Cozy Cards BOOKSTORES & LIBRARIES

Kensington Cozy Cards are loyalty cards that readers can get for free from participating libraries and bookstores, or by contacting Kensington directly. Every time a reader purchases or checks out a cozy mystery from a participating bookstore or library, they ask the bookseller/librarian to stamp or initial their card. Once they’ve filled all 10 spots on the card, the reader mails it to Kensington. We send them a free cozy mystery and a new card.

There are two different versions of the card: one specifically for libraries, and one specifically for booksellers.

Nope! All cozy mysteries qualify, regardless of publisher or author.

While we love it when booksellers and librarians help readers discover books published by Kensington, we created the Cozy Card program to build excitement and community around the genre as a whole.

This program is FREE and easy for all libraries and bookstores interested in participating. Just fill out the form on this page or email [email protected] and we will send you the following:

• A stack of 50 Cozy Cards and a stamp. If you think you need more than 50 to start, just tell us how many you want!
• A flyer with instructions and information on how Cozy Cards work for you to keep at your counter.

When a reader brings a cozy mystery to the counter for the first time, you (or your bookseller/checkout librarian) can hand them a Cozy Card. Everything the reader needs to know about the program is printed on the card.

Cozy mystery readers are loyal fans and have their own communities, including Facebook Groups, conferences (you’ll find readers at Malice Domestic, Bouchercon, SleuthFest, Left Coast Crime, and Kensington’s own regional CozyCons), and book clubs. Cozy mysteries are also a steadily growing subgenre of the mystery category.
Cozy Cards are a FREE and super easy way for libraries and bookstores to engage these readers and increase demand in your books. If you have a rubber stamp, hole puncher or a pen to initial a card, you can offer customers and patrons entry into the club!

If the librarian or bookseller loses their rubber stamp we provided (hey, these things happen!) you can use a hole punch or simply initial the cards with a pen.

We will accept cards that have been initialed, stamped, or punched.

As long as the reader is purchasing or checking out a cozy mystery, please feel free to stamp or initial their Cozy Card. Your initial is valid even if you aren’t technically participating on an organization-wide level.

Cozy mysteries are humorous, light murder mysteries that show you what happens when you put a quilter, a candy shop owner, a baker, a pet sitter or some other wholly inappropriate sleuth on the case to solve a crime. More precisely, cozies are lighthearted murder mysteries with plenty of humor, no graphic violence or sex, and an amateur sleuth (or sleuthing team) who lives in some sort of close-knit community and solves crimes while juggling a day job, a hobby or other responsibilities.

Sometimes the line between a cozy and a regular mystery or even a historical fiction novel can be pretty thin. If you or a reader are uncertain whether a book qualifies as a cozy mystery, we encourage you to err on the side of inclusion – especially if it is a traditional, historical or light mystery.

Sorry, thrillers and crime novels definitely don’t qualify as cozy mysteries!

Kensington Publishing will be keeping track of how many cards are redeemed by each reader and we’ll take care of letting a reader know when they’ve reached their max. Each reader can only have 10 punch cards total. The program began December 1^st, 2019 and will continue while supplies last.