February 8th, 2010 by Kathleen Bolton
The American Booksellers Association wrapped up their fifth annual Winter Institute meeting this weekend. The ABA discusses trends that affect booksellers, and their forecast for 2010 is also of interest to writers. The association commissioned Verso Advertising to conduct a survey of book-buying habits, breaking down demographics, frequency of purchase, and the impact of e-books. The results are both expected and surprising:
- Avid readers, those who read books five or more hours a week, comprise 28% of the US population
- 63% over those readers are female
- A significant portion of those readers are 45+, but a healthy number are also in the 18-24 age range.
- Avid readers buy 10 or more titles per year
These findings shouldn’t come as any surprise. People with more leisure to read tend to skew older or younger because they are hampered less by jobs and childrearing responsibilities. But it’s encouraging to know that people are still buying books. Lots of books.
One surprising (or maybe not so surprising, given the demographics of the book buying public) is that the tipping point to buying an e-reader hasn’t been reached yet:
- 49% of readers are not considering a purchase of an e-reader in the next year
- The survey couldn’t come up with a meaningful quantification if e-book readers purchase more or less books, or how much they will be willing to spend on an e-book
- They warn that the scourge of the music industry, illegal downloads from online file sharing, is about to hit the e-book market. Hard.
What can writers glean from these tea leaves?
What I take away from the survey is that the market for books is strong, but the biggest market segment of readers are an aging population. These readers still like to buy (or borrow) books, but they aren’t rushing out to buy an e-reader anytime soon.
Also included in the survey is that the primary factor in a book purchase (52%) is “author reputation“. Good books still sell themselves no matter what the market forces dictate.




My librarian husband, who regards e-book readers like Kindle and Nook with disdain (“and what will happen to libraries when there are no more books?” he asks rhetorically) said out of the blue the other day: “I want an
Last month, I blogged about getting to know your characters—which segways nicely into the WU theme for this month: voice. I’ve always felt that voice is the reflection of your POV characters’ personalities, the way they want their story to be told. And I’ve found that I can’t nail down the voice for my novels unless and until I know my POV characters really, really well, and they’re talking to me in voices I can hear—sometimes as clearly as I hear the voices of my husband and kids.
Since Writer Unboxed is focusing on voice this month, I thought I’d add an unconventional riff to the awesome contributions already put forth.











