Is Gothic literature dead?

[GothicLover]

You have quite a list on your site, GothicLover. I take it you read other romances as well, because some of the books you listed were by authors I generally regard as writers of romances, whether contemporary or historical. To add to those lists, I would say that Amanda Quick (aka Jayne Ann Krentz) has some regency romances that could fall under Gothic. Sometimes I wonder if she tries to write Gothic novels but is afraid of labelling it as such; therefore, she tries to use the regency formula.

I'm convinced there must be other lovers of gothic fiction out there. It's unfortunate we do not hear much from them. Yes, many people's reading tastes are more for the modern, contemporary stories, but I think that some of that stems from embarrassment from having read some of the previous trash. I admit to being one from that class. I wish there was some way we can influence writers and publishers to produce more traditional historical gothics. I don't want the same formula over and over again, but there must be another Victoria Holt in the making.

Did I say that GothicJournal.com was "my site"? You must be making an assumption. I do know that all the books listed there contain all three ingredients of romance, life-threatening suspense, and a puzzle or mystery, as it states at the top of the book list pages. Some of Amanda Quick's books are on these lists, though I believe she has written many that are more romantic adventure or romantic mystery than true gothics.

Regarding the other gothic lovers out there, I agree they are there and craving more historical gothics, but I suspect that many of them are computer illiterate, being older women who didn't grow up using computers and never chose to learn how to use them. The publishers are not targeting their marketing or choice of manuscripts to reach this group of women. I suppose the publishers figure they are computer disconnected and will not hear about new titles that way (which is largely how books are marketed these days--the days of booksellers hand-selling titles is sadly long gone) , and they are going to die sooner than younger generations. The publishers are always looking for the biggest market share, and we have to face the fact that we're not included in it.

Romance Writers of America has a gothic authors' chapter called GothRom that is comprised of gothic novel authors, so there is a desire to write gothics among romance authors. Unfortunately, publication of those type of manuscripts is a hard sell. Some inroads are being made in the electronic publishing arena, where up front costs are lower because e-books can be printed/downloaded on demand to smaller audiences.