Techno Thrillers Jumped 49%
Thomas: In this segment, we step away from breaking news and look at culture, politics, and how they shift over time. It can be difficult to recognize larger trends if you focus only on individual moments. A single wave may look large, but when you step back, you can see whether the tide is rising or falling.
This is where we discuss broader, more timeless patterns.
Occasionally, we also do a deep dive into a K-lytics report. K-lytics.com (Affiliate Link), run by Alex Newton, analyzes Kindle sales, which are highly responsive to cultural trends. Because indie authors dominate Kindle publishing and can move quickly, these sales often reflect shifts in reader interest before they appear elsewhere. That is why we look closely at these reports.
Today, we are covering the mystery, thriller, and suspense (MTS) category.
Jonathan: The biggest headline is that techno thrillers are up 49%.
In 2025, the Kindle Select Global Fund paid out $740.5 million to Kindle Unlimited authors, a 9.4% increase. Activity in mystery, thriller, and suspense remains strong. I will refer to it as MTS for simplicity.
MTS is the third-largest category on Amazon, behind romance and science fiction and fantasy. It spans a wide audience. You have legacy authors like Clive Cussler and Janet Evanovich, along with cozy mysteries that appeal to younger readers. It is a broad and active category.
According to the report, MTS accounts for 33% of the top 100 Kindle titles. Romance leads with 55%, and women’s fiction sits at 9%.
Thomas: It is important to note that these figures reflect titles, not total sales. The distribution follows a Pareto pattern. A small number of top books generate a disproportionate share of revenue, while the rest form a long tail of lower-selling titles.
Jonathan: There is also a seasonal pattern. Sales tend to rise in September and dip in March. Over the last six months, the category has shown a modest upward trend.
Within MTS, suspense leads with an average top 20 sales rank of 34, moving about 1,011 copies per day. Thrillers follow at rank 41 with roughly 922 daily sales. Mystery trails at rank 146 with about 458 daily sales.
The standout trend is growth in specific subgenres. Techno thrillers are up 49% over the past year. Political thrillers and police procedurals are also gaining traction, along with private investigator stories, which are up 43%.
If you are targeting one of these subgenres, you are likely to see stronger launch momentum right now.
My view is that the rise in techno thrillers is tied to AI. Earlier stories, like The Matrix or I, Robot, asked whether we should build AI. Now AI exists, and the question has shifted. Readers want stories about how AI changes conflict and society.
Thomas: People use fiction to make emotional sense of the world. News helps them understand events intellectually, but stories help them process what those events mean.
AI is creating uncertainty. Some readers respond by escaping into genres that avoid it. Others want to confront it directly. That is where techno thrillers come in. They allow readers to explore the implications of emerging technology in a narrative form.
A strong techno thriller looks slightly ahead of reality. It takes current developments and asks what happens next.
For example, imagine small autonomous drones capable of targeting individuals. One device may not seem significant, but a coordinated swarm changes the equation entirely. That kind of scenario feels close enough to reality to be compelling, while still offering room for storytelling.
Jonathan: That is where these stories gain traction. If you can anticipate the next phase of a technology or cultural shift, even by a year or two, you can capture reader interest.
The same applies to political thrillers. A timely example would be a story set inside Iran, exploring internal tensions as external pressure increases. What happens beneath the surface as power structures shift? What are the competing factions, and how do they respond?
Thomas: There is also an opportunity for a different kind of political story. Right now, most portrayals focus on flawed or corrupt leaders. There is space for a narrative centered on a principled statesman operating in a difficult environment.
As cultural cycles shift, readers often look for virtuous figures navigating complex systems. A story about a leader trying to achieve meaningful change while maintaining integrity could resonate.
Political thrillers are already on the rise. Combining that with elements of techno thrillers could create a powerful narrative. It would require a strong understanding of both technology and politics, but the opportunity is clear.
Thomas: Someone should write a political thriller centered on a Rand Paul–type figure, a character who is actually trying to win and pass legislation. For the story to work, the protagonist needs a clear mission.
