The firm of Beadle & Company published the first dime novel, Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter, by Mrs. Ann S. Stephens, in 1860. The firm (its name would change to Beadle & Adams in 1872) was run by two brothers from Buffalo, New York, Irwin Beadle (1826–1882) and Erastus Beadle (1821–1894), who in 1859 moved to New York City and began publishing brief pocket-size paperback books on a variety of topics, such as Beadle's Dime Debater, Beadle's Dime Base-ball Player, and Beadle's Dime Book of Verses.

In early June 1860 the brothers applied the "dime" formula to fiction and announced Stephens's work under the slogan: "Books for the Million! A Dollar Book for a Dime!" Malaeska was not an original work but had appeared in serial form in the Ladies' Companion; Stephens, far from being an unknown, was a prolific author and well-known literary professional who received $250 from the...