After I published a report on cozy fantasy on Jan. 15, Brian O’Leary, executive director of the Book Industry Study Group, wrote in to say: “We did introduce a FICTION / Fantasy / Cozy code in the update released last month, but it won’t show up in the supply chain for a couple to a few more weeks. It’s in the list on the site now.”
Reader Amran Gowani also wrote, “Re: cozy fantasy, it’s not a genre I’m planning to visit anytime soon, but I do agree it’s difficult to tackle contemporary issues in a realistic light because of how grim the world feels/is. Dark humor and satire are my lanes, but in my latest project I’m leaning more into chaos and absurdity to make the medicine more palatable. In some ways, the work is feeling lighter and darker at the same time.”
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
