Dear Mr. Barnes & Mr. Noble,

I am afraid I have some very unfortunate news to impart to you sirs: someone has stolen the Horror genre sections from your stores. At least in the Northern California region. I have yet to investigate the matter beyond my geographical area. I thought it imperative to inform you, since it has been about a year now since I noticed this disappearance and I have not heard of any investigation in the news. One would think the theft of a whole genre from a such a famous fixture in the publishing industry would be newsworthy, but I suppose with Tsunamis, Wars, Famines, and Traffic reports, the loss of a genre did not get reported. Perhaps it has not even been noticed, since I am apparently the only Horror fan in the whole Northern California region if I'm the only one noticing this dastardly disappearance. I can only assume the regional managers felt they should best deal with the situation, since the genre has not been found and put back where it belongs, as I'm sure you sirs would quickly rectify if you knew of its kidnapping. I'm sorry to alarm you, I'm sure this comes as quit a shock, I hope you do not have high blood pressure and collapse dead with a heart attack upon opening this letter, but I thought I should let you know--aortas be damned.

In my own puzzling of this mystery, which I have dubbed the Great Genre Kidnapping Caper or Horrific Horror Houdini (I'm debating which title is better), I have compiled characterizations of potential suspects that I will now share with you to help with the massive investigation you surely will now prompt. At first I thought this was the work of one individual, a Horror fan fiend perhaps, that somehow stuffed under his Slayer T-shirt the dozens of books in the Horror section. I could just see the skinny white boy with shaved head, acne devastated complexion, and cut up jeans walking in slouched over, eyes nervously looking this way and that, stuffing book after book into his clothing. King, Koontz, then Barker--no author neglected!--'til the skinny young boy was suddenly a behemoth of jutting corners. He could have easily walked out the door without notice since your clerks are always distracted with purchase after purchase of customers shoving their money into your registers that makes you the large successful corporation you are today.

I had to abandon this theory when I realized that this phenomenon of the missing genre was not restricted to my local Barnes & Nobles store. Oh no, the theft has devastated all of Northern California: Citrus Heights, Roseville, Sacramento, and Redding--Redding for mercy's sake! Et tu Redding??--all of their Barnes & Nobles stores sans Horror section!

One lone Horror fanatic could not have accomplished all this. Of course, next, I thought: Al Qaeda. Then I realized that was silly, because Bin Laden is a renowned Louis L'Amour fan. Anyhow, that's just Bush whispering to me that everything is Terrorism. Indeed, this would not be Terrorism, but the opposite of Terrorism since it deprives customers of the terror the Horror genre provides.

This is Terrorisn't.

What organization could have pulled off this great act of Terrorisn't? Neo-nazis? Reefer-mad Hippies? Then, I had a revelation! Calvinists. Everyone knows Calvin did not like Horror--or Gothic, as it was known during his time. This Horror-Hating attitude was passed down through his disciples to this day. Well, they have finally acted, struck the first chord of discord between Calvinists and Horror fans that I'm sure will ascend into an epic battle worthy of a Horror novel plot. And you, Mr. Barnes and Mr. Nobles, have found yourselves in the middle. I am sorry for this.

I am sorry your genre has gone missing.

That is, unless the truth of the matter, and the most obvious explanation, is that it is not missing. That it was eliminated. My real theory is that you have developed a company policy pulling your Horror sections and dividing only the most successful authors of the genre up into the Literature and Sci-Fi sections, not even keeping in stock any author that is not well known enough to make a sizable profit. I noticed that you have added a DVD and CD section to your stores, obviously in hopes of competing with Borders. This must have meant you had to make room in your stores for this addition. May I assume the Horror section was down sized to accommodate this new section? Borders may have a CD/DVD sections, but they also have a Horror section despite. It is not a sizable Horror section, indeed I preferred the Barnes & Nobles Horror section while you still had it, but now I will have to patronize Borders. May I remind you that you are a bookstore, that you began and grew based on that concept, and any bastardization of that simple fact will only lead to further failure? If you are not succeeding as well as you expected, you might want to improve on your original concept before adding on to it, and if such add-ons take away from the original conception of your store then they can only do more harm.

