Help! Is my book a horror or a thriller?

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Galumph_Triumph

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Please forgive me, friends- this is a blatant double post. I've asked what the Thriller authors think and now I'm asking what the Horror authors think.

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 an emotional-resolution overtone than a lot of gore/creature/killer books.

Please help me. It would mean a lot to me.
 

alleycat

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Some people, such as Stephen King, have a very wide definition of horror. Your story would fit within his definition.

It's a little hard for me to tell, but I would lean toward it being a thriller.
 

Galumph_Triumph

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If you were in my position, which genre would you say is more advantageous to market in? I feel like Thriller may give me access to a potentially wider audience. But I'm not sure.
 

alleycat

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I honestly have no idea.

My own gut feeling is that horror fans really look for books in their favorite genre (as do science fiction fans), while thriller readers are most flexible--they might accept a mystery, a thriller, or even a mild horror story with suspense elements.

So, on one hand you have a smaller but more targeted audience (that is, they more actively seek out books in their favorite genre), and on the other you have a possibly wider but more diffuse audience (a thriller being just one of the types of books they might read if it piques their interest).

I assume you are self-publishing the book. I'd have to scratch my head quite a bit, but if I were a debut author self-publishing a book, I would probably aim for the general horror audience, mainly because I think it would be easier to market that way and possibly gain some word of mouth.

These are just my thoughts about it. I haven't done or read any kind of research on it and don't claim to be an expert on book marketing (or writing, for that matter).
 

Galumph_Triumph

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thanks a million, that helps a lot.

Do you kind folks know if a book can be marketed on Amazon in multiple genres?
 
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