Publishing Path: Almost Forgot

A pair of late changes set the record straight

If you get the reference, you may be getting old.

This week, I finished my review of the proofread version of my manuscript (a process that once again exposed my tendency to overuse commas—another story for another day). After years in the works, Helium, was finally ready to become an actual book. Hallelujah! All I needed to do was send the file to my publisher for internal design!

Uh…no.

You see, Helium is a work of historical fiction. It’s inspired by real events and real people, and takes place within the context of a distinct historical moment: the flying saucer craze of the 1940s and 1950s. Somehow, in the frenzy of getting the manuscript ready for publication, I’d failed to take into account one of the widely-accepted requirements of historical fiction: An acknowledgement that the book is, in fact, fiction.

Back to work.

I quickly discovered that a few Substackers I follow, including Jane Friedman and Colin Mustful, had at some point in the past posted blogs addressing this rather obscure step in the publishing process, but they seemed to be outliers. I couldn’t find a ton of additional guidance on the subject. What little I did find suggested that I needed to make two additions to my manuscript:

• A disclaimer to run after the title page

• An author’s note at the very end

I suspect that many historical fiction authors would yawn at such guidance. After all, they know what they’re doing. I don’t. I’ve written plenty of books, but they’ve all been nonfiction—straight-up histories. I’ve never had to acknowledge that I made up shit because, well, I didn’t make up shit. But Helium is all made up, even if it is rooted in historical fact. The need to write a disclaimer and an author’s note had never occurred to me.

For the disclaimer, I decided to avoid the usual profession of innocence regarding similarities being “coincidental.” Here’s what I came up with:

Although Helium is inspired by real people and actual events, the story’s characters, settings, dialogue, and action have been fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

I won’t bore you with the entire author’s note, but here’s a sample:

Are the characters in Helium real?

This is another question I’m often asked. The simple answer is no. Helium is a work of fiction. I made it all up, including its characters.

But, as you might guess, it’s not really that simple.

Truth be told, many of the characters in Helium are based on real people. This will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the history of the early flying saucer phenomenon. The most obvious example here is George, the foil of the book’s fictional protagonist, Joan. George is a fictionalized version of George Adamski, the best-known “contactee” of the flying saucer era. Many of the characters in fictional George’s orbit—Alice, Lucy, Irma, Frank, among them—also are based on real people. Plenty of other minor characters fall in this category as well. In all cases, but especially in George’s, I’ve tried to fairly represent who I understand their real-life inspirations to have been. Many latter-day assessments of George Adamski place him at the extremes of the believability scale: either prophet or charlatan. I think of him more as a well-meaning striver sitting somewhere in the middle. I’ve tried to fashion my fictional George to fit that model.

I think I have now met my neglected obligations as a historical fiction author. At least I hope I have. The disclaimer and the author’s note have been added. The manuscript is in my publisher’s hands.

Interior design, here I come!