About Writing and Historical Fiction

I have deeply enjoyed creating History on Fire episodes for the past nine years. And hopefully, with your support, I’ll be able to continue creating episodes for the foreseeable future.

Over the past couple of decades, I have also deeply enjoyed writing and publishing a few non-fiction books. And, with any luck, I may write more in the years to come.

But the thing I’m most excited about creatively-speaking is crafting powerful stories writing fiction. Specifically, historical fiction.

As it turns out, my timing couldn’t be worse. Or, so I have been told. Some time ago, I had an interesting discussion with a literary agent. He asked me for existing examples of the type of historical fiction I am interested in. I brought up Eiji Yoshikawa’s masterpiece Musashi (one of the most successful books of all times with over 120 million copies sold). I also mentioned novels like Michael Crichton’ Eaters of the Dead and Pirate Latitudes, Shogun by James Clavell, Aztec by Gary Jennings, Ridgeline by Michael Punke, Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield, and a bunch of other titles.

The agent shook his head.

“You know that all the titles you mentioned are at least a couple of decades old, right?”

“So?”

“The market for that kind of historical fiction is no longer there”.

It was my turn to shake my head: it sounded like bullshit. C’mon… A Song of Ice and Fire is one of the most popular modern book series and, while it’s classified as fantasy due to dragons and zombies, it’s basically thinly disguised historical fiction.

“These days—the agent insisted—almost all historical fiction is made up of romance novels set in the past. Men read much less than women, and for the most part men don’t read fiction anymore. So, the market skews heavily toward women’s fiction. It’s very difficult to sell anything else”.

Still not convinced, I took a look at what’s selling on Amazon under historical fiction. The covers of 13 out of the first 15 books Amazon showed me featured various ladies in flowing skirts in historical settings.

Oh damn…

Now… truth be told, despite what I just wrote, I find that the agent’s assessment was a little harsh. There still is room for historical fiction other than romance novels. A few authors do very well for themselves within that space. But it’s true that the average agent and publisher have little to no interest in it. Sure, it’s possible to sell it, but it’s extra work for them, and too much swimming against the current. It barely matters if they like the writing style, characters and plot, since they believe that the market for this type of stuff is barely worth the effort. From their point of view, it’s too much work for likely too little reward. My guess is that it’d take some uber celebrity to reverse this trend and convince a male readership to find something valuable in reading historical fiction.

And where the potential rewards are more interesting (that is to say, writing for video games, and to a lesser degree for movies and TV), the odds of being able to jump through all the hoops necessary to receive the go-ahead are about as good as winning the lottery. I once almost made it through, and had an A-list director and an A-list actor attached to a screenplay I wrote but, unfortunately, there’s no prize for ‘almost’.

All this leaves me pondering how to proceed. I have finished writing the first of two novels about the wild life of Caravaggio: easily one of my favorite projects I’ve ever worked on. I have written a few short stories—the latest one being set during the attempted Mongol invasion of Japan. And my computer is packed with extensive notes for another six or seven novels and a couple of dozens of short stories. I’m definitely not lacking inspiration. The question is: what do I do with all these projects? Of course, there’s always the option of self-publishing, but the odds of finding success in self-publishing tend to be fairly awful.

This raises a couple of important questions: what does success mean to me as a writer? And, even more importantly, why write at all? As much as I wouldn’t be morally disturbed if someone wanted to shower me in money for my writing, my motivation is less about making money and more about reaching people. The characters and stories I have in mind desperately want to find a way out of the confines of my brain and onto the page. Could I be happy if I just write for myself? As much as I’d love to say ‘yes’, the reality is that all authors want their creations to be read. What about if I write for friends and family? What about for a small audience of people interested in the work? What if the audience is not that small? Is there a specific number of readers I need to have before I give myself permission to feel good about the project?

Maybe, in a not-too-distant future, I’ll find the answers to these questions. Maybe, I’ll discover an outlet for all the ideas floating in my head. Maybe, I’ll find a home for these projects.