By: Eloise George
In this insightful interview, Dee Marley, the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of The Historical Fiction Company, shares her journey of transforming a deep passion for historical fiction into a thriving platform for authors in the genre. From the personal inspiration that led to the creation of The Historical Fiction Company to the launch of the Xanadu Book Awards & Press, Dee offers a unique perspective on the evolving landscape of historical fiction and independent publishing. Her dedication to providing authors with personalized support and maintaining a balance between historical accuracy and engaging storytelling is at the heart of her work, making this conversation a must-read for aspiring authors and literary enthusiasts alike.
Dee, as the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of The Historical Fiction Company, what inspired you to create this unique platform for historical fiction authors?
The creation of The Historical Fiction company rose from my own passion for historical fiction, especially during the pandemic when so many entrepreneurs were faced with transitioning from traveling to work to working from home. Sitting there day after day, browsing the internet, with a deep desire to take that passion and evolve it into a business, I utilized three decades of graphic design, marketing, and historical fiction writing into building HFC. The other reason for building this company arose from dealing with insurmountable grief. I lost my daughter and son-in-law to a drunk driver in 2015, so by the time the pandemic hit at the end of 2019, needless to say, I found myself deeply immersed in grief therapy. My daughter was my ‘book reading’ partner and she loved historical fiction as well, so part of the healing process was to thrust myself into creating this company as a homage to something we both loved to do together.
You’re about to launch the Xanadu Book Awards & Press. Can you share more about your vision for this new venture and what sets it apart from other book awards and presses?
Xanadu Book Awards & Press fills a need to reach beyond historical fiction. I’ve had many submissions and requests from authors who write in other genres and some who also write historical fiction for a new venue for acquiring editorial reviews and a book contest. While there are many contests and editorial review services out there, Xanadu and The Historical Fiction Company are unique in the way we craft our editorial reviews. Our ‘secret sauce’, so to speak, is the personal touch we give each and every author. I think this rises from the fact that I started out as an author myself and the desire to give each author what I want for myself. Our reviews are not generic and we never use AI to create reviews. We read each and every book in full, and even if we need to give criticism, we do so in a constructive way. Our goal is to help an author succeed.
Historical fiction is such a rich and diverse genre. What do you think is the genre’s role in modern literature, and how do you see it evolving in the coming years?
Historical fiction is extremely rich and diverse, and not only that, but the ability to teach history in an entertaining way is what makes it so viable for today’s audience. You can see the influence historical fiction has by the way the viewers have an insatiable appetite for historical drama on Netflix and at the movies. The Regency era with historical shows like ‘Bridgerton’ and Scottish historical travel like ‘Outlander’ boosted the historical fiction genre. When people watch the shows, they want to read the books, and vice versa.
I do think the genre needs to evolve even more into diverse history. Some of the latest books we have coming out from Historium Press deal with Native American history, thanks to popular releases like ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’. The genre is saturated with books about the Tudor era and British history, but the field is ripe for diverse stories out of Africa, South America, and Asia. We’d love to have submissions to Historium Press dealing with those histories.
The Xanadu Book Awards are being introduced at a time when indie publishing is thriving. How do you plan to support independent authors through this initiative?
In the same way, we’ve been supporting authors with The Historical Fiction Company for the past three years – marketing and growth. BookTok is becoming one of the go-to methods for supporting authors, as well as BookThreads, Bookstagram, and BookX, so we plan on continuing to utilize these platforms to bring every book we review to the world. Each and every review posted on the Xanadu blog “The Pleasure Dome” will be posted across social media and to all of our subscribers. We do the same at The Historical Fiction Company’s blog ‘The Hist Fic Chickie”.
As an editor, what key qualities do you look for in a historical fiction manuscript, and how do you balance historical accuracy with engaging storytelling?
First and foremost, a well-told story. Years ago when I first started writing, a mentor said to me ‘you can break the rules if you tell a good story’, and I adhere to that when reading through the submissions to Historium Press. Part of our mission statement at Historium Press is to give a platform to good stories that are overlooked by traditional publishers. Sometimes because of worrying too much about the bottom line, traditional publishers just toss good stories aside for the sake of their own interests. At Historium Press, the author is our main concern, and again, this comes out of the fact that I started as an author and I wished to find this sort of company. Toni Morrison once said, ‘If there is a story that you want to read that is not out there, then you must write it’ and I feel the same about publishing – ‘If there is a publishing company out there that you want to sign with and it is not out there, then you must create it.’ And I did.
That being said, historical fiction does have certain standards when it comes to historical accuracy. We do fact check a lot when manuscripts are submitted to us, and we have, on occasion, asked the author for proof of the research when we question something in the storyline. Historical accuracy is critical because the historical reader community is quite savvy in this area and tend to have big opinions when something is revealed in a book that flies in the face of history. Sometimes this can be challenged, as we can see from historical TV shows and movies, but for the most part, we want the stories to maintain a presented history.
Visit www.xanadubookawards.com
www.thehistoricalfictioncompany.com
Published by: Khy Talara
