Maggie Crawford, the editorial director of Pocket Books, had been with the company for more than eight years, and developed a reputation in the field of women’s fiction. Margaret Clark, who edited books in the Star Trek franchise as part of Simon Spotlight’s media tie-in department, joined Pocket in 1996, according to a report posted on the Web site TrekMovie.com. Her departure from the company was discussed and lamented at length over the weekend by Star Trek fans on the Trek BBS message board.

Simon & Schuster announced the elimination of 35 positions last December, on the day  that would come to be known as the publishing industry’s “black Wednesday.” Layoffs at the company have continued in a trickle ever since, with positions in various departments—including production, sales, and marketing-- being cut at the Touchstone Fireside imprint, the children’s division, and elsewhere.

This latest round of cuts came as a surprise to Pocket staff, who learned of them on Tuesday when publisher Louise Burke sent out an announcement.

Ms. Burke did not return a call last Friday. Pocket Books publicity director Jean Anne Rose declined to comment, as did Simon & Schuster’s corporate spokesman Adam Rothberg. Jennifer Bergstrom, the publisher of Simon Spotlight, could not be reached today.

Author Alan Goldsher said in an interview yesterday that the plot of the book will closely follow actual events. “It’s the story of the Beatles, if they were zombies,” Mr. Goldsher said, noting that Ringo will actually be a ninja. 

Mr. Goldsher’s literary agent, Jason Ashlock of Moveable Type, explained further: “In the book, what we now term the 'British Invasion' was a zombie invasion, where their intent was to take over the world with their zombie mayhem.”

Mr. Ashlock said that, initially, he and his client were talking about “zombifying” another classic, but decided they didn’t want to just ape the conceit of an existing title wholesale. Mr. Goldsher came up with the Beatles idea instead, and Mr. Ashlock sold it in a preempt to Pocket three days after putting it on the market. 

 “We know this monster mash-up craze can only last so long,” Mr. Ashlock said. “We chose this idea because it was inventive enough with the Beatles element that it could outlast what might not be a long-lasting trend. We were trying to think of something that wouldn’t just be cool next year, but would continue to sell as an interesting item for many years to come.”

The folks at Pocket Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, believe the zombies trend has serious legs. Earlier this month, deputy publisher Anthony Ziccardi announced that Pocket would publish seven zombie-related books in conjunction with a small press that specializes in horror. At the time, Mr. Ziccardi told Publishers Weekly, “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Permuted Press and expand their very successful brand. We feel the horror genre, and zombies in particular, will be a growing category at retail. Even Hollywood seems to be focused on zombie tales and we feel that we are well positioned to capitalize on this trend.”

In an interview today, Mr. Ziccardi backed up his point further by pointing to the public’s renewed enthusiasm for Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video, which features the late singer and his entourage dressed up as zombies.  

“That video, more than any of his other videos, has been getting the most attention,” Mr. Ziccardi said. “It just sort of plays into the whole zombie interest.” 

Mr. Goldsher, who has written a number of novels and a history of the band Modest Mouse, wants to make Paul is Undead into a franchise. He noted that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is being adapted into a graphic novel. 

“We’re hoping to make a brand out of it,” he said. “My dream—and we have spoken to producers, both of the TV and film variety—is to make it an animated miniseries, done in the style of Yellow Submarine. That would be so fun.”

Paul Is Undead will be published by Pocket next June. In the meantime, Mr. Goldsher and Mr. Ashlock are trying to sell another book, a monster-themed parody of the blockbuster self-help book The Secret titled The Secretion. 

According to Mr. Benet's agent, Jarred Weisfeld of Objective Entertainment, the book will be out sometime in February, which means at least three months will have passed since the election.

The Observer spoke to Mr. Weisfeld earlier this month, shortly after Mr. Benet's story ran in People, and at the time he said that a client of his—Mr. Benet, as we now know—was interested in doing a Palin bio but was having trouble convincing publishers to pick it up because of timing issues.

"It would be almost next to impossible to get the book out by the election unless you're a really, really small publisher, but if you're able to do that, the book is very valuable," Mr. Weisfeld said. "This is a very timely book. It's election sensitive. If it comes out before the election, it'll be a bestseller, but if she doesn't and she loses, it's a bomb. If it comes out after the election and she does win, then you have a bestseller again."

Mr. Weisfeld said at the time that he was still hoping to sell the book, and that he'd come up with an unconventional deal structure that might help things along.

"The idea that I came up with was, if Palin loses, the author would get X amount. But if Palin wins, the author would get three times that amount," Mr. Weisfeld said. 'That's the formula that I had gone out with, but nobody has been receptive to that because they're all afraid that if Palin loses, the book is worthless."

No word on whether that's the arrangement Mr. Weisfeld came to with Pocket. A call to associate publisher Anthony Ziccardi, who acquired Mr. Benet's book, was not immediately returned, and Mr. Weisfeld declined to comment on the terms of the deal.