Cris_eire asked Gail Carriger:

This question contains spoilers… (view spoiler)

Gail Carriger The simple fact is: this was what I wanted to read. I like steampunk but it tends to be a little too dark and riddled with technobabble for me. I enjoy urban fantasy but am not wild about a modern setting. So I thought I might just combine the two, and then shake it up with a jot of romance and a whole lot of comedy. Then I started thinking about what kind of world could accommodate all these different elements. I’m familiar with the Victorian era and I find it a rich source of amusement in and of itself. Those ridiculous fashions and that obsession with etiquette seem the perfect time period to drop in vampires (dictating such things) and werewolves (chaffing against them) not to mention steam technology. It seemed to me that what comedy I couldn’t supply with plot and character, an alternate Victorian London could provide simply by being itself.

I agree with you, I GENUINELY never thought they would sell. If nothing else, sales would shoot it down for not having a self spot. But Orbit loved it. And the confusion ended up working in my favor, confused bookstores stuck Soulless into horror, SF/F, YA, comedy, and romance. At a loss, they stacked the out on tables at the front. Indy bookstore owners and employees pimped the book by hand at the till to their loyal customers. It meant I drew my initial readership from a wide range of people who may have not, ordinarily, picked up the books. Then the librarians and the bloggers got involved and the rest is (alternate) history.

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