The Monster Mash
by Lynn Andriani and Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 7/6/2009
Little did Quirk Books know when it published Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith in April that the book would spawn a cottage industry. The publisher has more than 600,000 copies of the title in print and is busy with more zombie-filled projects—a deluxe edition of P&P&Z is due out in November, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Deluxe Heirloom Edition (which has more pictures and, per its jacket, 30% more zombies), and the house is announcing the next book in its newly established mashup series, Quirk Classics, on July 15. Quirk’s success certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed, either. The sustained interest in P&P&Z has led to at least four books slated for the next 12 months that pair zombies (or vampires) with classic literature (or classic historical figures).
| Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter | The Immortal Jane Austen | Jane Bites Back | Mr. Darcy, Vampyre | |
| Author: | P&P&Z’s Seth Grahame-Smith | Janet Mullany | Michael Thomas Ford | Amanda Grange |
| Deal: | Ben Greenberg at Grand Central Press spent a rumored $575,000 on the two-book deal. | Harper’s May Chen landed it in a two-book deal brokered by the Knight Agency’s Lucienne Diver. | Ballantine bought the trilogy;Jane is the first book. | Sourcebooks Landmark, a big producer of Jane Austen–related fiction, has published one of Grange’s previous books in the U.S. |
| Pub date: | Tentatively April 2010 | Summer 2010 | January 5, 2010 | August 11; 75,000-copy first printing |
| Plot: | A loose sketch of Lincoln’s life with one twist: honest Abe is the world’s most skilled vampire hunter. | In Regency England, Jane Austen joins the vampire resistance in Bath when England is invaded by French forces. | Jane, a bookseller, sells a novel, and her secret—that she’s the blood-sucking incarnation of Jane Austen, undead for two centuries—is out. | Starts where Pride and Prejudice ends and introduces a dark family curse. “A delightfully thrilling, spine-chilling, breathtaking read,” says the publisher. |
