WELCOME TO THE BOOK CLUB
Founded in 2017, The Cozy Mystery Book Club has developed a tried and true formula for selecting and reading cozies. In order to make it easy to join (at any point in time), we only read the first book in a series. Book one and only book one in a series. In this way, no one is left out or confused having missed a previous read or livestream. Someone can miss one month and not miss a beat the next. And, as you probably guessed, we only read cozy mysteries 📖🔎
🔍 WHEN & WHERE 🔎
The last Tuesday of the month (every month) is always Cozy Mystery Book Club night: 7:00 PM EST over on YouTube channel, Books Are My Hart.
Each month, creator and hostess, Angela Maria Hart will be joined by at least one guest host. She attempts to have a range of guests from book club members to popular cozy mystery authors. If a book club member is interested in guest hosting, let her know! To make things easy, Angela created a Google interest form for interested sleuthers to submit.
🔍 WHO 🔎
Angela and the guest host(s) of the month will discuss the cozy mystery and interact with the sleuthers live! Guest hosts will be given a private link with all sorts of livestream advice and how-to tips. They don’t need any previous livestream experience, only a love of cozy mysteries.
During the evening, book club members are encouraged to comment during the YouTube livestream. The hosts will read and interact with the posts, answering questions and responding to comments. Book club members also comment back and forth with one another.
As an added bonus, there is a giveaway for each livestream. Once the video renders, Angela converts each comment to a giveaway entry. Then the winner is randomly selected.
🔍 EXTRA, EXTRA 🔎
Every so often, we **really** love a cozy mystery. If this is the case, an additional YouTube livestream or a Twitter buddy read may take place. Otherwise, it is always the first book in a cozy mystery series.
Cozy Corner Chat
The second Tuesday of the month, every month is #CozyCornerChat night over on Twitter. Sleuthers are given the opportunity to chat with cozy mystery authors live. If a sleuther can’t join the event, they can submit their questions in advance. Angela will post the questions on their behalf and credit the person/account.
Featured cozy mystery authors will be live on Twitter (from 7:00 to 8:00 PM EST) to answer all the cozy questions. Sleuthers can ask about their writing lives, cozy mystery writing advice, upcoming releases, favorite characters, etc. This event is a great opportunity for readers to learn more about their favorite, and soon to be favorite, authors.
Also, if someone can’t join the YouTube livestream that month, they have another chance to celebrate cozy mysteries with The Cozy Mystery Book Club and their fellow sleuthers.
12 Days of Cozies
December 1st to December 12th is 12 Days of Cozies. The Cozy Christmas Extravaganza that celebrates cozy mysteries across social media platforms with readers and writers alike. There is a morning email newsletter, Twitter & Instagram giveaway, nightly reading sprints on Twitter, Instagram photo challenges, Instagram story challenges, evening author chats, and lots more!
🔍 SELECTING THE BOOKS 🔎
The Cozy Mystery Book Club used to vote on the next book club read each and every month. In the middle of the month, Angela would take suggestions, narrow them down, and then have readers vote. By the time the livestream occurred, a brand new book was selected.
Now, we vote for four months at a time. This method has become more popular due to a reader’s ability to plan ahead; for instance, sleuthers can request books at their local library weeks or months in advance and make a list for their future book hauls.
The cozy mysteries that are voted on are submitted and chosen by book club members. Authors, publishers, and creators can’t request that their title be the book of the month. This is a book club for readers. Angela periodically asks for book club members to submit their recommendations across social media platforms. She will post tweets, Instagram posts, mention submissions at the end of YouTube livestreams, and via the monthly newsletter. This way, no matter the outlet, everyone can participate. Similarly, if a sleuther is not active on Instagram or Twitter, they should feel free to email (writerahart@gmail.com). Angela then organizes the titles based on themes, holidays, and availability. Four cozy mysteries are selected and sleuthers vote for one of the four cozy choices.
The Cozy Mystery Book Club holds the book of the month vote on Twitter for several reasons. Instagram is not anonymous. Creators can see who votes for what. While Angela won’t judge someone’s vote, this may be a deterring factor to some readers (knowing someone can see what they like or don’t like). Furthermore, Instagram stories are only live for 24 hours, which is too limited of a time frame for substantive voting.
Twitter is free, completely anonymous, and polls can be live for 7 full days. Plus, when voting for a new title, Angela pins the poll to the top of the Twitter page to make it easy to find. Twitter is the most direct and straightforward process.
