The times they are a-changin’. In all aspects of our lives. Maybe the challenges of cozy mystery marketing, or any book marketing, never rank high on most people’s minds—unless you’re an author struggling with ever-increasing expenses and ever-shrinking book sales. For those of us in that boat, it’s a serious personal and financial problem.
Publishing has always been a fickle industry.
Marketing was once the responsibility of publishing companies. The author had one job and one job only—meet their deadline. However, these days, whether you publish traditionally, independently, or both, most authors are required to do a huge chunk, if not all, of their own marketing. The reason? In today’s topsy-turvy world, publishers devote all their marketing dollars to the top one percent of their authors—the very authors who have such incredibly established names and reputations that their books would sell (and sell well) without the benefit of any marketing and publicity efforts.
Authors are always looking for new ways of marketing their books to readers.
The trouble is, whenever we hit upon something that works, it never lasts for long. Or what works for one author offers little or no results for another. Not only are we constantly in search of that elusive Golden Ticket, when we finally grab onto it, it often slips through our fingers.
Social Media
Social media? Some fellow authors have told me I’ve sabotaged myself by not being on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Maybe they’re right, but I’ve seen the nasty side of social media and want no part of it. I was bullied enough as a kid.
Amazon ads
I tried Amazon ads. They worked great for several years. Until they didn’t. I switched over to what’s called Defensive Ads, at the suggestion of another author who was having quite a bit of success with them. A month and a half later, they’ve resulted in exactly one sale.
I attended a workshop where the presenter claimed her success came from growing her newsletter mailing list through reader magnets, which is creating a landing page on your website where you offer a free read to anyone signing up for your newsletter. Since creating my reader magnet seven months ago, I’ve increased my subscriber list by nearly 1,000. During that time, though, I’ve seen no increase in monthly sales.
Promo newsletters
Promo Newsletters featuring discounted books used to work well for me. Until they didn’t. I wasn’t alone. Other authors have said the same thing. The only one I’ve continued to use is Bookbub—when I’ve been lucky enough to get a spot. They’ve always been extremely successful for me. So I was thrilled several weeks ago when I was offered a U.S. Bookbub promo on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Apple Books for the 2-book bundle featuring the first two books in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries for .99 cents.
Not only is a Bookbub promo hard to get, but they’re also a huge financial commitment. A bite the bullet, close your eyes, cross your fingers, and hold your breath-sized commitment. You need to sell several thousand books just to break even. The hope is that people who paid less than a dollar for your book (or books, in this case) will enjoy them enough to buy other books in the series at the regular retail price. In the past, that’s the way it’s worked for me.
I’d heard the rumors about other authors not doing well with Bookbub anymore. I suspected enough authors had stopped trying for Bookbub ads that even Bookbub was starting to feel the pinch because they had dropped the price in the Cozy Mystery category by nearly $200. My initial reaction was that I’d have to sell far fewer books to break even.
Bookbub promos always sell the most books the first day of the sale when the promo newsletter goes out. The book then remains on Bookbub’s website for the length of time the author has set for the sale. I’ve always gone with the 30-day max. Each day after the first, sales go down incrementally. However, in the past, I’ve always made Amazon’s bestseller list that first day. Not this time. I was shocked at how few books sold.
My promo end July 10th. Seeing the results this time is both sobering and depressing. I have little hope of breaking even. I know with what’s going on in the U.S. and the world right now, people are worried. I’m worried. But I’d hoped I could give them a little bit of an escape and a few laughs for only .99 cents, and at the same time, help my own financial bottom line. However even .99 cents seems too steep a price for many people to pay these days.
~*~
USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. Learn more about Lois and her books at her website www.loiswinston.com. Sign up for her newsletter to receive an Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mystery.
The Publishing Game
/in Anthologies, cozy mystery, Culinary Cozy, humor, Marketing, Mystery, Publishing, Romance, Romantic Suspense/by Bethany MainesWhat Are We Publishing?
