Hi. I think one area that I've noticed in publishing is an interest in gentler novels at the moment, either with a magical element to them or 'cosy' in front of the genre, e.g. cosy crime. I could even imagine a trend emerging for cosy Fantasy, or cosy psychological thrillers etc.. becoming a thing, which it probably already is in a way, but just not labelled as such yet. Also Psychological Thrillers in extreme locations.

@Issy McCann Hi. Yes I think Romantasy is still popular, especially for established writers. Romance stories with elements of magic are ones that I notice a lot in this genre.

This is the start to my second fantasy novel in the series: “How does the device work?” asked the duck. He circled the machine in front of me in the research lab of the hospital, the glass cuboid container with tubes running into it. My own creation. The ultimate prison. To keep ducks in suspended animation, aware but not enough to escape. We could use this device to experiment on them at our leisure.

Hi. Is it worth getting an editor to do a professional line edit on your novel after the beta reading or are literary agencies happy/likely to accept novels without one? Thanks.

@Issy McCann Hi. Thanks for your reply on this. I can see that the answer to this is as complicated as I thought. I was thinking of getting a 10,000 word edit to test the water and see what needs changing. I know there are other editors that offer a review of the book to let you know what edit level they think is required. I was also thinking of maybe doing a short line editing course but which one to choose is a whole different question. :)