Looking for Category Advice: Scifi/Fantasy VS Erotic Horror

[Immaterialist]

I'm writing a submission for Halloween and am looking for advice if it should go in SciFi/Fantasy or Erotic Horror. I could potentially be convinced Loving Wives.

A young wife recounts to her husband how a demon consumed all of the souls of her Bible study group as she makes him her first victim as a newly created succubus.

The changed wife is cruel with rubbing in losing her love for him along with her soul but in the end offers him the chance to join her in sexual conquests.

 

[WittyUserName]

I'm writing a submission for Halloween and am looking for advice if it should go in SciFi/Fantasy or Erotic Horror. I could potentially be convinced Loving Wives.

A young wife recounts to her husband how a demon consumed all of the souls of her Bible study group as she makes him her first victim as a newly created succubus.

The changed wife is cruel with rubbing in losing her love for him along with her soul but in the end offers him the chance to join her in sexual conquests.

I actually wondered where to post my ghost story. I think Erotic Horror should be if the supernatural entity is somehow involved in the sex. So if Demon and human sex is happening, go with Erotic Horror. If the demons are just part of the story, go with Sci-Fi & Fantasy.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I'm writing a submission for Halloween and am looking for advice if it should go in SciFi/Fantasy or Erotic Horror. I could potentially be convinced Loving Wives.

A young wife recounts to her husband how a demon consumed all of the souls of her Bible study group as she makes him her first victim as a newly created succubus.

The changed wife is cruel with rubbing in losing her love for him along with her soul but in the end offers him the chance to join her in sexual conquests.

I’ve determined - based on the evidence - that I’m wholly incapable of writing erotic horror. My demon-adjacent stories seem to do much better in SF&F.

 

[Immaterialist]

I actually wondered where to post my ghost story. I think Erotic Horror should be if the supernatural entity is somehow involved in the sex. So if Demon and human sex is happening, go with Erotic Horror. If the demons are just part of the story, go with Sci-Fi & Fantasy.

Definitely part of the sex.

Thank you for your response

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

As a reader, Erotic Horror is a place I wouldn't go. It's where I think scary things, the things that might give me nightmares, would be found. I'm thinking Stranger Things type of things or Cabin in the Woods (with descriptions of all of the monstrosities).

Sci-Fi & Fantasy I'd be able to read. Sure, a succubus is scary, but if you're not talking about things that are gory or being torn apart, things that might give nightmares beyond (dang, this scary sexy lady is gonna have some sex with me and then...end of story), then I wouldn't call it horror.

I could be wrong, of course, about what belongs where, but as someone who has been reading a while but only just started writing, that's how I'd differentiate between those categories when deciding what to read and I'd be upset if the nightmare fuel was in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy and pretty disappointed if I went to Erotic Horror and wasn't horrified.

 

[EmilyMiller]

As a reader, Erotic Horror is a place I wouldn't go. It's where I think scary things, the things that might give me nightmares, would be found. I'm thinking Stranger Things type of things or Cabin in the Woods (with descriptions of all of the monstrosities).

Sci-Fi & Fantasy I'd be able to read. Sure, a succubus is scary, but if you're not talking about things that are gory or being torn apart, things that might give nightmares beyond (dang, this scary sexy lady is gonna have some sex with me and then...end of story), then I wouldn't call it horror.

I could be wrong, of course, about what belongs where, but as someone who has been reading a while but only just started writing, that's how I'd differentiate between those categories when deciding what to read and I'd be upset if the nightmare fuel was in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy and pretty disappointed if I went to Erotic Horror and wasn't horrified.

I think this is partly my problem. I write supernatural with comedy and horror elements. It’s probably happier in SF&F.

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

I think this is partly my problem. I write supernatural with comedy and horror elements. It’s probably happier in SF&F.

That's what you get for having such good genre-bending cred. And I'm told the best choice is to kinda pick one and stick to it? Is that true?

 

[Bramblethorn]

Nonhuman is the other category to consider here.

Boundaries are fuzzy, but as a rule I think SF/F is better suited to stories with a fair bit of world-building. If you want to write about a world where the Succubus Grand High Council controls roller derby, that's SF/F fodder. If it's more "the world looks just like ours but there's a succubus in it", that's more NH or EH depending on how creepy it gets.

 

[EmilyMiller]

That's what you get for having such good genre-bending cred. And I'm told the best choice is to kinda pick one and stick to it? Is that true?

Define ‘best.’

Certainly it’s easier to form a following if you write exclusively on one genre; especially one of the honeypot ones. But who wants to take the easier path?

No, no, no. Quicker, easier, more seductive.

 

[Immaterialist]

Nonhuman is the other category to consider here.

Boundaries are fuzzy, but as a rule I think SF/F is better suited to stories with a fair bit of world-building. If you want to write about a world where the Succubus Grand High Council controls roller derby, that's SF/F fodder. If it's more "the world looks just like ours but there's a succubus in it", that's more NH or EH depending on how creepy it gets.

I hadn't considered Non-Human and you make a good argument for it. Thank you.

 

[TheWorldBuilder]

Blood and gore: EH
Mythical creatures: Fantasy

 

[Bramblethorn]

Blood and gore: EH
Mythical creatures: Fantasy

EH also has horror without gore. I have a King in Yellow pastiche piece in there and I've seen plenty of "he had sex with the succubus and it ate his soul" stories in that category.

Mythical creatures is the entire point of NonHuman:


The category description for SF/F says "Erotic tales set in futuristic or fantastic worlds" and while those category descriptions aren't rigidly enforced, the content does lean towards secondary-world settings.

 

[TheWorldBuilder]

If it is for that and not sheep/horses, then it's a subcategory of Fantasy.

 

[SimonDoom]

Sounds like Nonhuman, unless you especially want to emphasize the horror aspects of the story, in which case it could be Erotic Horror.

 

[Bramblethorn]

If it is for that and not sheep/horses, then it's a subcategory of Fantasy.

Lit doesn't do bestiality, and while you'd be right if this were a discussion about where to shelve things in a bookshop, "subcategory" isn't how Lit works.