Horror and YA

[Shreyonti Chakraborty]

Most YA readers are female (think 'Twilight' and 'Wings'). So would the usual gore and screams of horror ever be able to dominate the YA market?

[LM Preston]

I don't believe horror/gore dominate the market as a whole, so it wouldn't dominate in YA. I believe there is room for growth in the sub-genre of YA but not as a take over.

[Amber Skye Forbes]

I think they could dominate the market if more males would start reading YA. Now I'm not blaming writers because I'm going to assume all writers published are writing what they want to write, but if other YA writers out there could start writing books that would appeal to males as well, I think horror could have a great chance.

[LM Preston]

I think it really goes to the publishers. My son loved to read - until now a teenager we go to the bookstore and there are only a handful of books that even have a boy's face on them, yet alone from a male pov. Funny thing is I write with male povs and he eats them up, but we have to search for other books that do. The publishers promote and push their books forward. There are a lot of authors that write from male pov, just few of them make them to the shelves.

[Dawn Embers]

I think like most it depends on the reader. My best friend in high school was a girl who was part blind, she had to listen to books on tape or find them in brail. She used to listen to Stephen King books all the time. She loved the horror ones. I never was interested in the horror books as I tended more towards fantasy. Some will read horror and others won't. As for "dominate" not sure on what will do that. It's hard to predict.

[Florence Kincaid]

It's kind of strange that books aren't published for guys because they don't sell, but guys don't read YA because the books aren't written for guys. A chicken and egg thing.

I see a lot of teenaged boys in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section. I think that's where they go after MG.

[Georgia McBride]

Uh--Twilight was originally (may still be technically) considered Horror.

Check your categories, folks.

Just because something may read mild to adults, does not mean they are categorized that way.

Cheers-
G

[Maeve Tee]

Im hoping it would coz I write it. ;)

[Nicōle Olea]

I think there is definitely a market for it. I also know a lot of young men who read voraciously.

[Erika Gilbert]

I've just finished reading Amanda Hocking's Hollowland. Her book is a YA romance but there are plenty of classic zombie scares and gore. I'm an avid zombie fan so I was a little hesitant in reading this but I think she managed to stay true to the genre while making it fresh, modern and young.

[LM Preston]

I loved horror as a young person, but at the time I was a kid there were few YA horrors so I went straight to the heavy horror hitters. With every genre there is an audience, you just have to find yours. Although, I must admit I don't see many horror in the YA sections of bookstores.

[B. Jason Roer]

Huge market for what we call in the movie world, "Hard R" - meaning gore, sex, and serious violence/scares. The horror crowd LOVES to read, and the books need to be marketed to that group. And there are plenty of women in this category, not just dudes - again - the marketing needs to target this group of fans. They are out there. Check the horror forums/sites - and this includes the film blogs/sites. In fact at one of my film festival stops with my last flick, I won a contest and sure enough, the prize was a collection of horror books. I typically write MG fantasy/adventure, but am getting back to my roots and am planning a few "Hard R" YA horror books. 

 

Cheers,

 

Jason 

[Laura Chesterson]

I adore horror. Although I've published horror short stories, I was afraid to tackle a horror YA because I didn't think there'd be a market, so I've been writing dark fantasy. Considering the fascinating posts in this discussion, maybe it's time for me to get brave and write one! (I'm not sure I can manage one with a boy mc, though. Female mc's are more fun to scare!)