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Originally Posted by FizzyWater
I have to admit I've been wondering if historical mysteries were the "new thing" lately. I had a couple of favorite authors I followed, then suddenly in the late couple of years, I've found lots more offerings in this sub-genre.
I wasn't sure if it was true that there was more, of it was like when I bought my rose-pink Huyundai Accent back in 1996 - I'd never seen one before, but once I owned one, I saw them everywhere.  |
I follow some of the "call for subs" and also have a number of author friends who are either hybrid or trad authors (Huge surprise, I know). Two trad authors were generally known for UF type stuff and both were asked --do you have any mysteries? I don't know if they were specifically asked for cozy mysteries, but that is what both set out to write (I'd say both of them ended up more in the general category, but there are cozy elements to both--neither has been published yet. These are ones I got early peeks at.) I haven't seen a specific call for historical mysteries, but that's not one I'm as familiar with. I think ANYTHING mystery is hot right now. For ads, at least one retailer has cut way back on doing them and is focusing on mystery/thrillers to a large degree (that would include historical, cozy, and all the subgenres. Even in ads, they very rarely break it down. I asked Bookbub one time if they would ever just do a big cozy splash. They did finally add that as a category to select as an advertiser, I believe. Another retailer I work with said they can't do subcategory mystery ads because they don't have enough submissions to work with. Now and then they do just a thriller one, but never historical or cozy or British, etc).
YA was hot for ads last summer. I'm seeing that slack off now, but not as much as romance has slacked off.
One of my books is participating in a Romance only ad/splash and it's not selling nearly as well as my mysteries sell. But that could be because it isn't a series or some other issue that I can't fathom. Mysteries seem to be just the thing right now.