A Writer's Tale

Geeks, freaks.

Purveyors of trash.

Kids love us. So do a handful of real horror readers.

But most respectable people “literary” authors, editors, teachers, librarians, scholars, politicians, preachers, parents generally consider horror writers to be a stain on the floor.

I’ve had plenty of opportunities to observe the discrimination.

People ask me what I do for a living.

I say, “Oh, I write novels.”

Their eyes light up. I’m suddenly on a pedestal. I’m an author! An artist! An intellectual!

They are so impressed. “Really?” they blurt. “What sort of things do you write?”

“Oh, scary stuff. Horror.”

More often than not, their eyes go dead.

I’m no longer a light of culture and art I’m a trash man.

They force a polite smile and say, “Oh, how nice. I just love Stephen King.”

But they don’t love me. They’ve never heard of me.

And they don’t want to.

Because I’ve identified myself as a writer of “horror,” most people automatically assume that I’m a worthless hack who couldn’t possibly write anything they might want to read.

With the exceptions of such best-selling authors as Dean Koontz, Stephen King and Anne Rice, we are “untouchables.”

We are horror writers.

We are dog poop on the shoes of literature.

Our families and friends are embarrassed by us. “Why don’t you write something nice?” they say.

General readers go out of their way to avoid buying any book that is identified as horror.

Most people in the publishing industry barely tolerate us. I doubt that there exists a horror writer who hasn’t been urged by agents and editors to abandon horror and try writing some other type of fiction.

They know that horror “doesn’t sell.”

People don’t want to read horror.

Except they do, don’t they?

The fact is, millions of people read horror.

But they don’t read us.

They want to run from us.

Which is very strange, considering that they love Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Anne Rice. Exceedingly strange, considering that the books by those three mega-stars aren’t very much different in subject matter or quality from what many of us are writing.

In fact, I would venture to say that some of the worthless geeks and hacks of the much reviled horror clan have written books that are better than some of the bestselling books written by some of the mega-stars.

Not that it matters.

Because, in the opinion of every major U.S. publisher, horror doesn’t sell.

Though we all know otherwise.

So. What’s going on?

One fact is obvious: horror has a massive image problem.

To the book industry and the masses of general readers in this country, the word “horror” has nothing to do with Phantoms or Whispers or The Bad Place or Midnight. Horror has nothing to do with Salem’s Lot or The Shining or Desperation. Horror has nothing to do with Interview With the Vampire.

Horror has only to do with poorly written, empty-headed, violent, gory, depressing, mean-spirited, immoral, unbelievable swill written by bottom-of-the-barrel wannabe authors about such nonsense as ghosts, vampires, werewolves, witches, demons, curses, monsters and psychos.

Does that sound like an overly harsh appraisal of the situation?

I bet it doesn’t. Not if you’re a horror writer.

To most horror writers, I bet it sounds like the solemn truth. But why do they revile us?

We aren’t bad people. Well, some of us, maybe…

Back to the question, Why are we reviled?

People in the book industry look down their noses at us because, with a few significant exceptions, our books do not sell very well.

Editors claim, “Readers just don’t want to buy horror.”

They advise, “Tone down the supernatural elements. We’ll call it a suspense novel, and it’ll sell a lot more copies.”

Basically, it seems that nobody wants to read horror unless it is written by you-knowwho.

And the publishers long ago gave up on finding any new stars. Oh, they tried a few times.

But they got the impression that nobody clicked, so they quit. Now, they very reluctantly publish horror novels every so often. Giving them little or no publicity. Doing tiny little print runs.

Usually, a horror novel will get published with no promotion at all. As a result, nothing much happens. With paperbacks, you’re lucky if five or six copies get into the average store. With hard-bounds, two or three copies may end up somewhere on a shelf, spine out.

They are pieces of hay in a hay stack. Nobody is likely notice these books, much less buy them. If they do get purchased, most bookstores will not reorder (though they might claim to).

When Funland came out in paperback, a local bookstore received a dozen copies. They flew off the shelves. They were all gone within two days. But I expressed an interest in buying the book, and was told that they wouldn’t be ordering any more copies.

Even books that do sell “don’t sell.”