Help! I still don't know if my book is a thriller or a horror, for marketing purposes. I'm about to publish, and I really cannot decide.
Here is a bit of information that may help you point me in the right direction...
My book:
-Takes place both in everyday reality and within the dreams of the protagonists
-Has a few monsters, but does not have much violence or death (the monsters are psychological archetypes of fear). There is no gore in the book.
-Has a detective, but he doesn't do any crime solving; he is just looking for someone
-Has a creepy, surreal atmosphere, but the atmosphere is designed to be unsettling and surreal; it does NOT have the intention of inciting terror in the reader
-Has cliff hangers, suspense, tension
In my opinion, the book is a psychological thriller or a suspense thriller. I think it is not a horror because it is not designed to terrify the reader; merely to generate an unsettling feeling of loneliness/confusion.
However, many thrillers have crime-solving elements, and there is no crime-solving here. Furthermore, there are surreal elements (I am hesitant to call them "paranormal" because the monsters do not exist in the real world, only the dream). For these reasons, a thriller-fan may consider this book a horror.
Lastly, and most importantly, I have looked at a lot of novels in the Horror genre, and many of them are about the fear of impending death. They are about monsters and ghosts and being chased or watched or stalked. My book, conversely, is about learning from our fear, examining how it controls and shapes us, and overcoming the traumas that inspire those fears. This book has more of a "soul" than a lot of the run of the mill gore/creature/killer books.
Please help me. It would mean a lot to me.
Here is a bit of information that may help you point me in the right direction...
My book:
-Takes place both in everyday reality and within the dreams of the protagonists
-Has a few monsters, but does not have much violence or death (the monsters are psychological archetypes of fear). There is no gore in the book.
-Has a detective, but he doesn't do any crime solving; he is just looking for someone
-Has a creepy, surreal atmosphere, but the atmosphere is designed to be unsettling and surreal; it does NOT have the intention of inciting terror in the reader
-Has cliff hangers, suspense, tension
In my opinion, the book is a psychological thriller or a suspense thriller. I think it is not a horror because it is not designed to terrify the reader; merely to generate an unsettling feeling of loneliness/confusion.
However, many thrillers have crime-solving elements, and there is no crime-solving here. Furthermore, there are surreal elements (I am hesitant to call them "paranormal" because the monsters do not exist in the real world, only the dream). For these reasons, a thriller-fan may consider this book a horror.
Lastly, and most importantly, I have looked at a lot of novels in the Horror genre, and many of them are about the fear of impending death. They are about monsters and ghosts and being chased or watched or stalked. My book, conversely, is about learning from our fear, examining how it controls and shapes us, and overcoming the traumas that inspire those fears. This book has more of a "soul" than a lot of the run of the mill gore/creature/killer books.
Please help me. It would mean a lot to me.
thanks Polenth