Library Journal July 1 Cover Story is Horror....by ME!

Back in February, I began talking to Library Journal about doing a genre spotlight for horror. They were very receptive. We talked about first half of 2019 preview coming out in November, but the editorial board loved the idea so much they wanted to push up the spotlight to the July 1 issue for a second half of 2018 focus. 

I found this out in April and had to work very quickly to pull the article together by the middle of May. Well, I did it and as it went through edits, everyone was so excited about it and about horror that  they were thinking of making it the July 1, 2018 cover story. And then NPR made their summer books horror based, and well, I became Library Journal’s favorite person.

And here we are, a preview of horror books [!] is the cover story on an issue of Library Journal. Of course I am happy for me for getting a cover story in the biggest library periodical there is, but honestly, I am even happier for the genre. This is a coup for all of those genre authors who get no respect- both the ones in the article and not.

Please stop telling me no one likes horror. Read the article so you can see the very best of what is on the horizon. I have the opening below with a link to the full piece.

Finally, I would like to personally single out authors Paul Tremblay and Stephen Graham Jones, both award winning authors and scholars of the genre. When Library Journal asked me to justify some of my claims for the trends I turned to these two men who I know and respect. Both are extremely busy and I felt terrible asking them to drop everything to give me quick quotes but I also knew I would get thoughtful and well founded statements that would help all of you to help your patrons better. To both of their credits, they responded immediately and as eloquently as I anticipated. So a personal thank you to these brilliant and kind men who do so much to entertain us and promote the genre that they love. You can read a snippet of their comments in the piece.

Here is the opening:

DESPITE ITS LONG-TERM
and growing popularity, horror can be a tricky genre for librarians to recommend confidently. A 2014 survey, developed by LJ with NoveList and the RUSA CODES Readers’ Advisory Research and Trends Committee, revealed that library workers had quite a bit of anxiety about providing readers’ advisory (RA) in unfamiliar genres. When they were asked which genres they were most intimidated by, horror was one of the top four. To help ease that worry, last May I wrote “Making Horror Less Scary” as part of an LJ series of “Readers’ Advisory Toolkits.”

Click here to read the entire piece. All of the ISBN numbers are at the end to make it easier for you to place all of your orders now.