Selling Historical Fiction to Teens

By Melissa Luttmann

Historical fiction author Ann Rinaldi puts a warning label on each of her books—literally. On the back covers of her novels, you’ll find a block of text that reads, “WARNING: This is a historical novel. Read at your own risk. The writer feels it necessary to alert you to the fact that you might enjoy it.”

Seeing that warning on the back of Ms. Rinaldi’s latest release made me think about the way teens perceive historical fiction. I know many teens who refuse to so much as look at historical novels because they find their history classes at school boring. They see history as a bunch of dry facts to be crammed into their brains for the next test, and never stop to consider that history is actually about stories—many of which are very interesting.

Because so many teens have an aversion to historical fiction, those of us who write it are, in a way, aiming for a slightly different market than other YA authors. Of course it would be wonderful if a teen who never liked history picked up your book and fell in love with it. But if your novel is going to stay in print, people have to buy it, and the people who are going to buy a YA historical novel are mostly members of that specific group of teens who like history.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing—I’ve found that many historical fiction lovers are voracious readers who buy tons of books and are loyal to authors they like—but it does mean the average teen consumer is less likely to pick up your novel.

DISCUSSION:

Do you think historical fiction can be a hard sell to the average teenager?

Does it bother you that many teens don’t like history, or are you just happy for the ones that do?

Melissa Luttmann is the YA Editorial Assistant for Wonders and Marvels. You can read more about her here: Editorial Staff.

Tagged as: historical fiction, Melissa Luttmann, YA, Young Adult Fiction/Nonfiction, young adults

http://www.danahuff.net/ Dana Huff

My daughter is 16 and dislikes historical fiction. It seems as if supernatural (vampires) and dystopian novels are the thing in YA these days. I absolutely LOVE Ann Rinaldi’s books. My favorite is The Coffin Quilt about the Hatfields and McCoys. I hope she keeps them coming!
librarypat

It does bother me that more teens don’t read historical fiction. I worked as a children’s librarian until recently. When I started at the library, they had only one small bookcase of YA fiction. They now have have a teen room. I ordered a wide variety of books and included historical fiction as often as I could. Ann Rinaldi was at the top of the list, but there are other authors out there offering good fair. I think series like the Dear America Diaries, American Girls, and Little House On The Prairie which introduce historical fiction at the elementary reading level are a great way to get them started. History can be exciting, it is just hard to convince readers of that after years of boring classes which concentrate on dates and places. Teachers can be a big help if the assign Historical Fiction as required reads. Many enjoy it once they try it. It can be exciting and interesting. Learning something in the process is a Bonus.
As for the current interest in Vampires, etc. , take advantage of it. These characters have lived for hundreds of years and refer to their original lives and the changes and events they have experienced over time. This isn’t all bad. As a librarian you can suggest books that cover the events mentioned in the paranormal books. If the vampire was “alive” during the Plague or the Flu Pandemic, there are good books out there about them.
We can and do try, but it boils down to they will read them if they enjoy them or if they have to for a grade. We can just make books available that have a good hook that will be interesting to entice them to read it.
Scott Houghton

I’m 15 and I love historical fiction from any time in history, from the stone age to the Gulf war. I’ve even written some historical fiction myself, wouldn’t a way to make teens enjoy historical fiction would be to write historical fiction but combine it with a modern attitude and character, say write a story in the 19th century and add it with a vampire, werewolf etc?
librarypat

When I was a children’s librarian, I tried to make sure there was a good selection of historical fiction on the shelves. Finding good books for girls was easier than finding ones for boys unfortunately. Series that introduce children to historical fiction early like the Dear America Diaries, Little House On The Prairie, and American Girls are a great lead in to historical fiction. The Diaries especially introduce them to a good variety of excellent authors. We can expose them and make books available, but we cannot make them read. We must rely on teachers to assign historical fiction so the YA audience is constantly exposed to it.
The current interest in vampires, etc. is not necessarily a drawback. These characters have been alive for hundreds of years. They have experiences much of what we consider history and it is referred to in the books. Use that. Be familiar with the paranormal books and what historical events they refer to. Pull and link other books that deal with them. A character was alive during during the great flu pandemic or the plague or the Napoleonic Wars. Pull related books that deal with these events and display them with the paranormal book. It won’t draw everyone in, but it may interest a few. History and English teachers can use the same tactics. All we can do is try.
http://www.HistoricalNovels.info Margaret

When I was a teen, all my favorite novels were historical fiction – and that’s still true for me today. Back then, there were not a lot of novels written specifically for teens, so I read a lot of adult historical fiction, but one outstanding novelist who wrote primarily for teens was Rosemary Sutcliff. Many of her novels are still in print, and new readers are likely to discover her when the film of her novel The Eagle of the Ninth comes out this fall. Another historical novelist I loved was Mary Renault. Her novel The King Must Die impressed me so much that I wrote an essay on it for my college application form – my mother was horrified that I would write about a popular novel, and urged me to write about some dusty old classic. I didn’t, but they let me in anyway. I find it ironic that The King Must Die is now assigned reading in many classrooms. There’s a short article on Rosemary Sutcliff’s novels at http://www.HistoricalNovels.info.
http://www.yabookshelf.com/ Melissa

