YOU DIDN’T NEED to be Nate Silver to predict that vampires were bound to rule YA lists following the success of Stephenie Meyer’s blockbuster Twilight series. But some publishing trends are harder to predict. Two years ago, could anyone have guessed demand for adult colouring books would become so huge it would cause an international pencil-crayon shortage? And who thought the Danish concept of “hygge” – the act of creating a feeling or atmosphere of cozy comfort and warmth – would result in a flood of books on the subject?
In November, Charlotte Higgins wrote a piece in The Guardian outing the Scandinavian craze as a concoction of the British publishing industry. “It is the most striking publishing trend I can remember, in terms of the sheer number of titles published at the same time,” said Caroline Sanderson, of U.K. trade magazine The Bookseller.