Fluidity can be an author’s friend. As sales shifted over the course of her career, Nancy Cohen glided between genres, adjusting to the market as needed. She was delighted whenever she got to return to one of her favorites, the cozy mystery. Similar to romance, some turn their nose down at the genre. Nancy never cared and wrote what she loved. After realizing no craft book existed to help writers plot cozy mysteries, Nancy wrote Writing the Cozy Mystery. And after getting feedback from readers, she tripled the content in the second edition! Writing the Cozy Mystery: Expanded Second Edition won Gold in the Educational category for the 2019 Royal Palm Literary Awards. Nancy discusses working with the traditional industry, shifting genres, and having faith in your writing in this week’s RPLA showcase.
Nancy’s Writing Journey
I loved reading when I grew up, starting with Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames and Judy Bolton. Nancy Drew started my love of mysteries. Cherry Ames inspired me to become a nurse. And Judy Bolton taught me that series characters need to grow and change. In my early days, I wrote poems and short stories and a Shakespearian-style play that I made my summer camp bunkmates perform. It wasn’t until I was in graduate school for my master’s degree in nursing that I decided to write a novel. I bought a book called Structuring Your Novel and this taught me what I needed to know. I also outlined a number of books to learn the structure.
My first book was a spy story set in Miami and dealing with the Cuban exile situation. My next attempts were single-title romantic suspense novels. In all, I wrote six books before selling one.
In 1988, I joined RWA and Florida Romance Writers. I met an agent at my first writers’ conference, and I got involved in a critique group. These made all the difference. A critique partner – Marilyn Campbell – had been published in futuristic romance, and she encouraged me to write a story in this genre since I read romance and was a Star Trek fan. Circle of Light sold to Dorchester within six months and won the HOLT Medallion Award. I wrote a total of four books for Dorchester in this genre before they failed to accept my next option book.
At this time, my agent said, “Why don’t you write a straight mystery?” My last romance, Keeper of the Rings, had a strong mystery at its core. And so I created Marla Shore, a hairstylist and salon owner who solves crimes. Where did the idea come from? I was sitting in a salon chair waiting for my perm to process. I glanced around at all the other women staring into space and thought, “We need something gripping to read to kill time. Let’s kill off one of these ladies.” And so the series was born starting with Permed to Death. I loved the idea of a salon as the background setting. People confide in their hairdressers, and you can overhear juicy gossip while getting your hair and nails done. More importantly, the setting was fun to research.
I went on to write nine books in The Bad Hair Day Mysteries for Kensington. Then I got orphaned when my editor left, and no one wanted to take me on. So I left at a time when cozy mysteries were taking a dive in the marketplace. I sent out two other mystery series proposals and they got nowhere. My agent suggested I go back to my roots and write more romances. Paranormals were on the rise, and so I returned to this direction. Wild Rose Press published four of my titles in the science fiction romance genre.
By now, cozies were on the rise again and so were various small presses. I finished the tenth book in my Bad Hair Day series, and we sold it to Five Star Publishing. They published books ten through thirteen of my mysteries. Then Five Star cancelled their entire mystery line. I got disgusted with how many times my series got shuffled around. Kensington had licensed six of my titles to E-Reads, which got taken over by Open Road Media, so various versions of my covers were out there including digital copies that I felt hadn’t been proofed after conversion. I could do a better job myself. And since independent publishing gave me the resources I’d need, I went in this direction. Easter Hair Hunt, book #16 in my series, is due out March 10, 2020.
The Winning Entry, Writing the Cozy Mystery: Expanded Second Edition
Logline: A precise writing tool that will help you write a mystery and maintain a long-running series.
Cozy mysteries are often disdained by serious crime writers as well as professional writing organizations. In the same way that romance writers lack respect, so do cozy mystery authors. When I wrote my earlier books in this genre, I realized there wasn’t a writing book published to address this specific subgenre of the traditional mystery. So I wrote Writing the Cozy Mystery intending to fill this gap and to provide respect as well as recognition to the subgenre.
Aspiring mystery writers who’d read the book wrote to me with their questions, and eventually I decided to answer these questions and more in an expanded second edition. The new version had triple the content of the first edition and went into more detailed explanations with added examples and illustrations as well as writing exercises. Again, the book filled a need in the marketplace. I meant to attract genre writers who wanted to specifically learn how to write a cozy – or really, any mystery – and they’d get the details in my book. It was never meant to provide the basics on how to write a novel. I assumed my readers would already be writing and sought guidance on crafting a cozy in a practical and clear manner.
I was excited to win the RPLA Gold Award for Writing the Cozy Mystery: Expanded Second Edition. This title was also an Agatha Award Finalist, won the President’s Book Award from FAPA and the TopShelf Magazine Book Award. It’s highly gratifying to receive recognition for my work in helping other writers.
Read an excerpt of Writing the Cozy Mystery here.
“Dear Me,” (Advice to My Younger Writing Self)
Have faith in yourself and keep writing. Never give up; never surrender. If you quit, you’ll never get published. Set yourself daily and weekly goals that you can meet and determine a time when you can focus on your writing. Stick to this schedule until you’ve completed the first draft of your project. Polish the manuscript, research the markets, and submit the book for publication. Don’t look for shortcuts like asking about agents before you’ve completed a full-length manuscript. Do your homework and prepare to train for this career same as any other. Determination and perseverance are essential to success. Realize that you have to learn the business aspects as well as perfecting your writing.
Get involved in the writing community. Attend workshops and writers’ conferences, read how-to articles, follow blogs and tweets of industry professionals, join national writing organizations and volunteer to help so you meet other authors. Get involved in a critique group. Always be professional and courteous. Respect yourself as a writer if you want others to do the same.
Build a platform on social media even before you are published. You need to learn the ropes and get your name out there. Blogging, posting and tweeting can get you started. Share other authors’ posts and comment on their blogs. Don’t wait until after you sell a book or you’ll feel overwhelmed.
Other Works by Nancy
I have eight published science fiction romances, two nonfiction projects (Writing the Cozy Mystery and A Bad Hair Day Cookbook), fifteen books in the Bad Hair Day Mysteries plus a novella and a short story. Book #16, Easter Hair Hunt, will be released on March 10. Four of my mysteries are available in audiobook editions. You can find a complete listing of my works here: https://nancyjcohen.com/books
Stay Connected
Website: https://nancyjcohen.com
Blog: https://nancyjcohen.com/blog
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NancyJCohenAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nancyjcohen
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancyjcohen
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/nancy-j-cohen
Instagram: https://instagram.com/nancyjcohen
Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/njcohen/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/nancyjcohen
Audible: https://adbl.co/2gMlVw1
More about RPLA
The Royal Palm Literary Awards competition is a service of the Florida Writers Association established to recognize excellence in members’ published and unpublished works while providing objective and constructive written assessments for all entrants. Judges include literary agents, publishers, film producers, current or retired professors, teachers, librarians, editors, bestselling and award-winning authors, and journalists from across the nation. Entries are scored against the criteria set by RPLA using rubrics tailored to each genre. Winners are announced at the annual FWA conference during the RPLA awards banquet. To learn more about RPLA, click here for the guidelines.
Nancy J. Cohen
Thank you for the wonderfully thorough interview!