Is my serial-killer novel horror or crime?
I'm writing a novel which centers around a serial killer and his victims. I'm having a lot of trouble deciding whether it belongs in the horror genre (it's a disturbing, horrific slasher, and a lot of the book works on horror and dread) or in crime (because a lot is about the good guys' hunt for the killer, and also there's no supernatural element).
I've read other fiction which seems similarly borderline to me (Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, J.A. Konrath's first Jack Daniels book, and others), and on Amazon I indeed see these books listed in both categories. But I find it's important to have a single primary tag to focus on - for my elevator pitch, for query letters, for general promotion.
How can I tell which genre is better for my particular book? And, once I decide on one or the other as my 'main' genre, is there anything I need to do to fit better into the genre I've chosen, and make the book less borderline?
2 answers
I agree with SF and Lauren that who your POV character is affects this. But I'll take a different approach in answering this: when you talk about your project socially (e.g. with friends/family), what do you tend to focus on? What's exciting about this to you? When you're not worried about making a good, professional, business impression on an editor or publisher and can "just talk", what comes out of your mouth?
The angle that you're most excited about is probably the right one to pursue.
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I'm of the same mind as SF. Is the protagonist the killer or the good guys?
If it's a crime novel, tone down the blood spatter and have more in the precinct. Lengthen the scenes where the detectives throw theories back and forth; set up more red herrings to be chased down; show us how the footwork works. Give us cop lingo and police red tape.
If it's a horror novel, then we don't really care how the cops end up where they do, only that they arrive too late. Then you'd want to spend more time setting up how the killer chooses a victim, why the victim is appealing, how he gets to each one, what he does with each one. Maybe introduce the victim at the beginning of the day and thread in the killer stalking the person.
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