Based on the then unpublished novel by Jeff Rice to be titled The Kolchak Chronicles, Rice wrote the novel because "I'd always wanted to write a vampire story, but more because I wanted to write something that involved Las Vegas." Rice had difficulty finding any publisher willing to buy the manuscript until agent Rick Ray read the manuscript and realized the novel would make a good movie. The novel wasn't published until after the TV movie had already aired and delayed according to Rice because the publisher wanted both Rice's original novel and the sequel (written by Rice but based on the screenplay by author Richard Matheson) so "they could be placed on the top of the publisher's list in the 1 and 2 positions for 1974." .