Writing horror for fun and profit

Important message from Rob Parnell, “The World’s Foremost Writing Guru”Have you noticed that every seven to ten years, the media likes to claim that the demand for horror is over? Yeah right. Me too!So why is horror still a multi-billion dollar industry that entertains and attracts record numbers of followers year in, year out? Savvy writers know that there’s a fortune to be made in thrilling their readers with everything from monster stories, psychological suspense, ghost stories and good old fashioned gore.Now it’s your chance to cash in on this most lucrative of genres.Whatever your area of preference: Short Stories, Novels, Film and /or TV, there is an ever hungry need for thrillers and dramas using supernatural themes and settings.All you have to do is to understand the conventions associated with this most prestigious of genres.Now, don’t go thinking in cliche.Horror is not just Stephen King and Slasher movies!Horror and Dark Fantasy Fiction also encompasses the likes of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, the Matrix series, and TV shows like Buffy, Charmed, Medium and The Ghost Whisperer.Of course, there are the classics to aspire to Edgar Allen Poe, Lovecraft, MR James, and more modern writers like Peter Straub, Clive Barker, Graham Masterton, James Herbert. Stephen King himself also describes Thomas Harris (Silence of the Lambs), James Patterson and Patricia Cornwell as closet horror writers too!All of the above writers know – and have profited – from the notion that scaring the pants off your reader not only makes you successful, it keeps readers coming back for more!Good horror is sophisticated. More and more writers, like Joe Hill and Jack Ketchum, are winding up in the literary section of your local bookshop or library. No longer is horror marginalised. It’s increasingly seen as respectable and justifiably good writing .I know that in my own case, my Bad Blood series of novels and short stories have proved incredibly popular, garnering...