Publishing is always a bit of a game, but sometimes I feel more like I’m racking up publishing “points.” This year, I’ve found myself with some unexpectedly free writing time. I wrapped up writing the series I was working on (the Valkyrie Brothers) and I didn’t have a next grand project to launch into. Which meant I found myself surfing around the author communities and checking out open submission calls. Short stories are always a unique challenge, but for some reason there have been some what I would call “long-short story” openings. Usually short stories are under 5,000 words, but these were running 8 or 9 thousand words and then there were some novella openings at 15,000 – 20,000 words. Which was when I decided to give myself carpal tunnel syndrome and to rack up as many publishing points as possible.
Short Stories
Short stories usually publish in magazines and anthologies and are often snapshots of a moment. Compressing an entire plot into a short story is almost impossible. Respect to the writer’s who can accomplish it, but my view of short stories are that they are their own format and have their own rhythm and conventions.
Mid-Length
But mid-length stories? Hmmm… This was a new challenge for me. At 8-9k words that seemed like enough room to get an entire plot in. So I went back to my plotting systems, worked on some outlines, and then did math. I know that doesn’t sound natural for a writer, but once I knew how many scenes/chapters I had, I could divide by the total allowed word count and figure out my allowed words per scene. And then I could see how badly I was blowing past that word count.
Novellas
I used the same formula for the 15-20k word novellas as I did for the mid-length stories and was happy with the increased word count. The finished products seemed a bit “naked” in that I felt like if I wanted them to be full length novels they should have more description. However, even with the length requirements and fast pacing I still felt like I had a complete story and I was happy with the results.
For this experiment the openings were in spicier romance novels, which is not my usual readership. Since I didn’t want to ambush any of my readers with extra spicy content, I decided to submit the stories with a pen name and I asked the Stiletto Gang and readers for help picking what to use. The results are now in and Vivienne Cross was the clear winner.
So What’s Next?
Here’s a quick run down of stories that are in the works (or have been published already).
If all goes well, then between 2025 – 2026 then I should have 5-6 additional publishing credits beyond my usual novels. And yes, that seems like a lot to me too. But if I’m going to get all the publishing points and play the game, then I’m going to play to win. I’ll keep everyone posted on how things go!
***
Find out more about the Stiletto Gang and our books: Books
Do You Play Games?
/in Gay Yellen, Author Life, Best-seller, characters, Cozy Mysteries, Indigenous, Inspiration, Mind Games, Psychology, Samantha Newman Romantic Mystery series, Stress relief/by Gay YellenIn my ongoing effort to declutter, I’ve been taking books to the Family Garden in the park and filling the Little Library there. I’m always thrilled when the last batch I loaded has been taken, and I’m happy to fill it up again.
But on occasion, there are a few oldies I just can’t part with, like my very yellowed paperback edition of Games People Play, by Eric Berne. I recently spotted it on a shelf behind two other rows of books. (Yes, my bookcases are overburdened, no matter how much I try to lighten the load.)
Mind Games
Berne’s New York Times bestseller was based on his theory of Transactional Analysis, a cultural psychology phenomenon he introduced in the early 60’s. I encountered the book years later when it was assigned reading for an acting class, and again just recently, among other text books from my early days as a theater nerd.
Inside its yellowed cover, I had dutifully underlined paragraphs of Berne’s theories with a red
ink pen. Over the years, several pages became unglued. But they were all accounted for, and chock-full of the kind of mind games that define unhealthy interpersonal transactions (or, in non-psychobabble: toxic relationships).
There are 36 “games” identified in its chapters, spread among seven classifications. “Life Games” include Kick Me, Now I’ve Got You, You SOB, and See What You Made Me Do, among others. These are followed by “Marital Games,” “Party Games” (not the children’s party variety) and “Sexual Games,” followed by three more categories. You can see some of them listed on the book’s back cover.
