Am I a "horror" or "Fantasy" writer?

I would say horror focuses on scaring the reader. Dark fantasy can be scary, but that's not the primary focus. Honestly, I would look at which category has fewer books on Amazon and push it into those categories, so that there's less competition, but, from what I hear, horror isn't as popular as it used to be, so I would market it to the paranormal / dark fantasy crowd. I don't know too much about the genre though, so don't listen to me.

I'd say if it's not scary, it's not horror. I don't know much about Dark Fantasy though.

I've been wondering about this, too.

Who decides what's scary? Dark Fantasy can be gory or psychologically unsettling. I've read Horror is determined by is authors. When a story is written with the primary goal to scare readers, then it's a horror story. Would that mean a story that scares readers wouldn't ever fit in the Horror genre if it was written primarily to thrill, entertain, or share ideas with readers? What about when the writer isn't sure about their own intentions for the story?

I think you can be a horror and fantasy at the same time. just like there could be a romantic fantasy or an historical horror, maybe you are simply a fantasy horror writer.

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I would say that you do a happy mix of both.

Horror fantasy / Gothic Fiction appears to be the popular genre description for this style of book. It is how Anne Rice is classified, and she for sure falls into the same category as what you're explaining.

Just because something isn't built around the premise of scaring you, it can hit on those darker themes and horror tropes all the same. Thus why you see horror often used in combination with other genres. As for how you should market it, well, supernatural fiction and fantasy are quite popular.

It almost doesn't even matter what you call it anymore, except a publisher will want to know because if you don't even know, the publisher isn't going to give you the time of day. If you go to the bookstore, it's probably going to be lumped in with either general fiction or Syfy/Fantasy anyway. So, either/or, pick one. If it's not a romance or western, the categories are getting narrower and narrower, or I should say broader and broader to the point where soon there may eventually only be two. Fiction and non-fiction. Then again, by then there may not be many, if any bookstores left to worry about it anyway.

On line, maybe it still may matter.

I classify my stories based on what I want to call them. My horror, which I call "icky bug" is about monsters and mayhem and some may call science fiction or supernatural thriller. I don't really care. To me, it's b-movie horror...icky bug even though there aren't any actual bugs involved. It's just a term I coined decades ago. My fantasy stuff is fantasy. My adventures are "adventure/thrillers" now. YOU need to figure out what it is and stick with it, whatever it is. Write it, then decide.

What about dark fantasy?

I'm in the same boat. I write a lot of paranormal and urban fantasy. But I have an idea for a story (I might use it for Nano, haven't decided yet), that is much darker. It involves either vampires or demons, and a woman being turned into one after almost dying. When she is brought back in this new form, she seeks revenge on those that hurt her and left her for dead (think The Crow, or I Spit on Your Grave but with a supernatural twist). I'm just not sure if it would be horror or dark fantasy. Maybe I won't know until I write it.

The horror umbrella is pretty big. I’ve been doing some dark fantasy pieces that qualify as horror mainly because of the markets that I think they can sell into.

A lot of fantasy publishers will accept horror, and the same goes for horror markets that will accept darker fantasy. Though both of these markets have definite parameters, they can bleed into each other at points.

My fantasy has difficulty getting into more traditional fantasy markets which also accept horror, however. My characters’ motivations just aren’t noble enough. I try basing PoVs more on genuine human behavior, which can be a bit much for a fantasy market where people are looking more to escape.