do we want to believe built us? The answers were often romanticized, selective, and tragically incomplete.

1910s: Optimism Before the World Broke Open

The 1910s brought a strange mixture of moral questioning, spiritual anxiety, and sentimental reassurance.

The Inside of the Cup by Winston Churchill was the bestselling novel of 1913, reflecting an era interested in religion, reform, and institutional doubt. Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter, published the same year, gave readers a figure of radical optimism.

By 1917, Publishers Weekly separated fiction and nonfiction bestseller lists as World War I increased public interest in nonfiction. And that same year, H.G. Wells’s Mr. Britling Sees It Through, a novel about World War I, became the #1 fiction title. On the edge of catastrophe, readers wanted both moral seriousness and emotional shelter. Sometimes optimism becomes a kind of survival technology. (hmm, sound familiar?)

1920s: Glitter, Escape, and the Moral Hangover

The 1920s are remembered for jazz, glamour, speed, money, and reinvention, but the decade’s bestselling fiction reveals instability under the shine. Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street led the 1921 list, with Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence at #4 and E.M. Hull’s The Sheik at #6. Edna Ferber’s So Big topped the 1924 list, and Anita Loos’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes appeared high on the 1926 list.

The decade wanted modernity, but it also wanted judgment. It wanted glamour, but it also wanted to know what glamour cost. Books of the period looked backward to manners, marriage, pioneers, and moral architecture even as the country accelerated into mass media, consumerism, and spectacle. And a pattern emerges: in decades of rapid change, readers often reach in two directions at once. They want the thrill of the new and the reassurance of an older structure.

1930s: Big Books for Hard Times

During the Great Depression, readers turned toward sweeping stories of endurance, escape, and survival. Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth topped the 1931 list. Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind led in both 1936 and 1937. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’s The Yearling topped the 1938 list.

These books are large in scale and emotion. They ask readers to live inside hardship for a while, but with scenery, drama, and a bit of distance. The 1930s remind us that readers in crisis often want stories big enough to hold suffering along with love.

1940s: War, Faith, and the Search for Meaning

The 1940s were shaped by World War II, and bestselling books carried the era’s hunger for survival, ambition, faith, and moral order. Franz Werfel’s The Song of Bernadette topped the 1942 list, Lloyd C. Douglas’s The Robe led in 1943, Lillian Smith’s Strange Fruit led in 1944, and Kathleen Winsor’s Forever Amber topped 1945. W. Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge also appeared high on the 1944 list.

Nonfiction had a real moment in the 1940’s as it reflected the war directly. In December 1941, Berlin Diary by William L. Shirer and That Day Alone by Pierre Van Paassen were both high on Publishers Weekly’s nonfiction bestseller list.

War always changes what readers ask from books. Entertainment remains necessary, but another question demands answers: What can or should a person believe in after the world has shown what it is capable of?

1950s: The Perfect House Had Cracks in the Walls

The 1950s are often packaged as an era of domestic order, but the decade’s bestselling books show pressure under the image. James Jones’s From Here to Eternity topped the 1951 list. Grace Metalious’s Peyton Place ranked #3 in 1956 and #2 in 1957. Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago topped 1958, and Leon Uris’s Exodus led in 1959.

The decade’s fiction seems fascinated by what polite society suppresses: sex, violence, war trauma, scandal, & political repression. Readers were not as satisfied with conformity as the culture wanted them to appear. The polished surface had already begun to crack, and books helped widen the fracture.

Important to note: the titles in this post are not a definitive ranking of the “best” books of each era. It is a cultural reading of books that reached large audiences and the weather systems that helped carry them there.

1960s: Justice, Rebellion, and the Unreliable American Dream

The 1960s brought political upheaval, civil rights struggle, Cold War dread, sexual revolution, and generational revolt. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird ranked #3 in 1961 after its 1960 publication. Katherine Anne Porter’s Ship of Fools led in 1962. Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls led in 1966. Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint topped 1969, with Mario Puzo’s The Godfather at #2 and Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain at #5.

Nonfiction carried the decade’s urgency as well. In 1963, the week of the March on Washington, James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time was the #2 nonfiction bestseller on Publishers Weekly’s list.

The 1960s wanted social rupture, confession, and liberation. Books followed that sentiment into courtrooms, bedrooms, & governments.

1970s: What Lurks Beneath the Water, the Family Tree, and the State

This decade keeps asking what lies beneath: beneath the water, beneath government, beneath history. The 1970s brought environmental fear, political disillusionment, identity reckoning, and distrust of power.

Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull led the 1972 and 1973 fiction lists. James A. Michener’s Centennial topped 1974, with Watership Down by Richard Adams at #2, Jaws by Peter Benchley at #3, and John le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy at #4. E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime led in 1975, while Leon Uris’s Trinity topped 1976.

The nonfiction lists were just as revealing. During the Watergate era, All the President’s Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein reached #1 on Publishers Weekly’s nonfiction list, while Alex Comfort’s The Joy of Sex and Robert Atkins’s Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution showed readers turning toward the body, appetite, and self-management.

1980s: Greed, Horror, and Systems Under Pressure

The 1980s gave readers ambition, horror, techno-politics, historical sprawl, and spectacle. Stephen King’s It topped the 1986 list. Tom Clancy’s The Cardinal of the Kremlin led in 1988. Stephen King’s The Dark Half was the #1 fiction bestseller during the week the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, while Nancy Reagan’s My Turn led nonfiction that same week. Carl Sagan’s Cosmos also appeared on nonfiction bestseller lists in the early 1980s, reflecting a mass hunger for science, scale, and wonder in the age of personal computing and Cold War futurism. This was a decade of systems. The monsters got bigger because the systems got bigger.

