Bloody Good Writing Volume 2: Does Sex Sell?

Good article. It’s worth taking the time to read.

The Overseer's avatarHorror Novel Reviews

DOES SEX SELL?

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Written by: Tom Leveen

Q: I am interested on your take of graphic violence or sexual content. Does it hurt or help in selling a story?

~ Matthew B.

A: So. Post two and already we’re diving into the good stuff.

Nice!

Here we go. (As always, your mileage may vary with my response; take what you like, leave the rest.)

To answer Matthew’s question right away, I’d have to say that for horror genre novels, it’s unlikely that graphic violence or sexual content will hurt a potential sale to an editor at a legacy publisher (Random House, etc.). Violence, of course, is pretty common in horror, so it would have to be something really, really, really too graphic to get passed over by an editor of horror fiction. I won’t even try to define “too graphic” because every editor and every imprint will have a…

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Unknown's avatar

Author: Phil Slattery

Publisher, Rural Fiction Magazine; publisher, The Chamber Magazine; founder, the Farmington Writers Circle. I have written short stories and poetry for many years. In my careers as a Naval officer and in the federal government, I have written thousands of documents of many types. I am currently working on a second edition for my poetry collection and a few novels.

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