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.
So… I know pirating is wrong, and I’m not condoning it, but I will say this: Most people understand that it’s stealing, so if they really like an artist, they won’t steal from them. They want to support them, in fact. They only steal music/movies that they were only somewhat interested in. And that probably means they wouldn’t have paid for that movie/album anyway. So it’s not really lost money… I think the same is true of books. If you like an author enough, you will pay to have their book right away (in whatever format you desire). But if you were only sort of interested, you might borrow it from a friend or the library anyway. So it’s not lost money…
Of course, that’s just my perspective from my (admittedly limited) experience of piracy. Perhaps it’s naive. Or perhaps we’re all worried for no reason…
As for the rest of the stats, YAY for reading & readers!
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First, I think people who get used to pirating then create a higher bar for what they will or won’t buy. Second, if they’ve pirated something and like it, they may not buy it later because they already have a copy, albeit an illegal one. Third, if they get it from a library, that increases the library’s circulation and makes it more likely that the library will either buy more copies of the book or buy more copies of the writer’s future work because they can see there is an interest in it. Fourth, even when borrowing from a friend there is a matter of scale. Someone may lend their book to a few friends but pirated books can go out to millions of people.
Illegal downloads have destroyed the music industry. Labels are currently trying to find ways to make profit from other sources, which is why the prevalence of 360 deals for their artists, which give the label a cut of revenue from non-music sources like touring and merchandising.
Authors don’t have alternative methods of income outside the sale of the book. Maybe there are a few superstar authors like Rowling who can merchandise their product with alternative sources, but for the rest of us, no such luck.
Ironically, what is happening in music is that even though there are more choices available to consumers, fewer artists break through to mass awareness, and the ones that do sell less product. I predict that the same thing will happen to books when electronic books become a greater part of the landscape.
I know I don’t read 5 hours a week (unfortunately) except on a really good week. It’s not because of lack of desire. But at 24 I’m on the upper end of the lower range (that only probably made sense to me) and work full time. I have little responsibilities but its a huge adjustment to full-time work after college (and work then unemployment). Job + trying to write daily + trying to exercise 3 times a week + occasionally knitting/crafting + boyfriend = severly and sadly limiting my reading time.
That said I think I purchase more than 10 books a year. Last year being an exception. Of course I got so many for Christmas this year we’ll see when I run out.
Kaylynn and Kathleen-
Definitely valid points. Although I don’t know that I’d say it’s “destroyed” the music industry… It has changed it, and I think you’re right: it will do the same to the publishing industry. For better or worse.
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I am shocked that 28% of the population are avid readers. That thrills me down to my little writing toes (now THAT would be cool! writing with my toes!).
I still don’t know about this whole ereader thing. I agree with Kristan’s perspective on pirating but I wonder what exactly has ABA up in arms.
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