Here is the novel I want to see. A senator is trying to save the republic by eliminating the filibuster. The argument is that the filibuster weakens the system of checks and balances. There are three branches of government meant to check one another, yet only one branch requires a 60% threshold to act. That creates gridlock and removes accountability.
The story follows a single, principled senator attempting to change that system. What does it take to succeed in that environment?
Jonathan: At its core, that kind of story is about deal-making. There was a film a few years ago called Draft Day, starring Kevin Costner. It focused on the NFL draft and the negotiations behind the scenes.
It worked because of the complexity. Every decision involved trade-offs, misdirection, and strategic thinking. No one trusted anyone else. Deals looked bad on the surface but made sense later. That is the foundation of a political thriller.
It is about what you trade, what you conceal, and how you manage competing interests. Sometimes it even looks like you are helping the wrong side when you are not.
Thomas: I am looking for the inverse of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. The modern version of the filibuster no longer requires continuous speech, which changes the dynamic. I am not opposed to the traditional, talking filibuster.
Jonathan: The key point is that audiences enjoy solving problems. They want to understand what is happening beneath the surface.
I am working on a story myself on Royal Road called Devil Dog. It follows a Marine who is a Christian but wakes up in hell inside a game-like system. He begins leveling up, but the system cannot control him. It breaks its own rules.
The central mystery is simple. Why is he there? Readers stay engaged because they want to uncover the answer. You reveal information gradually, and that keeps them hooked.
Thomas: I did not realize it was already available to read.
Jonathan: It is. I am eight chapters in.
Thomas: We should keep moving, but I want to highlight what is declining in the market. While techno thrillers, political thrillers, and police procedurals are rising, assassination thrillers are falling.
There was a temporary spike in interest when an attempted assassination dominated the news cycle. It made the concept feel dramatic and distant. That has changed. Real-world events have shifted the tone. Assassination no longer feels abstract or exciting. It feels unsettling.
The perception of assassins has also changed. They are no longer seen as polished, cinematic figures. They are viewed as ideologically driven individuals operating in less controlled environments.
Jonathan: That shift removes the appeal. It is no longer aspirational or intriguing in the same way.
Thomas: This aligns with broader cultural cycles. In earlier phases, stories often centered on antiheroes and morally gray protagonists. Organized crime narratives performed well because audiences were interested in flawed characters operating in broken systems.
Now there is a shift toward stories with clearer moral direction. Readers are more interested in protagonists who pursue justice rather than embody corruption.
We are seeing that reflected in both fiction and real-world attitudes. Law enforcement and order are becoming more central themes again. That shift is gradual, and different audiences are moving at different speeds, but the direction is becoming clearer.
Jonathan: Multiple cultural perspectives can exist at the same time. Some audiences still favor older narratives, while others are moving toward new ones. Understanding your audience is critical.
If your readers lean one way, you can write directly to that perspective or challenge it thoughtfully. Either way, you need to know where they stand.
Thomas: Exactly. These shifts do not happen overnight. Different viewpoints coexist and compete. Over time, one tends to become dominant.
For authors, the key is to recognize where the momentum is building and write accordingly.
Thomas: The average price of a mystery, thriller, or suspense ebook has gone up. That reflects a broader trend across publishing, especially in ebooks. All of the reports we are discussing here focus on Kindle ebooks.
The average price is now $7.05. I wish the report included the median price rather than just the average, although in this case the two may be fairly close because Amazon’s pricing structure limits the kind of extreme outliers that can distort the data.
I suspect two factors are driving this increase. The first is inflation. The second is that more authors are building advertising costs into their pricing model.
For many authors, this is the key to unlocking profitability. They are charging too little and not making enough per book. If you make an extra dollar on each sale, that gives you another dollar to acquire your next reader. If your profit rises from $1 to $2 per book, and it costs $1.50 to acquire a reader, you suddenly have a scalable system. Each sale helps fund the next one, while still leaving a margin.