As a treatise on psychotherapy, the point is to get patients to recognize harmful patterns of mind games that are present in their own lives, and eventually, to learn how to stop them, whether the patient is the player or the played-upon. In acting class, it was meant to help us decode the depths of a character’s motivation.
The book is way too technical to be anything but a slog. But on reflection, I realize that I’ve internalized much of its wisdom over the years. It definitely helps me create more fully rounded characters in my writing, especially for villains like E.B. Odom in The Body Business.
And in real life, thankfully, I’ve managed to avoid—or at least identify and remove myself from—most situations in which I might be feeling “played.”
Fun Games
It may be impossible to permanently shut the woes of the world away, but there’s no harm in trying to raise the fun quotient for a few moments of peace.
Of course, you could also lose the blues by reading a good book!
When you’re plagued by toxic mind games, what do you do to stay calm?
Her multi-award-winning Samantha Newman Mystery Series is full of suspense, with touches of romance, heart, and humor. Available on Amazon or through your favorite bookseller.
Creating Characters: Meet Arabella Carpenter
/in characters, audiobooks, Cozy Mysteries, Judy Penz Sheluk/by Judy Penz ShelukI was taking a creative writing course, around 2010, maybe a year or so later, and the assignment was to write a mystery with the words “blue” and “dolphin.” I started writing a story about an antiques shop called the Blue Dolphin, and for no reason I can remember, the name Arabella popped into my head. I don’t think I’d ever heard the name before (although I have since…it’s sort of like when you drive a white Honda Civic..all of a sudden, all the cars you see are white Honda Civics). The Carpenter? I was listening to the radio and Close to You, an old song by The Carpenters came on. Arabella Carpenter, I thought. That has a nice ring to it. [Sidebar: I changed the name of the shop to the Glass Dolphin after I found out there was a real life Blue Dolphin antiques shop in Maine.]
Here’s a scene from The Hanged Man’s Noose, book 1 in the Glass Dolphin Mystery series:
And now, my favorite line of Arabella’s (so far) in response to a developer’s proposal and the standing ovation he receives from the townsfolk:
Seriously, what’s not to love?
A small town named after a nineteenth-century traitor. A feisty antiques shop owner with a passion for authenticity. A freelance journalist with a penchant for the truth. Join amateur sleuths Arabella Carpenter and Emily Garland in the not-so-sleepy village of Lount’s Landing, where secrets, subterfuge, and real estate wranglings sometimes lead to murder.
READERS: Do you enjoy it when characters (like Arabella Carpenter) make an appearance in another series by the same author? If so, name an example. Three of my faves are Michael Connelly, John Sandford and Tana French, who excel at this.
The Glass Dolphin Mystery series is available as a box set or by individual title in trade paperback and e-book. Individual titles are also available in audiobook and large print, trade paperback, and e-book.
www.books2read.com/Glass-THMN
www.books2.read.com/GlassDolphin
Summertime Reading
/in Cozy Mysteries, Culinary Cozy, Summer Reads/by Mary Lee Ashfordby Mary Lee Ashford
Here in the Midwest it’s been hot, hot, hot recently. I know that’s been true in a lot of other areas as well. With the triple digit heat indexes making it uncomfortable outside, I find myself saying to people, “It’s great weather to stay inside and read!”
But then I realized I say the same thing when we have two feet of snow and a twenty-below wind chill as well. “It’s great weather to stay inside and read!”
Or rainy and stormy outside. Also…you guessed it…great for staying in and reading.
So I guess for me, any season (winter, spring, summer, or fall) is a wonderful season for reading.
However, there’s a lot of buzz right now about “Summer Reads” with all sorts of list to help us pick books to pack in our beach bag, read on the plane, or curl up with on the couch.
