Wednesday, June 04, 2008

The State of the Mystery Genre


Last month  Sisters in Crime (not to be confused with the Crime Sistahs) sent a publishing summit team to New York to speak to publishing professionals about the state of the mystery genre. You can click here to read the entire four part report. Here's a brief overview of what I thought were the most interesting things that publishers had to say:

1.  Thrillers are super hot right now as are cross genre books such as historical suspense.
2. Thrillers and suspense books get bigger print runs than straight mysteries.
3. Cozy mysteries are becoming a harder sell though crafting mysteries are still big.
4. In bookstores, mysteries are selling better in the fiction section than the mystery section.
5. Though thrillers are hot, mystery readers tend to be more loyal than thriller readers.
6. The most successful authors, and the ones getting the most publisher support, are the ones writing more than one book a year.
7. In order to broaden a mystery's audience, many publishers are avoiding the "mystery" label.
8. Hardcover book sales are down. Trade Paperbacks are doing well.
9. There is a demand for mysteries for younger readers.
10. Publishers like for authors to be active in book promotion.

Enjoy!
Angela

5 comments:

SomeAnyEvery said...

Wow! The behind the scenes stuff about the mystery genre is almost as good as a new novel. Thanks for sharing this info Angela.

~ Charlotte

Anonymous said...

Glad you found it useful, Charlotte ; ).

Angela

Anonymous said...

Good Morning Crime Sistahs!

I am a book reviewer and I have really fallen in love with AA mysteries by Black female authors in the last year.

Hate to admit that I never read mysteries before although I am a fan of my friend Gammy Singer's landlord tales. LOL

Between reading Gammy's and Frankie Bailey's novels, I started reading other mystery authors and I am hooked.

Currently; I write reviews for www.aalbc.com and www.cultureclique.com

So.... If any of you are interested in having me review one of your books, just let me know.

Idrissa Uqdah
idrissa1@juno.com

Anonymous said...

Idrissa,

Hi! I'm so glad you've starting reading mysteries. And you're so right, they're very addictive. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you'll come back. I will certainly be contacting you about a review when my new book comes out next year ; ).

Take care,
Angela Henry

Dana Pittman said...

I read my first mystery book a few months ago. And I didn't know what I was missing.

Dana
www.niapromotions.com
www.niavirtualbooktours.com

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