A sinister ritual and nightmares made manifest… What's not to love?
“You’re an author? That’s awesome! What do you write?”
“Horror,” you say, proudly puffing out your chest.
“Oh…”
Uncomfortable looks. The subject is quickly changed.
Your puffed chest deflates and you slink away in shame…
It’s hard to promote horror. No genre is more misunderstood and fractured by sub-genre: supernatural, post-apocalyptic, fantasy, sci-fi, comedy, slasher, not to mention vampires, werewolves, zombies, gelatinous snot from outer space, man-eating rose bushes, and nebulous shape shifting child serial killers (10 points if you can guess those last 3 in the comments). The list goes on. It’s difficult to tell someone you’ve written a horror novel and generate interest, and this makes it all the more difficult to promote and sell a horror novel.
How NOT to market your book…
When you mention horror, everyone is thinking something different. Some people think of vampires (some people, believe it or not, think Twilight is horror, and in some ways it is). Some people think of slasher horror, which mostly comes from movies like Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street where groups of not-so-smart teens are picked off one by one by some sort of killer on the loose. This is fine, but only one kind of horror and one that tends to make people think the genre is juvenile and aimed mostly at teenage boys, which it is not!
And then there’s King. When you mention horror, a lot of people think of Stephen King. King is a huge influence on the horror genre and he has written a lot of different tales, but his horror tends to be about outside evil terrorizing and corrupting generally good and well-intentioned people. (I could write a lot more about King’s particular brand of horror, but that’s an entire article all its own—watch this space!) And to further complicate matters, when a lot of people think of Stephen King, they think of creepy ol’ Jack Nicholson rampaging around with an axe, which is more Stanley Kubrick’s vision than King’s (more on this too in the future if there’s interest).
And to make matters even worse, horror is often subject to controversy and scorn. There are those who will tell you horror is bad for you. They think it’s all gore and violence and that reading such things brings out the worst in people. This is, of course, simply not true. In fact, I’d argue, the opposite is true (Another post! These things are writing themselves).
The horror is real.
So then how the hell do we promote it? You’ve written a horror book. You want people to see it, to read it, to love it. First step is education. We need to teach people about horror, about the joys of darkness. That’s the only way we’re going to find the right audience. What better place to start then with blogging?
In this ongoing blog series I will be talking about how to sell a horror novel. I’ll tell you right now, it’s not easy. I’ve been doing this for years now and the struggle is ongoing. But I will share my experiences and what I have found that works and what doesn’t.
Next month I will be talking about blogging techniques to help educate the masses about horror. I will talk about how important it is to define your horror novel, so that you know what kind of horror it is and can attract the right kind of reader.
Until then, embrace the darkness!
Keith Deininger has been writing about horror, fantasy and science fiction since 2013, but he’s been obsessed with it for far longer. He is the award-winning and #1 Amazon bestselling author of many horror and fantasy titles, including WITHIN, THE FEVER TRILOGY and THE GODGAME series. He has been called “one of the finest writers of imaginative fiction” and “Ray Bradbury on acid.” His latest novel, VIOLENT HEARTS, is about a sinister ritual and the terrors of nightmares made manifest. He lives in Albuquerque, NM with his wife and two kids. Although he loves a good nightmare, in person he’s a really nice guy. Promise.
