: You first described it as "set in the late 1920s", and then later said you were "writing pseudo-historically in an alternate universe". I'm not bringing this up to nit-pick your question

@Goswami879

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You first described it as "set in the late 1920s", and then later said you were "writing pseudo-historically in an alternate universe". I'm not bringing this up to nit-pick your question but, rather, to point out that these are two different things. There is historical fiction, where authors try to remain accurate, and there is alternate history, where authors use history as a jumping-off point but take liberties. Both are fine; both are done -- but your readers need to be able to tell which you're doing.

How do you do that? There's of course the brute-force way, saying it up front ("(Title) - An Alternate History"), but that's a little clunky. Fortunately, you have another path (one not so readily available to those writing historical fiction): introduce some element early on that is not historically accurate. I trust that if your reader was confused then you're not writing something as blatant as Victorian vampires, but there are other ways to handle this. One is to refer to a historical or contemporary event (or state) that either didn't happen or happened very differently -- a passing reference to Britain's American colonies, or the long period of peace (no WW I), or that a character is looking forward to his upcoming cruise on the Titanic -- pick anything that works, major or minor, so long as it's obvious to the reader. Another approach is to introduce a technology that didn't exist then, though you'll need to walk the fine line between justifying it (why is that man wearing a digital watch?) and over-exposition (if this change isn't central to your story).

Finally, you got feedback from one reader; as Lauren said in a comment, do seek other readers before you rewrite your work. This person might be wrong, or inattentive.

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