What is a cozy mystery? Some people have a narrow definition: Cozies are “cute” books about women who bake cupcakes or knit or cook and who have a cat or dog. The pet might talk or help the protagonist solve the crime. The stories have lots of humor, a little mystery, and probably a murder, but not always. 

Others say, no, cozies feature an amateur sleuth, and the sleuth doesn’t have to have a “cute” occupation or hobby. Pets (talking or otherwise) are optional. There’s definitely a murder, but there’s less emphasis on any gory aspects of the death and more on the puzzle of whodunnit. They are are “clean” books without strong language, sex, or violence. 

Why all the debate around cozies in the writer community? After all, no one seems to question whether a book is a police procedural or thriller.

A look back at how mystery books have been defined and sold can answer the question of why there’s so much controversy around the definition of cozy.   

Two big entities have played a part in shaping the definition of cozy, one from the indie publishing world (Amazon) and one from the traditional publishing world (Barnes & Noble). 

Bookstore Categories

Back in the dark ages when people shopped for books in physical stores, fiction books were broken into broad categories: Romance, Mystery, Thriller, Sci Fi, Literary, etc. In the big chain bookstores, all the sub-genre categories of mystery—Police Procedural, PI, and Cozy—were typically shelved together, usually in alphabetical order by author last name. Often the section was called Mystery & Thriller, an even broader designation.

Any mystery, be it a police procedural, PI, or cozy went in that section. The book covers and descriptions did the rest of work, cluing in the reader in on whether the book was a gritty PI story or a cozy puzzle mystery. During this time, the terms amateur sleuth and traditional mystery were often used interchangeably with the term cozy.  

Amazon Category Segmentation

Then Amazon came along with unlimited shelf space. Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense each got their own category, but Amazon went even deeper, breaking down the large genres into even-finer sub-categories, which made it easy for readers to zero in on exactly the type of story they were interested in. So today if you want a mystery with an international setting or a legal thriller, there are sub-categories to take you to those exact books.  

Under the Mystery category, Amazon created a couple of sub-categories that would have all been lumped together in a physical bookstore: Amateur Sleuth, Cozy, Traditional Detectives, and Women Sleuths. Of these, only Cozy got sub-sub-categories: Animals, Crafts & Hobbies, and Culinary: 

• ‹ Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
  • ‹ Mystery
    • Cozy
      • Animals
      • Crafts & Hobbies
      • Culinary

Authors quickly realized that their chances of visibility increased with the number of categories they could get their book listed in, so they listed their books in as many categories as possible. (You can officially pick two categories when you upload your book in the KDP dashboard, but you can email Amazon and ask to be added to others.) A book about a chef who  solves a crime and knits as a hobby and who also happens to have a pet could be listed in Amateur Sleuth and Women Sleuths categories as well as the sub-categories of Cozy, Animals, Crafts & Hobbies, and Culinary. So even though we have plenty of finely spliced categories, we also have lots of books that overlap between several sub-categories, which leads to lots of confusion. Is a book a cozy? An amateur sleuth? Both? 

Traditional Publishing Influence

In the traditional publishing world in the late 1990s, publishers realized the value of using crafts and hobbies to hook mystery readers. Diane Mott Davidson and Katherine Hall Page had been writing food-themed mysteries that included recipes, but the tweak of emphasizing crafts and hobbies took the trend to a new level. 

Craft/hobby how-to nonfiction books were perennial sellers for publishers. By adding that element to a mystery, they now had a built-in niche audience they could market to. Crewel World by Monica Ferris was the first book I noticed with this combination. Published in 1999, it was a mystery about a woman who took over a needlecraft store after her sister was murdered. The book description highlights the craft aspect: “Includes a beautiful embroidery pattern.”

I broke into traditional publishing in 2006 at the time this trend was taking off. My series was about a military spouse who was a professional organizer, and I suggested including organizing tips in my books. The publisher liked the idea, so I included tips in all the Ellie Avery books.

The crafts/hobby theme was a hit with readers, and publishers jumped on the cooking/craft/hobby trend, publishing books with every sort of theme from glass blowing to adult coloring books, using illustrated covers with bright colors and catchy pun titles like Buttercream Bump Off and A Corpse for Yew. 

As with most publishing trends, publishers ran it into the ground, publishing books with all sorts of hooks. Any speciality or interest could be a hook: bookstores, tea shops, cookbooks, vintage typewriters, apple orchards, coffee houses, donut shops, and pizza parlors. 

The books were doing so well that publishers even came up with concepts and themes themselves for books set in places like ice cream shops and yoga studios, then they commissioned authors to write those books. Barnes & Noble responded to the changes, creating a Cozy section in some of their stores, which separated these books from the general Mystery section.

So that’s how we got to where we are today. Sub-categories in Amazon, publisher cover design and marketing choices, as well as physical bookstore shelving, all pushed the definition of Cozy into a narrower box. Readers have come to associate a craft/hobby themed mystery packaged with bright illustrated covers and pun titles as Cozy . . . and possibly as an Amateur Sleuth or Female Sleuth book as well. It’s no wonder there’s so much debate! 

So what does this mean for authors? 

I don’t see the trend of segmentation slowing down. If anything, I suspect it will continue with Amazon and other online bookstores adding even more micro-niche categories. The best strategy for authors is to make it clear with your cover and book description, which subcategories your book falls into. And to keep an eye on the changes in the category listings in the online bookstores, of course. :) 

Now that we’ve taken a high-level view of the definition of cozy, Part II of this series, drills down to a practical level and answers a question mystery authors often struggle with: Is My Book a Cozy? Then Part III will take a look at why readers love cozies.

Want more info on cozy mysteries? Check out my How to Outline a Cozy Mystery course.