What happened to horror in mainstream fiction?

There are definitely still horror novels being written and sold, and agents who are explicitly looking for it as a genre. Clive Barker released a new novel - absolutely firmly entrenched in his own special flavor of horror - just last year, and I'm working through a lovely Adam Nevill book published in 2012 (though he's put out one a year since 2010.) On one hand I think it's a difficult genre to break into because finding inventive ways to scare readers is a challenge; agents and publishers are tired of and not looking for the 'usual' things (vampires, werethings, zombies, etc.) On the other, I think 'horror' is often perceived a certain way in the general reading population and so a lot of books that could be considered horror are being marketed as other things instead.

But what goes around comes around, right? Maybe the horror genre is waiting patiently in some dark gloomy corner, under the bed, or under the closet, waiting to make its triumphant and terrifying return.

I have just recently started reading a lot of horror and writing horror. I mostly wrote action based books and stories before that. I have found that with horror, it allows me the time to dive into characters that a lot of my action writing didn't. I have been able to keep characters around and get close to them before "killing my darling" off. Sometimes I get to keep those darlings and see where they lead me.

I feel like the market is rather strong and there are a lot of new things coming out by a lot of new authors as well as those who have been around the block a time or two. Young Adult is really starting to capture a lot of attention. I have found a lot of horror books listed in YA section of books stores. I have picked up and read a few. All I can say about them, wow, they are really polished writers.

I have not read a book in horror that has scared me. Some books have given me the creeps or made me think what if. One book that I have read and feel like nothing will ever take away what that book did to me is Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door. That book had me screaming at the characters. Feeling the pain for Meg. I still can't shake that book and it has been over two weeks. I feel it has left something within me that I hope never leaves.

Stephen King's IT influenced me with a book that I have with an editor right now. I found something that I enjoyed writing after reading IT. I wrote something from a kids point of view. I really enjoyed that. So I guess IT has stuck with me too but in the same way.

Splatter Punk is also another area that I see a lot of new horror authors coming from.

I wonder if self-publishing has hit the market a bit harder? It has allowed writers to take some of the power away from big companies. It has given it back to the writer.

Stephen King has turned up the heat over the last couple of years. He has had a few new books come out. Dean Koontz I think has too. Clive Barker has a few new things.

I'm also tired of Vampires and Werewolves being pretty. They sparkle now a days.

I agree that it seems like horror is no longer mainstream. I know there are horror books being published etc, but I noticed several years ago that bookshops near me removed the horror section altogether and replaced it with paranormal romance...not sure if they think that's a suitable replacement genre.

I have Kindle on my tablet and that has no horror section either. You can use the search function and bring up horror books if you type that in, but you can't click on horror as a genre, which I think really sucks. In the library near me (which, admittedly, is a small town), the horror section has Twilight etc and other vampire romance novels. I don't think they belong there.

Is it becoming a hard sell, despite agents still repping the genre and publishers still publishing it?

According to query tracker, there are about 70 agents who say they're looking for Horror. I subscribe to Locus, which is a publication focused on SF and F, but they seem to include reviews of horror novels and lists of books published in the horror genre. This may be because there's a fair amount of overlap between these genres sometimes. There is a Horror Writers Association that has cons, so it looks like the genre is still alive and kicking. It's possible it's not generating as many bestsellers as it did twenty years ago, but it's also possible it's harder to spot bestsellers than it once was, since there are fewer brick and mortar bookstores than there used to be.

Here are some lists of recent horror novels that are popular.

http://horrornovelreviews.com/2014/12/25/the-top-10-horror-novels-of-2014/

http://booklistonline.com/ProductInfo.aspx?pid=7530019&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

https://www.waterstones.com/booklist/262665/waterstones-booksellers-best-h

I am curious whether PNR has moved in on horror to some extent, but it's really a different kind of story that targets a different kind of reader. I've heard that PNR has had a big effect on urban fantasy. The only thing I could think is if horror were a genre that was especially popular with adult male readers, and since there are fewer adult men reading fiction these days, it could be contracting.

Sometimes you have to look in the science fiction section to find horror. *sigh* But such things come and go. Write something killer, sell lots of them, and help the genre.

Now that it has been mentioned about book stores. I have went into our book store and asked where the horror section is. I walked right past it twice. It was in an area of the store were all the gadgets were kept. The collection of "Horror authors" were very small. I asked where I could find authors like Stephen King, Dean Koontz and a few others. I was then taken to a section of the store with the title Mystery/Suspense. I have also found some in Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fantasy and I think another area of the book store too.

Stephen King talked about this in one of his interviews. It was about an author who writes both horror and mystery. I think a female author. He said that her books get lumped into the mystery section when they are in fact a horror novel. King said it was a shame that they lump an authors work into one category when they in fact write many different things.

Horror is one of my favourite genres, I write it, I watch it, and if I can find a book I'll read it. But short of Stephen King it is really hard to find horror books, now in fairness I have the attention span of a goldfish and sometimes get distracted by other genres.

I have Kindle on my tablet and that has no horror section either. You can use the search function and bring up horror books if you type that in, but you can't click on horror as a genre, which I think really sucks. In the library near me (which, admittedly, is a small town), the horror section has Twilight etc and other vampire romance novels.

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That's so sad, I mean I understand there are people who love Twilight, but I agree horror is not the right section.

Horror is my favorite genre, and as I look into the publishing process the current state of the market kind of worried me also. Hopefully, it will take an uptick. Maybe we'll be the ones to make that happen. Fingers crossed guys.

Stephen King and Dean Koontz are both mainstream writers. "mainstream" just means darned near everyone out there reads it, and not just horror fans.

I don't know where you're looking, but there are horror novels everywhere. In order to be mainstream horror, however, they have to sell well enough to be considered part of the mainstream market. Not many horror writers have ever accomplished this. Nor have many romance writers, or western writers, etc. Mystery writers manage it more often than any other genre, but this is because the mystery genre is far larger than any genre except romance.

You're worrying needlessly. Horror is never popular in the mainstream markets. Individual horror novels that are written well enough, and that tell the right story, are popular in the mainstream market, not horror overall. This is true of every genre. The mainstream market simply takes in books and writers that millions of people love.

I hope I'm explaining this clearly. Mainstream is not a genre. It's a market. It's the vast majority of general readers. If enough of them like any novel, in any genre, that novel becomes a mainstream novel.

As a writer, you generally know you achieved this when genre classification vanishes from the cover of your books. When's the last time you saw the words "horror novel" on the cover of a Stephen King novel?

Anyway, this is all meaningless. The only reason to write a book is because you would love to write that book, and would love to read it if someone else write it. If you let something set because you're afraid the market for it is dead, you aren't going to have much success as a writer.