And there are some fun lists out there like:
The 2025 Goodreads Guide to Summer Reading
Summer Reads 2025 from Publisher’s Weekly
NPR’s What to Read This Summer
AARP’s 35 Summer Books to Add to Your 2025 Reading List
An article in the Guardian by Daisy Buchanan, caught my eye and proposes we should “Choose comfort, ditch boring, and prioritize pleasure” to find the perfect beach read. In researching her book “Read Yourself Happy,” Ms. Buchanan investigates the positive impact that reading has on our wellbeing. In fact, a study published by the National Library of Medicine in 2020, indicated that reading wards off cognitive decline. But she posits that we only experience the benefits of books if we are enjoying what we’re reading.
So what books would you recommend for enjoyable reading?
I’ll start with this list of wonderful books by Stiletto Gang blog members here: The Stiletto Gang Books
What titles would you add? What books are you looking forward to reading this summer? Do you perhaps have a book you’ve been saving to read on your vacation?
I can’t wait to hear your suggestions so please share!
She loves to hear from other readers and can be found on Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky and BookBub.
Also, of special note:
Game of Scones, the first book in the Sugar & Spice series is currently free in all ebook formats.
And the latest release, Night of the Living Bread, was a Barnes & Noble Top 5 Indie Fave.
Plus Oliver Heber Books is offering a “direct from the publisher” set of all four books for 50% off: Sugar & Spice Mysteries Set
Clicking Our Heels – Our Thoughts on the Most Beautiful Thing in Nature
/in Clicking Our Heels, Nature/by DebraSome of us are city folks, some love the outdoors and nature. Today, the gang members share our thoughts on what we each believe to be the most beautiful thing in nature.
Donnell Ann Bell – Banff Canada and the amazing waterfalls and hiking trails. Zion National Park in Utah for its colorful rock formations. The Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. The wildlife in my former neighborhood, everything from deer, bobcats, bears, turkey, geese, oh my!
Bethany Maines – Probably Bryce Canyon. It’s unforgettable, unique and different in every light. Go visit.
Gay Yellen – Almost any National Park will do, but back when there were actual glaciers in Glacier National Park, every sight was breathtaking.
Mary Lee Ashford – There are so many beautiful places and gorgeous spaces around us. I’m a beach person and the first thing that came to mind with this question was a particular sunset in Hawaii. The colors were mind-blowing, the sea air was so soft, and the sound of the waves so calming that it was like time stood still for a breath.
T.K. Thorne – I have written about beauty and how it is entirely a construct of our minds. It does not exist outside of our interpretation of the world. LOL, that is a “TK answer,” isn’t it? Most beautiful things I have seen: a baby’s first smile; missing my father and stumbling upon a field of sunlit blue wildflowers; the majesty of the Grand Canyon and New Zealand’s Milford Sound; and the ever-changing diversity of my little garden pond.
Lois Winston – A star-filled sky. Because of ambient light, it’s been decades since I’ve seen one.
Saralyn Richard – The calving of the Hubbard Glacier in Alaska. It was an extraordinarily hot day, and the pieces of ice literally exploded from the glacier, forming smoke, shapes, and splashes.
Paula G. Benson – A clear, blue, sunny sky—what my Grandfather called, “October’s bright blue weather, after Helen Hunt Jackson’s poem.
Judy Penz Sheluk – Watching the sun set while sitting on our waterfront deck on Lake Superior, especially in summer. It’s a new view every night, and it’s almost always spectacular.
Anita Carter – The Redwoods. It’s vibrant, lush, and surprisingly quiet. So quiet you can hear nature grow. Absolutely amazing.
Donalee Moulton – Sable Island, Nova Scotia, a thin crescent of shifting sand at the edge of the Continental Shelf that wild horses, grey seals, and one-of-a-kind plants, birds, and insects call home. There are also more than 350 shipwrecks surrounding this Graveyard of the Atlantic.
Debra H. Goldstein – Niagara Falls.
When Truths Collide — by T.K. Thorne
/in T.K. Thorne/by TK ThorneAt times, the need arises to hold two concepts in opposition as true. This is discombobulating.
