Sunday, September 28, 2014

The True Gods of Horror





I was just in a discussion with a fellow writer about how to make sales. My advice to her was promote, promote, promote! Don’t think that the PR people at your publishing house is going to do it all themselves, they have a load of books to try to promote not just yours. As the author it is part of your job to bust down doors and get word of your creation out there. Remember writers you are gods, you create worlds. You hold the destinies of those you create in the palm of your hand. So, you need to get off your ass and make some noise, because no one will do it for you….
I’ve learned this over the years I’ve been doing horror. The problem is the horror community and especially those who think they run horror have no respect for writers, neither screen writers nor book writers; that is why we have been barraged with lack luster scripts and cookie cutter plots. Shit, I remember an argument I had with a big convention promoter. He told me writers were useless to him, that they don’t put butts on seats. He said in his opinions writers should shut up, pay for their tables, and be happy that they are allowed at conventions at all because they are considered beneath vendors and belong in the back of the vendors room. Here is what I got to say about this…get a fucking clue. Over the last seven years reading is back in style and with the invention of Nooks and Ebooks books are back in vogue and are in fact getting more popular than films even. Readers are finding the plots and characters more desirable in books than their counterparts on screen, especially in the horror genre. With big name scream queens dragging their way through performances with no heart and pretty much looking like they are on drugs, people are getting tired and revitalizing their imaginations with a good book. But still podcasts and conventions are still living in the 90s and don’t see what is clearly a fact in todays horror culture. The saviors of horror are not going to be The Twisted Twins or any other filmmakers unless they under crank those massive egos and ally themselves with the true gods of horror, the writers. Remember this a single writer can create terrors that even the great Stan Winston could never bring to life. Writers are the future of horror and people need to acknowledge that...