I belong to a couple of Facebook Groups that are specifically geared to readers, writers and lovers of cozy mysteries. One of those groups is, Save Our Cozies. Think the title seems a bit melodramatic? Maybe, but unfortunately, the title of the group stems from events in the current publishing industry which have led many to fear the future of cozy mysteries.
Based on book sales reported by Simba Information, the two genres of fiction that are most lucrative are Romance/Erotica (1.44B) and Crime/Mystery (728M). Yes, Sex sells and sells big. Despite steady sales, many cozy authors are finding publishers are not renewing series contracts. Why you ask? Good question, I wish I knew. What I do know is this culling of cozy mysteries is coming at the same time as mergers of several of the big publishing houses. Berkley Crime, Random House and Penguin Group were the top publishers of cozy mysteries. When they merged into Penguin Random House, several cozy series were not renewed. Hence the Save Our Cozies movement.
If you go to the Facebook group, you’ll find everything from information about upcoming book releases, and cover reveals to requests for series recommendations and general questions. One question posted recently asked how readers felt about ‘good people’ getting killed in a cozy. As you can imagine, there were a lot of opinions, but the majority of readers preferred the murder victim in a cozy to be bad or evil (and you should absolutely not kill animals). Seem strange? After all, we’re talking about murder mysteries where there are usually one or more dead bodies. You’d expect at least one or two of them to be ‘good.’ However, this (in my opinion) is the essence of the cozy mystery. Cozy mysteries are not about real life. How often do amateur sleuths go investigating crime, interrogating suspects or even getting involved in the concerns of others? Most people today don’t even know their neighbors names. The essence of a cozy is the puzzle. Readers should be engaged in finding clues and figuring out ‘whodunit,’ not sifting through emotional and moral issues. Don’t be fooled into believing cozy mysteries are simplistic. Cozy mystery writers are well aware that people are not completely good. Just as we know villains are not completely evil. There’s good and bad in everyone. The key is to weave a story that your readers (hopefully) get lost in, all while dropping clues and false clues so the reader arrives at the solution at the same time as the sleuth in your story. Think it’s easy? I dare you to give it a try. The world can always use more cozy mysteries.