RAB Resurrects Samhain's Horror Line

As the innovative digital publisher Samhain rebrands to focus its efforts on its Romance division, award-winning hybrid publisher Riverdale Avenue Books will publish some of the authors and titles from the Samhain Horror line.

Samhain publisher Christina Brashear and Riverdale Avenue Books Publisher Lori Perkins have been friends and colleagues in the evolving digital publishing landscape for the past decade. Perkins has also been an active participant in the horror community for more than 30 years and wanted to launch a new horror initiative in what she sees as a burgeoning horror renaissance as evidenced by the audience for The Walking Dead, American Horror Story and Stranger Things.  

“I have great admiration for Samhain’s horror line,” said Perkins.  “I am hoping that with inventive marketing and traditional support, we can bring these cutting edge titles to a larger audience.”

Brashear added, “Lori’s heart has always belonged to horror and she will bring all of her expertise in fresh and creative marketing concepts she learned in the romance industry to the horror market.”

Perkins was one of the founding members of the Horror Writers of America and acted as a liaison between the East and West coast between Dean Koontz and Charlie Grant. As a literary agent, she represented the early careers of Chris Golden, ghostbusters Ed and Lorraine Warren, Katherine Ramsland, Ray Garton and Jim V. Smith, Jr.  She has sold more than 200 horror novels and created the anthology HUNGRY FOR YOUR LOVE (St. Martins’ Press), the first zombie romance title published by mainstream publishing.

To that end, Riverdale Avenue Books is launching its new horror line, Afraid!, in October with the publication of two exciting licensed anthologies: Deadworld, the oldest zombie graphic novel, and a supernatural anthology with the Morris-Jumel Mansion, the oldest historic house in New York City.

Riverdale's Philosophy and Goals

We believe that horror is just as consumable a market as romance, with the potential to reach three generations and all genders. We feel that today’s horror reader is a middle-aged woman, her teen-aged children and her parents who grew up on horror films.  Since 80% of all readers of e-books in America today are women, Riverdale’s horror line will be targeted towards those readers.  Riverdale hopes to develop that kind of audience for today’s horror novel.

Where the horror novel was once targeted to suburban white young men, Riverdale’s line will be aimed at three generations of female readers, especially the goth audience.  It will be ethnically, generationally and geographically diverse and will explore the fears of being female/gender queer, young or old in our society.  We also expect the line to feature novels about women and children who kill and those that should fear them.

Riverdale’s titles are regularly submitted for awards in genre competitions, as well as industry-wide awards, such as the Independent Publishers Association, and The Lambda Literary Awards.