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NEW YORK With a thorough understanding of Stephen King’s works and an interest in their sources, author Sharon Kitchens set out on a quest throughout Maine. As she discovered the actual places and characters that underlie works of fiction like “IT” and “Salem’s Lot,” she organized them into an online map and narrative that she named “Stephen King’s Maine.”
Her words, “It was amateur hour, in a way,” “But after around 27,000 people visited the site one of my friends said to me, ‘You should do something more with this.'”
The resulting book-length edition of “Stephen King’s Maine” was published in 2024 and is one of hundreds that The History Press publishes year. The 20-year-old label, which is now a part of Arcadia Publishing, specializes in local, regional, and statewide works that are sold in bookstores, museums, hotels, and other tourism locations. The History Press is dedicated to discovering and examining “the story of America, one town or community at a time.”
If nothing else, the King work is notable for its emphasis on a global superstar. The majority of history press releases are the result of less well-known interests and areas of expertise, such as Thomas Dresser’s “African Americans of Martha’s Vineyard,” Michael C. Gabriele’s “The History of Diners in New Jersey,” or Clem C. Pellett’s “Murder on Montana’s Hi-Line,” which is an investigation into his grandfather’s deadly shooting.
A home for history buffs
Similar to Kitchens, authors of the History Press are typically local or regional experts, scholars, retirees, and enthusiasts. Kitchens has experience producing press releases for motion pictures, contributing to the Huffington Post, and blogging for the Portland Press Herald. After his grandfather was murdered, Pellett, a former surgeon, changed occupations and became a private investigator. Nancy K. Williams, a self-described “Western history writer” from Boulder, Colorado, is the author of “Haunted Hotels of Southern Colorado” and “Buffalo Soldiers on the Colorado Frontier.”
Highly specialized works are published by the History Press, such as “Crusading Iowa Journalist Verne Marshall,” a tribute by Jerry Harrington to a Pulitzer Prize-winning editor of the 1930s Cedar Rapids Gazette.
“Haunted” guides, which publishing director Kate Jenkins describes as a “highly localized version” of the ghost story genre, are among the series it issues. Although History Press has historically used a group of field representatives to find possible authors, authors like Kitchens are now more likely to be discovered by the publisher through a nationwide network of authors who have previously collaborated with it.
“Our ideal author isn’t someone with national reach,” Jenkins explains, “but someone who is a member of their community, whether that be local or ethnic, and is passionate about preserving that community’s history.” We are the collaborators who contribute to a broad audience’s access to that history.”
The History Press is a low-budget, high-volume enterprise. The books are usually short—less than 200 pages—and feature images that are either the writers’ own or acquired from local archives. Small print runs are produced, and authors are often compensated by royalties from sales rather than upfront payments. Although History Press books are rarely big hits, they can nevertheless garner a lot of attention for works that are specialized in a certain field and have a tendency to sell well over time. “Long-Ago Stories of the Eastern Cherokee,” by Lloyd Arneach; “A Gullah Guide to Charleston” by Alphonso Brown; and “Marshall Field’s,” by Gayle Soucek, which pays homage to the Chicago department store, are among the editions that have sold 15,000 copies or more.
The King guide, which has sold about 8,500 copies so far, earned an unexpected boost in sales when its subject, who saw the book at Bridgton Books in Maine, gave it a thumbs-up on Instagram.
Kitchens adds, “I was genuinely shocked in the best possible way,” and she views the book as a sort of letter of gratitude to King. “Every choice I made while writing the book, I made with him in mind.”
Getting the story right
The authors of History Press say they like the opportunity to share stories they think haven’t been heard or have been told in the wrong way.
According to researcher, author, and lecturer Rory O’Neill Schmitt of Arizona, her hometown of New Orleans is frequently “portrayed in way that feels false or highlights a touristy element,” akin to a “caricature.” In response, she has written publications like “Kate Chopin in New Orleans” and “The Haunted Guide to New Orleans.”
Freelance writer and self-described “perpetual seeker of the human condition” Brianne Turczynski lives outside of Detroit and is known for her obsession with “Poletown,” a Polish ethnic community that was uprooted and demolished in the 1980s after General Motors successfully used eminent domain to establish a new plant there. Turczynski’s book “Detroit’s Lost Poletown: The Little Neighborhood That Touched a Nation” was published by The History Press in 2021.
“All of the journalist work that followed the story seemed to lack a sense of closure for the people who suffered,” she stated. “So my book is a love letter to that community, an attempt for closure.”
Kitchens’ follow-up to her King book is “The Murder of Dorothy Milliken, Cold Case in Maine,” which tells the tale of an unsolved murder. Michelle Souliere, a History Press writer and the proprietor of Portland’s Green Hand Bookstore, was one of her early supporters. Like Kitchens, she started her writing career with an online posting and has always been an avid reader of Maine history. She had been writing about local folklore on her blog, “Strange Maine,” when she received a call from The History Press suggesting that she turn her articles into a book.
In 2010, the book “Strange Maine: True Tales from the Pine Tree State” was released.
“My blog had been going for about 4 years, and had grown from brief speculative and expressive posts to longer original research articles,” she stated in a message. “I wrote the book right before I opened the Green Hand Bookshop, and I frequently question how I managed to do it at all. Insanity! Or lots of coffee. Or both!!!”
