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Horror publishers deny sexism charge

edited September 2009 in - Reading
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/97844-horror-publishers-deny-sexism-charge.html

Comments

  • edited September 2009
    Ugh those bloomin' paranormal romances. (which is still think should be supernatural, well actually I think it should all be fed through a trash compacter, but that's just me). They should not be counted in horror, really as all the vampires seem to have been de-fanged.
  • [quote=Nephilims_child]Ugh those bloomin' paranormal romances[/quote]
    the operative word is 'romance'- they just have a paranormal setting.

    If they were true horror they would not have a place in the romance genre and vice versa...
  • I don't think this is what Neil Gaiman was getting at with writing cross-genre :)

    Exactly Carol, but I just mentioned it as it was in the article and I just thought it irritating.
  • Can't see what all the fuss is about. There are plenty of female authors out there writing all kinds of things, and the publishing industry is practically run by women!
  • Ok Caro name me a good female horror writer (and I mean proper horror - not that namby pamby romance crud).
  • I wasn't trying to say that there are lots of female writers of horror out there, I was simply saying that there are tons of women writing in all genres. Take Mills and Boon for example. All the authors are women, yet I don't hear anyone say that M&B are being sexist. Most historical romance is written by women, but you don't hear male authors complaining of sexism. Anyway, what's stopping women from writing horror? If more women wrote it, then perhaps they'd get published.
  • I imagine it's true that horror writers are most likely to be male, just as some genres have more female writers. I have several writing friends, none of the female ones write horror as far as I know. I'm female, I don't write horror.

    Do any Tbers write horror? If so, are they male or female?
  • edited September 2009
    I've done horror in the past (it was most of what I wrote up until a couple of years ago), and I can still write horror if the mood strikes, but the books I'm writing now are a supernatural fantasy/action/romance. It is a YA series and I reckon, if I'm lucky enough to be published, it will be sold beside all of those YA vampire books, though mine is not vampires. In my series, the good characters are good, and the bad are very, very bad. No de-fanging of monsters in this story.
    It's a bit scary, edge of the seat sort of stuff, but aimed at 15-year-olds looking for something to replace their Twilight obsession, so no swearing, no out-and-out blood and guts. The really violent stuff generally happens 'off stage', and the reader only finds out about it afterwards. When there is some violence that happens 'on stage', I've tried to keep that from being too grisly. If I'd been writing this same series for adult readers, I might've gone a bit overboard with the gore, and I reckon it would've been the worse for it.

    I got much of my reading taste from my dad, and he's always loved Stephen King, Dean Koontz, James Herbert, etc. I have a lot of horror books in my collection, and none of them are by female writers. I'm not sure that bothers me though.
    Maybe it should considering I'm a female writer.

    *SA*
  • caro wasn't having a go, was just curious to see if you could name me some.

    Other than Poppy Brite, who can be particularly nasty I can't think of many, Anne Rice and Charlaine Harris are probably classed as horror, but they aren't what you would call 'nasty'. After that you get the likes of Kim Harrison and Laurell Hamilton who fall into the 'books on the horror shelf, but are really more supernatural' category.

    I actually find a lot of modern horror dull and predictable.
  • I try and do the writing of the horror stuffs. I think I am male, therefore I am.
  • [quote=caro]Take Mills and Boon for example. All the authors are women[/quote]

    Sorry Caro but that is wrong.
    I know of one long term published M&B writer who is male, and I believe another author is actually a male/female partnership- too early to remember who at the moment.
  • Point taken, Carol, but the fact is that MOST of them are women. It's rare to find a male author there. NC, I agree with you, it's getting really tiresome to read about friendly vampires. I wouldn't care if some of them were nice, but let's have some real baddies too!
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