Linda Aksomitis

What exactly is Publisher Rocket? It’s continuously updated subscription software published by Dave Chessom, founder of Kindlepreneur.com. Its purpose? To help authors succeed in the Amazon KDP marketplace.

I’ve been using Publisher Rocket for years! Once I purchased my own subscription and started using it, I also became an affiliate. (So, I earn a commission at no extra cost to buyers.)

Should I Start My Cozy Mystery Series?

The next writing project I’m planning is a cozy mystery series. While all writers, even pantsers, typically do a lot of category research before they begin to write, we planners do even more!

You can’t beat Publisher Rocket for up-to-the-minute sales statistics. While I love my K-Lytics in-depth Custom Research Reports, like this Mystery, Thriller, & Suspense Report, they capture and analyze a specific point in time. Publisher Rocket changes with the seasons.

But anyway, according to Publisher Rocket, at the moment cozy mysteries are a flat market.

But what do “flat sales” really mean? Well, flat means there’s not a lot of change. While sales aren’t as high as they have been, they’re still good, ranking in the top 10% of all Amazon categories in terms of sales. Publisher Rocket also provides the following warning.

Expect high competition, but also high profit in the top-ranking books.

Caution: This category has high variation, and only a few bestsellers might be driving its growth stats.

At the end of May, 2025, it would take 104 sales per day to be the #1 best seller in the Cozy Mystery ebook category. To rank #10 would only take 69 sales per day. Overall, the average monthly sales of the top 30 best ebook sellers are about 2700 books each.

Analysis: Should I write another book in my fairy tale retelling series or start the cozy series? Well, sales to #1 per day for Kindle Books > Children’s eBooks > Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths > European are only 1 book per day compared to 104 for cozy mystery. In other words, if I’m considering my bank account, start the cozy series. It has a lot more potential!

Exploring the Cozy Mystery Marketplace

As I said, it’s important for all authors to explore the category they’re publishing in BEFORE they publish. That’s where the Competition Analyzer in Publisher Rocket comes in!

So, who’s #1 in the cozy ebook marketplace today? Okay, so it’s the debut novel of an author with a traditional publisher — and it’s, well, the unique (or odd, depending on your opinion) story of an octopus that solves mysteries and a widow who’s son vanished 30 years earlier. According to Publisher Rocket, Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby van Pelt sells $250,368 worth of books monthly at this point in time.

And the book description on Amazon indicates it’s being made into a Netflix film.

Wish my first book had been so successful!

But what about print and audiobook (Publisher Rocket includes data for both)? How’s Remarkably Bright Creatures doing?

Publisher Rocket provides data that indicates the title’s print sales are $99,770. Interesting, right? That means it has 2.5 times more ebook sales by dollar volume — which really is interesting given that today the book’s paperback price is lower than its ebook price on Amazon…

As well, Remarkably Bright Creatures isn’t even in the cozy mystery category for its print product details on Amazon. Instead its overall Best Sellers Rank is #100 in Books, with #4 in Literary Fiction (Books), #5 in Humorous Fiction, and #10 in Family Life Fiction (Books).

Analaysis: Remarkably Bright Creatures is a top earner, no matter which Amazon browsing categories it’s in.

Some of the other top earners in the ebook cozy mystery series I still need to read include:

The Maid’s Secret (Molly the Maid Book 3) with earnings of $48,355 monthly; The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club Book 1) with monthly sales of $45,971; and Vows of Murder (A Tourist Trap Mystery Book 17) with earnings of $38,575 monthly.

When it comes to Audible audiobooks, the key thing I discovered with Publisher Rocket is that few cozy mystery titles are earning much in that format. Torrent Witches Cozy Mysteries Complete Box Set: Books 1-10, led with monthly earnings of $6,482.

Research is fun, isn’t it?

More Tools in Publisher Rocket

Publisher Rocket does so much, it can almost be overwhelming. That’s what makes those easy-to-understand K-Lytics reports a good choice when you’re getting started in a particular market. They do the analysis for you!

Here, I’ve used the Competition Analysis feature in Publisher Rocket so far in this article.

A couple of my past articles show you how I’ve used Publisher Rocket with my best-selling Magic Forest Adventure fairy tale retellings series:

• Category Search: How Do You Get Your Book Into the Amazon Categories You Want
• Keyword Search: What Keywords are Selling Your Ebooks: A Step-by-Step Analysis

You’ll also find the reverse ASIN lookup particularly useful when you’re researching the market. It lets you enter a book’s identification number and discover rival sales, rankings, and marketing strategies.

Need help with advertising your already published books? The Amazon Ads feature can help you with that!

As far as I’m concerned, Publisher Rocket is worth it — no matter what stage your publishing career is at.

If you’d like to learn more about AI tools that can help with your writing, check out my online course Write Effective Web Content. If your public library offers online Gale courses as part of its programming, you may be able to enroll for free and they’ll pay your tuition. If not, the course is also offered through community colleges and online.