In a more mystical aside, I also can’t help noticing that the number 8 is often associated with structure, management, power, systems, and material success. For a decade so fixated on scale and control, that feels almost too on the nose.

1990s: Confession, Suspicion, and the Rise of the Personal Story

The 1990s brought legal thrillers, intimate confession, memoir, spiritual seeking, and suspicion of institutions. Jean M. Auel’s The Plains of Passage led in 1990. Alexandra Ripley’s Scarlett led in 1991. Stephen King’s Dolores Claiborne topped 1992, with John Grisham’s The Pelican Brief at #2. Robert James Waller’s The Bridges of Madison County led in 1993, and James Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy ranked high in 1994.

The decade was also fertile ground for memoir and public confession. Maus by Art Spiegelman appeared on Publishers Weekly’s nonfiction list in 1991, and O.J. Simpson’s I Want to Tell You appeared on the 1995 annual nonfiction list during the culture’s obsession with the Simpson trial.

Readers wanted to know what institutions were hiding. They also wanted personal stories of survival, trauma, & family as the reality TV era was born. Suspicion and confession became twin literary engines.

2000s: Codes, Chosen Ones, War, and Post-9/11 Distrust

After 9/11, readers gravitated toward hidden histories, conspiracies, moral battles, global conflict, war, and systems of belief. Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code topped the 2003 and 2004 fiction lists. Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones ranked high in 2002 and 2003. Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns led the 2007 fiction list. John Grisham’s The Appeal topped 2008, and Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol led 2009.

The period’s nonfiction bestseller lists reflected politics and polarization. In 2003, The Savage Nation by Michael Savage and Useful Idiots by Mona Charen were both high on Publishers Weekly’s nonfiction lists around the start of the Iraq War. Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope and Dreams from My Father climbed paperback bestseller lists around the 2008 election.

The 2000s wanted codes behind history, magic behind the wall, corruption behind institutions, and a chosen path through darkness.

2010s: Marriage, Memory, Desire, and the Unstable Self

The 2010s were full of psychological suspense, intimate betrayal, dystopian anxiety, viral desire, YA crossover, and the growing influence of online reader communities. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson led in 2010. Fifty Shades of Grey topped 2012, followed by The Hunger Games, Fifty Shades Darker, and Fifty Shades Freed. Gone Girl ranked #10 that same year. John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars led 2014, and Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train led 2016 after ranking #3 in 2015.

This decade was fascinated by what could not be trusted: the spouse, the narrator, the self. Desire became mainstream spectacle. Domestic life became a crime scene. Young adult dystopia gave a generation language for authoritarianism.

According to Nielsen BookScan data cited in the decade list, the Fifty Shades series held the top three bestselling books of the 2010’s, with The Hunger Games and The Help following.

2020s: Isolation, Self-Repair, Romantasy, and the Hunger for Tenderness

The 2020s are still unfolding, but the patterns are already somewhat visible. In 2020, Barack Obama’s A Promised Land topped the annual list, followed by Stephenie Meyer’s Midnight Sun, Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man: Grime and Punishment, Mary L. Trump’s Too Much and Never Enough, Suzanne Collins’s The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Delia Owens’s Where the Crawdads Sing, Glennon Doyle’s Untamed, Charlie Mackesy’s The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. By 2022 & 2023, Colleen Hoover dominated the lists with It Ends with Us, Verity, and It Starts with Us. James Clear’s Atomic Habits stayed remarkably strong. Prince Harry’s Spare, Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing, Bonnie Garmus’s Lessons in Chemistry all appeared in the 2023 top ten. In 2024, Kristin Hannah’s The Women led the list, followed by Sarah J. Maas, Dav Pilkey, Freida McFadden, James Clear, Colleen Hoover, and Rebecca Yarros.

This decade is reading through isolation, burnout, algorithmic intimacy, political dread, self-repair, fandom, and the collapse of old attention patterns. Romance, romantasy, thrillers, celebrity memoir, children’s books, habit books, and emotionally direct fiction are all thriving.

The dominant question of this decade might be: How do we stay human under all this pressure?

Photo by Brad Switzer

What Readers May Want Next:

The Age of the Irreplaceable

My prediction is that the next wave of lasting books will include AI plots, climate plots, and collapse plots, because all of those subjects will be prevalent. But the books that endure may be the ones that ask, first, what consciousness, care, and community mean in a world where more and more can be simulated and automated.

I’m querying a book about many of these questions now, and I’m part of a large wave of writers thinking through the same territory. We may also see more fiction about synthetic life, spiritual hunger, ecological kinship, chosen families, animal consciousness, reproductive autonomy, and the body as the last contested place of truth.

We may see nonfiction move beyond productivity and into restoration: attention, nervous system repair, land, ritual, grief literacy, spiritual practice, and meaning. And maybe we might see poetry take more of a center stage as people begin to value the radical act of slowing down.

The future trend may be also be a longing: A longing to feel real; A longing to belong to the earth again; A longing to know what cannot be replaced.

That is why I keep returning to this belief: writers should write what will not leave them alone, and trust that the private pressure may also belong to the collective heart. Because trends are late, but the heart is early.

Thank you for reading,

NJ.

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