My mind craves order and simplicity. I blame that on evolutionary biology. Our most basic level of brain development is reptilian—edible/not edible; fight/flight, sleep/wake, the red team/the blue team. It doesn’t get simpler than that. So, the brain fights the notion of something as difficult to resolve as contradictory truths.
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One Author’s Challenges of Cozy Mystery Marketing
/in Marketing, amateur sleuth mysteries, Cozy Mysteries, crafting cozies, indie publishing, Lois Winston, women sleuths, writing life/by Lois WinstonPublishing has always been a fickle industry.
Marketing was once the responsibility of publishing companies. The author had one job and one job only—meet their deadline. However, these days, whether you publish traditionally, independently, or both, most authors are required to do a huge chunk, if not all, of their own marketing. The reason? In today’s topsy-turvy world, publishers devote all their marketing dollars to the top one percent of their authors—the very authors who have such incredibly established names and reputations that their books would sell (and sell well) without the benefit of any marketing and publicity efforts.
Authors are always looking for new ways of marketing their books to readers.
The trouble is, whenever we hit upon something that works, it never lasts for long. Or what works for one author offers little or no results for another. Not only are we constantly in search of that elusive Golden Ticket, when we finally grab onto it, it often slips through our fingers.
Social Media
Social media? Some fellow authors have told me I’ve sabotaged myself by not being on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Maybe they’re right, but I’ve seen the nasty side of social media and want no part of it. I was bullied enough as a kid.
Amazon ads
I tried Amazon ads. They worked great for several years. Until they didn’t. I switched over to what’s called Defensive Ads, at the suggestion of another author who was having quite a bit of success with them. A month and a half later, they’ve resulted in exactly one sale.
I attended a workshop where the presenter claimed her success came from growing her newsletter mailing list through reader magnets, which is creating a landing page on your website where you offer a free read to anyone signing up for your newsletter. Since creating my reader magnet seven months ago, I’ve increased my subscriber list by nearly 1,000. During that time, though, I’ve seen no increase in monthly sales.
Promo Newsletters featuring discounted books used to work well for me. Until they didn’t. I wasn’t alone. Other authors have said the same thing. The only one I’ve continued to use is Bookbub—when I’ve been lucky enough to get a spot. They’ve always been extremely successful for me. So I was thrilled several weeks ago when I was offered a U.S. Bookbub promo on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Apple Books for the 2-book bundle featuring the first two books in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries for .99 cents.
Not only is a Bookbub promo hard to get, but they’re also a huge financial commitment. A bite the bullet, close your eyes, cross your fingers, and hold your breath-sized commitment. You need to sell several thousand books just to break even. The hope is that people who paid less than a dollar for your book (or books, in this case) will enjoy them enough to buy other books in the series at the regular retail price. In the past, that’s the way it’s worked for me.
I’d heard the rumors about other authors not doing well with Bookbub anymore. I suspected enough authors had stopped trying for Bookbub ads that even Bookbub was starting to feel the pinch because they had dropped the price in the Cozy Mystery category by nearly $200. My initial reaction was that I’d have to sell far fewer books to break even.
Bookbub promos always sell the most books the first day of the sale when the promo newsletter goes out. The book then remains on Bookbub’s website for the length of time the author has set for the sale. I’ve always gone with the 30-day max. Each day after the first, sales go down incrementally. However, in the past, I’ve always made Amazon’s bestseller list that first day. Not this time. I was shocked at how few books sold.
My promo end July 10th. Seeing the results this time is both sobering and depressing. I have little hope of breaking even. I know with what’s going on in the U.S. and the world right now, people are worried. I’m worried. But I’d hoped I could give them a little bit of an escape and a few laughs for only .99 cents, and at the same time, help my own financial bottom line. However even .99 cents seems too steep a price for many people to pay these days.
~*~
USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. Learn more about Lois and her books at her website www.loiswinston.com. Sign up for her newsletter to receive an Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mystery.