That is good for Amazon as well. The company gets paid when a book sells, and it gets paid again when authors buy ads. In a crowded marketplace, advertising is one of the main ways to stand out, and higher prices help make that possible.
Jonathan: The $4.99 price point still appears to perform best in terms of royalties. That may be closer to the median price point, even if it is not the average.
Thomas: I suspect $4.99 is actually the mode, the most common price. That matters because readers are likely seeing that number more than any other as they browse.
Average, median, and mode each tell a different story. The average can be distorted by high-priced books that are barely selling. The median shows the middle point in the data set and is often more useful. The mode tells you the price readers encounter most often.
All three numbers matter. If the average and median are around $7, but the most common visible price is $4.99, that tells you something important about market expectations.
Jonathan: It also raises another question. Are people actually buying those $19.99 mystery or thriller ebooks, or are those titles simply pulling the average upward?
Thomas: Exactly. A listed price does not necessarily reflect a meaningful sales volume.
I have done many episodes on pricing because there is so much strategy involved, and there is no one perfect price. There is no perfect price for books in general, and there is no permanent perfect price for your book.
Pricing changes over time. A book may launch high and later go lower. It may begin low and increase later. It may stay high and occasionally drop for a promotional pulse. The right strategy depends on your readers, your genre, your competition, and your goals.
We are not going to get into the green zones here, because those are one of the most valuable parts of the report. The green zones show where demand is high and supply is low, and that is worth paying for.
Jonathan: One other major takeaway is that series continue to dominate. They make up 49% of the top 100, with a sweet spot around 300 to 350 pages.
Thomas: My takeaway is slightly different. If series account for 49% of the top 100, that means 51% are not series. And within that 49%, you may have multiple books from the same successful series taking up several spots.
I still believe authors should start with a standalone book that has a satisfying ending. Only write a sequel if the first book creates demand for one. Too many authors promise a series before they are ready to deliver it. That hurts readers, damages reputations, and can trap writers into continuing a concept that may not be their strongest work.
For many authors, the first book they write is their weakest. If every reader has to start there, that becomes a problem.
Jonathan: That is partly a craft issue. These numbers do not tell us whether the series began with a strong first book or whether the author built momentum over time. Still, series can offer stronger economics because one reader can turn into multiple sales.
Some long-running books are technically part of a series but still function like standalones. Clive Cussler is a good example. Readers return for the familiar characters, even when the books are loosely connected.
Thomas: I am not against writing series. I am against promising a series before you can deliver it.
I also want to mention one green-zone example because it is especially relevant to our audience. Christian mystery, thriller, and suspense appears to be a promising opportunity. A lot of young Christian writers gravitate toward fantasy or science fiction, often inspired by C.S. Lewis or Tolkien. But economically, mystery, thriller, and suspense may be a much smarter lane.
There is high demand, and relatively few young writers are entering that space. By contrast, Christian fantasy and sci-fi are crowded with aspiring authors and have a smaller readership. I know this firsthand because I used to handle marketing for a company focused on those genres. Finding readers was difficult because so many of them also wanted to be writers.
If more of those authors shifted their storytelling instincts into thrillers, especially techno thrillers, they might find a much stronger market.
Jonathan: That is true. Many of the bestselling Christian authors built their careers in suspense and thriller territory, even when the technology in those books now feels dated.
Thomas: Exactly. A lot of those older thrillers were high-tech for their time.
Jonathan: I wrote a short story in college about a future where the Bible had been destroyed, but one man carried the last copy on a chip in his heart. People loved the concept.
Thomas: That is basically The Book of Eli.
Jonathan: Yes, but the broader point stands. Technology and faith can work together in fiction.
Thomas: Christians have often been at the forefront of advancing media technology. The codex itself, what we now call a book, was strongly promoted by early Christians because it made Scripture easier to carry and distribute. One monk could carry the entire Bible in codex form, which was impossible with scrolls.
So there is a long history here. Christians have not merely adopted technology. In many cases, they helped drive it forward.
Source: K-lytics.com (Affiliate Link)
