Haggis just hit on an excellent point, as did Spooky Writer in a previous post. I had this same conversation with my agent, whom I signed with despite a lack of short stories, long stories, or any stories. (And that bit about "the kind of agent you can get, you won't want" is about 50% truth, 50% crap. I've been very happy with mine, especially when the checks come in the mail.)
Back to Haggis. My agent told me that too many publishers tend to think of "slasher splatter" when they see a query for a "horror novel," today. My editor backed this up. (I've no idea if they're right, but I'm reasonably sure they're better informed than I am.)
So, when pitching a book to a publisher, many agents classify a book as one of several categories of the thriller.
Years ago,
Carrie was plain, old-fashioned horror. Today it would be marketed as a pyschological thriller, suspense thriller, paranormal thriller, supernatural epic, or some other color of the same horse.
If you want a good idea of how agents and pubs are interchanging the genres, check out Amazon.com. Go to books, then select "thriller." Then look at the number of subgenres. Then check the top ten books in each sub-genre and note the number of cross-overs. When you're finished in the thriller section, go to "genre fiction." Sure enough, you find horror. But notice that horror is broken down by category, too.
"Narrow by Category"
Anthologies (1052)Authors, A-Z (8890)Books on CD (125)Books on Cassette (357)British (513)Dark Fantasy (924)Erotic (316)General (9667)Ghosts (894)Graphic Novels (809)Occult (955)Reference (168)United States (2012)Vampires (1531)
When you check these categories, you'll find *SURPRISE* most of the same titles listed in various thriller sections.
Use the same search model on Borders.com and note the similarities.
So, if an agent states, "no horror" don't stop reading. You may see in the very next sentence that he accepts scary thrillers.