Creatures of Habit – An Author’s Writing Habits
/in Uncategorized/by DebraSince my Stiletto Writing day changed from every second Friday to the fourth Monday every other month, I’ve been in a state of confusion. It doesn’t seem like it should be that big a change, but I guess I’m more a creature of habit than I realized. Where I never was confused when I had to write a monthly blog, I now keep and regularly consult both my calendar and an email from Paula Benson so that I don’t accidentally post on her Mondays.
The art of writing has its own version of this kind of confusion. If one is blogging, writing a short story, creating a screen play, or authoring a novel, it is very easy to fall into using an idea or behavior pattern. Instead of being innovative, one can “nod,” “smile,” or “frown.” One can fashion a death scene, have a couple spar like how a couple in a prior work fought, or re-use a poison or weapon as the means of committing murder. It’s such an easy way of creating that authors don’t even realize they’re stealing from themselves. Doing this might be interpreted as being lazy, but it probably is more of letting the subconscious control the words that are being typed. Why should the subconscious modify itself when what it previously came up with was so good?
Obviously, the answer is to give the reader a more pleasurable experience and to encourage them, through constant innovation, to keep following the writer’s work. If nothing changed, there wouldn’t be a reason to explore an author’s writings. I work hard to get my posting date right – and to vary my works. What about you? Readers, do you stick with an author when nothing changes? Writers, how do you overcome your subconscious repeating your previously work?
Making a return visit
/in writing a mystery novel, writing life/by donalee MoultonOn June 18th the anthology Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense became available on store shelves, virtual and otherwise. Nestled in those 301 pages, you’ll meet private detective E.M. Montgomery. (You have to guess what the E.M. stands for.)
Em, as she’s known to friends and family, has now made an appearance in six short stories. This is both deliberate and inadvertent. She is continuing a trend that started with my first mystery short story—and taking it much, much further.
A few years ago, the Crime Writers of Canada put out a call for an anthology to celebrate their fortieth anniversary. The theme was cold in the broadest sense. I took the easy route and opted for sub-zero temperatures. My story, “Swan Song,” is set in Iqaluit in the Canadian arctic. Here temperatures often drop below zero. Fahrenheit.
Three judges commented on each entry, and all three remarked on how much they liked to read a story set in place they didn’t know much about. I knew a little about Iqaluit having worked there as a consultant over a period of five years. It occurred to me, and several of the people who read “Swan Song,” that fictional police chief Doug Brumal might have more than one case to solve. When I went to write my second short story, “Troubled Water,” I returned to Doug and the Iqaluit Constabulary.
And now there’s Em, a private detective in Halifax Nova Scotia. A call went out for humorous mystery stories, and I decided to create a new character and my first PI. In that story Em solves the murder of man who is an avid birder. Em starts her own life list, and each story is named after a bird including “Zebra Finch,” and “Belted Kingfisher.” (In Midnight Schemers, the title has been changed to more closely reflect the theme of the collection.)
I’ve discovered that bringing back characters lets you explore that character more as a person with peccadillos and personality, and not simply a means to solve a crime. It also means their friends, family, colleagues, and other human (and non-human) adjacents make return visits. A small world begins to grow one short story at a time.
In Em’s case, she’s coming back in a big way. I have a contract to write Cardinal, my first paranormal mystery. It’s part of a cross-Canada series, and Em is making her inaugural appearance as the main character in a book.
I can’t predict what characters will come back to life. They seem to dictate their own comings and goings. I now have three stories featuring a retired lawyer in New Orleans who sells sex toys. She’ll be back. I just had a story accepted featuring a student at the College of the Atlantic in Maine. It’s unlikely she’ll ever solve a second crime. I have no idea why.
But I’ve learned to listen. They’ll let me know if their work is not done.
CONGRATULATIONS!
/in Anthologies, author promotion, Mystery, New Release/by Bethany Maines