Writing Zombies into Austen

Collaborative Authorship: Writing Zombies into Austen

Jason Rekulak, the associate publisher and creative director at Quirk books, and Steven Hockensmith, author of the forthcoming Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls sat down to discuss how these ideas to turn old novels into updated horror novels came about and the benefits it has brought to both the genre and the company.

Jason Rekulak was the visionary for the whole idea. Working for a small publishing company in Philadelphia meant that creativity was much needed if he was going to profit in the business competing with other large companies such as Random House and Time Warner. Rekulak thought it would be really neat if he could rewrite some of the older books that were required in many high schools across the nation to contain more modern foes such as ninjas, zombies, and even sea monsters. Once he had this idea in his head, he began searching for all of the books that were written before 1953 because their copyrights had expired and they could be freely tampered with. Rekulak wanted to seamlessly combine the original text and ideas with some new text that brought these books to the modern times. He said that his biggest risk was whether or not he would lose both of the targeted audiences: the Austen fans and the zombie freaks.

After Rekulak convinced the publishing company that this was a good idea, they had Pride and Prejudice and Zombies written. They only printed 10,000 copies for the first run, which is rather ambitious for such a small company. The book was put on Amazon.com for preorder to see how many people were interested in this new idea. The preorders skyrocketed after a blogger had blogged about the new book including the dreadful picture that was to be the front cover. Seeing people take such an interest caused Rekulak to create a Facebook page and to print another 10,000 copies as well. He was amazed by how the blog and the Facebook page drew in so many new customers. It was enlightening to see how the internet can advertise so much so quickly.

The album debuted at three on the New York Times Bestsellers list and then held the number one spot for 43 weeks straight. This was an amazing feat that Rekulak had never expected. Over one million copies have been sold, and I know that at least two more have since that seminar because I have a copy and so does my best friend. This book has caused many other books like this to fluctuate into the market. This little leap of faith has gotten Rekulak recognition and a new business compete in.

The newest writer, Steven Hockensmith, is releasing Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls sometime this year and is excited to see how it fares in the book world. Both agree that this new “Monster Mash-Up” is like combining “two great tastes that taste great together.” They are both hopeful of what these new novels will bring and they cannot believe how one book sparked such a change in the book world. I cannot wait to see what is next!