Out of the gate, let me define a term you are likely to have not seen before: Quozy. When coining the name of this sub-genre of mystery, I intended it to be self-evident. So far, most readers and reviewers understand that Quozy is the simple blending of Queer and Cozy. Sidenote: I prefer the term “queer” over “gay” in this context as it is—to many within the LBGTQ+ community—a more expansive term. As for cozy, we all know that is a sub-genre of mystery featuring an amateur sleuth romping through a story free of profanity, gratuitous violence, and graphic sex.
IS THERE A MARKET FOR QUOZIES?
Instead of rushing to answer with a cheerleader’s enthusiastic “Yes!,” this is a business question deserving a numbers-grounded assessment. According to the UCLA Williams Institute, 3.5 percent of U.S. adults identify as LGB (lesbian, gay, or bisexual) with another 0.3 percent identifying as transgender. The United States Census Bureau reports the U.S. population as 330,693,900. Merging those data, there are over 12.5 million LGBT adults in America. Still with me? Next, by filtering Pew Research data, as reported on the website Bustle.com, which finds Americans read a mean average of twelve books per year, that equates to 108 million books read by LGBT readers annually. Although that figure is likely to include a lot of overlap in the titles read, that’s still a pile of books.
Now, I’ll turn to the mystery category as a whole. Among adults who read a selected genre regularly, most, or 59 percent, read a Crime & Thriller book—as reported by Statista. To put that in perspective, the second-most read genre is Adventure at 47 percent. The report also claims that—second only to Romance/Erotica—the Crime & Mystery category generates $728.2 million annually. While it would be tidy to come up with a sub-category value for the percentage of the Crime & Mystery category driven by LGBTQ titles, it would be imprecise given the data referenced. However, with over 100 million books read by LGBTQ+ readers, and a market-leading category worth more than three-quarter billion dollars, it is safe to say there is a healthy market for gay mysteries.
A SUB-GENRE AWAITING SAVVY PUBLISHERS
According to an analysis by writingtipsoasis.com, a list of the most prolific 17 LGBTQ fiction publishers does not include any of the large publishing houses. Instead, every publisher on the LGBTQ publisher list is a smaller independent catering specifically to the LGBTQ market—with most titles targeting a romance reader. Another interesting view into this disparity is the telling difference when reviewing the nominees for the Edgar Awards (the annual prizes awarded by Mystery Writers of America) and the Lammie Awards (awards given each year by the Lambda Literary organization, which focuses on LGBTQ+ literature). While both organizations seek to acknowledge some of the best mysteries of the year (Lambda has a specific category for Mystery), the majority of Edgar-nominated books are written by agent-represented authors and published by the major houses. Conversely, the overwhelming majority of Lammie-nominated books are published by small houses specializing in the LGBTQ+ market, with more than a few self-published titles. I believe such disparity has contributed to a catch-22: by not having the benefits of the editorial polish, production values, and distribution and promotional strength that a larger traditional publisher can bring to an acquired title, LGBTQ mysteries have been limited in their opportunities for marketplace success. That track record of limited success has in turn made them less appealing to agents and acquiring editors. And so continues the cycle. And yet, with increasing attention paid to issues of diversity and thanks in no small part to the marketplace success of novels anchored by LGBTQ+ characters, such as Andrew Sean Greer’s Pulitzer Prize-winning, Less, PJ Vernon’s Bath Haus, and TJ Klune’s, the House in the Cerulean Sea—in addition to too many others to cite here—the market conditions are prime for gay mysteries’ breakout moment.
READERS HAVE BEEN WAITING A LONG TIME
Forty-two years! That’s how long it has been since Armistead Maupin wrote Tales of the City, the first book in his iconic Barbary Lane Series (clocking in at No. 74 in a recent nationwide PBS poll of America’s 100 Favorite books of all time). That first of nine books featured gay protagonist Michael Tolliver, straight co-protagonist Mary Ann Singleton, and (in later books revealed to be Transexual) landlady Anna Madrigal. The story was seminal in plopping a fun, fast-paced mystery smack dab in the middle of a big-hearted queer community. In many ways, Tales of the City was the first Quozy Mystery. But sadly there have been few books since. According to CJ Connor who has been tracking cozy mystery releases at Book Riot for several years, “I made an effort to look for any traditionally published cozy mysteries because I am queer and wanted to read about characters that reflected the community I belong to. Until this year, I could find zero new releases—which was concerning. It was hard to realize a genre I loved so much was not only behind in LGBTQ representation, but that said representation was nonexistent. I was grateful for the self-published series I could find, such as Josh Lanyon’s Secrets and Scrabble, but I couldn’t understand why publishers didn’t seem to think queer characters have a place in publishing. That all changed when I compiled my list for 2022. The number I was able to find went from zero to four new releases with queer main characters—three from Crooked Lane Books and one from Kensington.”
Shown above are those soon-to-come four Quozies, followed by two recently published titles from Heartsome and Tin House, respectively. It would seem that market supply is finally—slowly—catching up with the demand for what has always been a delightfully entertaining sub-genre of mystery. Not only do savvy publishers and their authors stand to be rewarded, but so too will mystery lovers.
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