Of course I am aware that I could get my Horror novels from your company still, online, but what is the point of even having a store if your customers are forced to find what they want at your online store? And there is the added inconvenience of having to pay shipping fees and waiting for delivery. If I were to purchase my Horror novels online, I would just go straight to the publishing company and order through them, thereby cutting out the middle man and guaranteeing more profit to the company that actually cares about Horror fan consumers.

I am disappointed in a company that I had thought was a cut above all others. I was amongst those who was impressed and excited when the first Barnes and Nobles came to town. The comfortable chairs, the laid back atmosphere, who would have thought that a large corporation would actually provide an atmosphere of comfort rather than pure profit? I used to spend hours in my local Barnes and Noble, and was grateful for the leisure, and showed my gratitude through my patronage and purchases. Now, I will show my gratitude to Borders. I have no choice in the matter, they still provide the genre I love, even if it is a genre less patronized and less profitable. At least, they do for now. Thank you for possibly setting a trend that would push out the Horror genre entirely from the publishing industry. Thank you for making the genre less accessible to markets, and thereby hindering new readership and growth. Thank you for being another nail in the coffin of the Horror industry. Why should publishing companies produce Horror novels when one of the major bookstores in the nation will not even stock those books? If you keep up this policy, other stores will follow. You don't think the Horror genre is profitable enough to maintain a section devoted to it? That is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Sincerely disappointed,

Aileen McAleer

Post Mortem Rant

Dear readers, please patronize stores that do support the Horror industry. This is not something restricted to Barnes & Noble, I've been to many a bookstore without a Horror section, and even online sites that don't list the genre. Especially support those very few gem bookstores that feature Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror solely. Borderlands in San Francisco is my particular favorite. Here's some links to introduce you to possible stores to patronize in your area:

Viable Paradise Resource Page

Locus Online: Specialty Bookstores

SF Crowsnest: Shops that specialize in SF and Fantasy books and merchandise

And if you're wondering--did she actually send that!--Yes, I did, and here's the reply from the lovely customer service representative:
(received 4/26/05)
Thank you for taking the time to write and share your concerns. I appreciate having the opportunity to reply.

The elimination of a Horror section in our bookstores was done under the guidance of and suggestion of many of the authors as well as publishers in that genre. The authors requested this in the hopes of expanding their audience. Customers who shop the fiction section may not go to the Horror area, however, they may pick up a horror title in the fiction section and purchase it. So far, this has proven to be quite successful.

I hope this information is helpful, and invite you to contact me directly if you have any questions in the future.

Sincerely,

Mary Ausman
Barnes & Noble, Inc.

To which I replied, since I'm oh so skeptical that any Horror author could actually suggest excommunicating of the Horror section from the Holy Mother Bookstore:
(emailed 4/26/05)
Mary Ausman,

Thank you so very much for your reply, I appreciate you taking the time to address my concerns, and I hope you would humor me a little longer. May I ask which authors requested the elimination of the Horror section at all Barnes and Noble stores? The only Horror authors I see in any of the sections are already bestsellers. King, Koontz, Barker, Laurell K. Hamilton--these authors have no need for broadening, they're already a success. Authors like John Shirley, Kathe Koja, Charlee Jacob, Sephera Giron, and other such known yet not so bestselling Horror authors cannot be found in your stores since the elimination of your Horror section. These authors that might be of interest to people that read King and Koontz and could only be marketed to those readers when put next to them in a Horror section. A reader of Science Fiction or Literature, which is the genres you've split the few remaining Horror writers you stock into, are not going to pick up a Horror novel by an author they're not acquainted with on a whim. One has to be a Horror reader to experiment with a Horror novelist they don't know. But since you don't carry any Horror author that hasn't sold many bestsellers, that isn't an issue I suppose. Only if you had a Horror section would you be forced to flesh it out with Horror authors that haven't had bestsellers. So please tell me, which Horror authors would actually volunteer the annihilation of their genre from one--if not the--largest bookstore chain in America?

Thank you again for your time and attention to my concerns, I truly appreciate your response.

Aileen McAleer

Let's see if the lovely Ms. Ausman can provide the names of the supposed authors. Who knows, maybe she's completely legit, in which case I will have to take this protest via polite correspondence to the emails of those authors. That'd be another twist of the screw. I'll keep you all informed.

As of June 14th, Ms. Ausman has not replied. Damn. I thought there something between us. But once again I cut out my heart and fed-ex it to my love just for it to marked return to sender, address unknown.

Agree? Disagree?