Blame vampires.

Ugh, historical fiction is now a publishing trend:

The colossal success last year of Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, a novel that imagined the life of Dracula set against the background of numerous world events, has publishers hoping that book-buying consumers are hungry for more historical fiction.

Leaving aside the bad sociology in this article, it's just a little depressing that an overhyped vampire thriller is getting credited with the resurgence. Don't get me wrong. I like the genre, and I even find the occaional vampire novel amusing. But really, why do so many people flock to this subgenre?