Seth Grahame-Smith sells two books to Grand Central for half a million dollars

Seth Grahame-Smith is following up his current, unexpected success with a two-book deal with Grand Central Publishing. The new deal, for a rumored $575,000, includes Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and another book. Editor Ben Greenberg bought North American rights to the books at auction from agent Claudia Ballard at William Morris, whose agency is also handling film rights. The story is "a loose sketch of Lincoln's life with one twist—honest Abe is the world's most skilled vampire hunter."

Grahame-Smith's current book, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, was published by oddball Philadelphia independent Quirk Books, which has 120,000 copies of the book in print since its 1 April 2009 publication date. According to Publishers Weekly, Grahame-Smith's previous books have been mostly "tongue-in-cheek pop culture titles for Quirk such as The Big Book of Porn: A Penetrating Look at the World of Dirty Movies and How to Survive a Horror Movie: All the Skills to Dodge the Kills. Pride… was written on assignment from Quirk's editorial director, Jason Rekulak.

Edited 27 February 2010 to provide this link to Vanity Fair's interview with Grahame-Smith.