If you were a fan of the breakout novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith, you should be happy to know that this week marks a new release for the author. That being, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Unlike his past work which was the literary equivalent of the movie Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, this work is entirely original.

I gotta say, Grahame-Smith is a rather astute marketer and part of me wonders if it will show in his work. Check out how he came to conceive of this book:

Grahame-Smith said he likes hanging around bookstores, wherever he travels, to see what people are reading. About a year and a half ago, he observed that bookstore shelves were crammed with books about Lincoln, during his bicentennial year, and that vampire books were vanishing off the shelves. (Let us add, in haste, that readers were devouring, oh dear, another unfortunate term, that is to say, buying them quickly, especially after the “Twilight” series launched.)

“I noticed this trend and thought: ‘What if I combined them?’” Grahame-Smith asked himself. Thus, his second novel was born.

Pure balls and dynamite. You’re a genius if it works. You’re washed up if it doesn’t. It’s a dangerous game to chase after a market, especially in an industry which isn’t known for its speedy pace. In the publishing world, an idea might be all the rage when an book is bought by a publisher but there’s a good chance that the rage might have turned into cool apathy by the time the book hits the stores one year later.

Has Grahame-Smith caught lightning in a bottle on his second outing? Time will tell, but speaking as a former vampire lover, I am sick to death of them unless we’re talking Richard Matheson. I do wish him the best.

On an aside, Dawn of the Dreadfuls, the prequel to Seth Grahame-Smith, is being released later this month. My review is coming shortly so hang on.

Honest! Abe stars in vampire novel (dailyfreeman.com <- new window)