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A teenager who uploaded her novel about vampires on an e-book app has been snapped up by publisher HarperCollins.
Abigail Gibbs, 18, allegedly struck a six-figure deal for the print and e-book rights to her first book, The Dark Heroine: Dinner With A Vampire, as well as a sequel.
Gibbs, who is studying English literature at Oxford University, had been offering excerpts of her book to the world via Wattpad, which lets writers upload their own work online.
When she was 15, Gibbs began posting serially under the pseudonym Canse12, and 20 chapters are currently available.
The Dark Heroine gained 17 million reads on Wattpad, which was where she was discovered by her agent.
The book, described as "the sexiest romance you'll read this year", tells the story of Violet Lee, a Londoner who is kidnapped by vampires and kept hostage.
Violet finds her new world to be a timeless place of vast elegance and immeasurable wealth - of beautiful mansions and lavish parties – where a decadent group of friends live for pleasure alone.
But it is also a place from where there is no escape, no matter how hard she tries.
Nevertheless, Violet ends up in a love triangle with Kaspar Varn, the vampire prince and heir to the vampire throne, and Fabian, Kaspar's best friend.
While most of the novel is unrelated to real life - Gibbs is a vegetarian - she admits some of it is based on her personal experiences.
The relationship between Violet, Kaspar and Fabian was inspired by something similar that happened to the teenage writer, and female vampire Layla's abrupt hatred of Violet is based on something that happened within her group of friends.
Gibbs says she splits her time between her studies, her stories and her family - and uses coffee to survive all three, drinking up to seven cups a day.
Her work will no doubt be compared with that of American author Stephenie Meyer, who penned the massively successful Twilight novels.
Meyer's four vampire-themed fantasy romances chart a period in the life of Isabella "Bella" Swan, a teenage girl who moves to Forks, Washington, and falls in love with a 104-year-old vampire named Edward Cullen.
The novels were turned into the five-film Twilight Saga, starring Kristen Stewart as Bella, Robert Pattinson as Cullen and Taylor Lautner as werewolf Jacob Black.
But HarperCollins insisted Gibbs' book was different.
Publisher Kate Elton told The Sunday Times: "The fact that she's writing something that feels British - within a genre that's traditionally been American - gives it an individual feel."
