Paranormal Romance... or HORROR?
For the first time in oh, so many years, I found myself back in my childhood library today. Between the ages of 12 and 16, I practically LIVED in this library. I'd get out my maximum quota of books every week and drink them in ... so, it was quite nice to be back in a way. Quite nice to see my daughter drinking in books in the same way I used to.
There wasn't such a thing as Paranormal Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, or even Urban Fantasy when I was young. The only five sections in the library were Fiction, *Romance, Horror, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and then whole other sections for non-fiction. Times have changed, BUT ... this library has not - at least not in this fundamental way: all the sections above were still the same. I went searching for Paranormal Romance, and where did I find it? Nestled in the Horror section. That's right, J R Ward, Gena Showalter, Keri Arthur, Kresley Cole (and so on) were right up there next to Stephen King and James Herbert.
It boggled my mind. These are not the same genres. Paranormal Romances may (and often do) have elements of horror in them, but they are read for the romance, not for gruesome slash fiction, or creepy crawlies, or any other kind of horror thrill. Likewise, horror readers may not mind reading some hot sex, but they're not reading horror for the romance.
And libraries are wondering why they're suffering? Please, move with the times! I didn't have time to go on an Urban Fantasy hunt - not sure where I would have found it. Maybe in the Teen section, even though not all UF books are for teens...
The reason I found the whole thing so fascinating, was because I had a little rant on Facebook a few days ago about how I'm not 100% certain how to market my books because they cross genres. But one thing I do know: when I donate my upcoming Witching Pen Novellas Omnibus to that library, I shall be inserting a note asking them to add it to their Horror section, next to James Herbert, and above J R Ward.
*I shall be writing a blog post tomorrow about the Romance section specifically, so stay tuned for more confused ponderings...
There wasn't such a thing as Paranormal Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, or even Urban Fantasy when I was young. The only five sections in the library were Fiction, *Romance, Horror, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and then whole other sections for non-fiction. Times have changed, BUT ... this library has not - at least not in this fundamental way: all the sections above were still the same. I went searching for Paranormal Romance, and where did I find it? Nestled in the Horror section. That's right, J R Ward, Gena Showalter, Keri Arthur, Kresley Cole (and so on) were right up there next to Stephen King and James Herbert.
It boggled my mind. These are not the same genres. Paranormal Romances may (and often do) have elements of horror in them, but they are read for the romance, not for gruesome slash fiction, or creepy crawlies, or any other kind of horror thrill. Likewise, horror readers may not mind reading some hot sex, but they're not reading horror for the romance.
And libraries are wondering why they're suffering? Please, move with the times! I didn't have time to go on an Urban Fantasy hunt - not sure where I would have found it. Maybe in the Teen section, even though not all UF books are for teens...
The reason I found the whole thing so fascinating, was because I had a little rant on Facebook a few days ago about how I'm not 100% certain how to market my books because they cross genres. But one thing I do know: when I donate my upcoming Witching Pen Novellas Omnibus to that library, I shall be inserting a note asking them to add it to their Horror section, next to James Herbert, and above J R Ward.
*I shall be writing a blog post tomorrow about the Romance section specifically, so stay tuned for more confused ponderings...
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