This week’s blog comes courtesy of novelist Kim Krisco. I hope you’ll be as fascinated by his insights into historical mysteries as I was.–G.

Mystery fiction represents 11 % of the market for all books of fiction, far behind the leading genre—children’s fiction, that commands nearly 40% of the market. However, 11% of the 2.6 billion books is still a big piece of the pie.

A much smaller, but growing niche genre is historical fiction—now claiming about 3% of the market. In the past, historical fiction was represented by such classics as Gone with the Wind, or The Eagle has Landed. But more recently, books like Ellis Peter’s Cadfael Chronicles, opened the door to a new genre of fiction that combines historical fiction and mystery. I’m doing my best to grow and evolve this niche. And, while it represents only a small portion of the market, this…