I’m not a teen, but I do read quite a bit of historical fiction written for the YA market. I’ll admit that I didn’t go for these books as a teen, but I did read and enjoy a lot of Classic novels. Now that I know a lot more about various historical periods from my days studying English lit at university, I’ve read books from a variety of historical periods and do love what I find. Some are pure historical novels, while others add various details to the mix, like magic and fairies.

As for your question about selling historical fiction to teens, I think that your point about history being a bunch of interesting stories is the way to go. In fact, if I were talking to a teen about a new historical novel I loved, I think I would downplay the “historical” nature of the book when I was discussing it with them at first. I’d say, it’s about a girl, who does…bla bla bla. Once the story intrigues them, you can say that it takes place in 1882, and I think the history bit would be of less importance.
http://brainpopcorn.wordpress.com Meg

I was a teenager who enjoyed historical fiction, sprinkled generously in among the mysteries, science fiction, and fantasy, so I never really understood people not finding it interesting–but I do know such people exist.

I think a lot of appreciating history comes with experience–a lot of people under 20 are wrapped up in the concerns of the moment, and so frequently the way history is taught doesn’t do much to close the distance between then and now. Historical fiction can actually help with that, and I’m always glad when it does.

In regards to what Scott suggested in the comment above, I think historical fantasy, which seems to be a growing genre (Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series, Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, etc) can help hook people into the idea of great stories set in the past–but if you’re mostly going after the lovers of dragons and wizards, that doesn’t mean they’re all suddenly going to make the jump to reading Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe series because they’re suddenly enamored of the Napoleonic wars. Not to mention the fact that most of these historical fantasies are set in ‘adjusted realities,’ in which oftentimes their ‘new history’ doesn’t resemble historical occurrences at all (witness the invasion and occupation of England by Napoleon via dragon in the Temeraire series).
http://jovanevery.ca JoVE

I guess I don’t know any “normal” teens. My daughter developed a love of history at about age 8 but then that was also around the time it became obvious that school wasn’t working for her and we started homeschooling.

She has no interest in the supernatural and is a pretty easy sell on historical fiction. In fact, it is a way into “proper” history as often as not. And she certainly prefers writing fiction as a way to work with history she is studying (to writing boring report type things). She’s middle school age, so not quite into writing proper essays and I think writing fiction based in historical research has been a good way in.

I think part of the problem is that school turns kids off reading altogether. So it isn’t just history and historical fiction but reading. Is the Twilight series popular because of the vampires? Or the movies and movie stars?
Scott Houghton

I agree with you Meg, I think a major part in enjoying historical fiction is if you share an interest in that time frame. I would never have picked up George Orwell’s “A Homage to Catalonia” If I was not interested in the Spanish Civil War; but also a novel can be so good that it can make you interested in that period like Ernest Hemingways “Fiesta” made me interested in the 1920′s.
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Elizabeth D

Can someone please help me? I am trying to find the name of a series that I used to read a couple of years ago. It’s driving me crazy. I do know that it is based around the time period of either WWI or WWII, though I’m leaning toward WWII. I think it had something to do with the daughters of liberty? I know that’s more Revolutionary War period, but I think it had the word daughters in the series title…? I do know that one of the main characters is a journalist, and her boyfriend/fiance/husband? gets captured at some point in the series, and she finds a way to find and help him. If you know anything like this, PLEASE let me know!!! Thank you! And by the way, I am a teenager, and I love historical fiction. I always have
But then again, I have always loved to read, and I have loved reading the Dear America Diaries series. That was one of my favorites. You are right though, kids are just turned off from reading in general. The reason why they get hooked on fantasies like Twilight is because it is something new that no one has thought of before. Everyone knows the basic history of every event that has happened in the world. But when authors go deeper into what could have happened, even by making up a character and putting their imagination to work of the most extreme situations, that’s what makes it intriguing to read.
http://lindacollison.com Linda Collison

My first novel Star-Crossed (Knopf;2006) was a New York Public Library pick for Books for the Teen Age — 2007. Yet most of my fans are adults. My agent convinced me it was y.a. material because the protagonist was 17. Actually, it was historical fiction. After not selling very well (no vampires) because of the mis-marketing, it will soon be rereleased under a new title as part of the Patricia MacPherson Nautical Adventure Series (Fireship Press). Although I was fortunate to have a major publisher like Knopf, I learned a lot about marketing! Some teens like historical fiction but they are probably mature enough to read regular historical fiction.