Earlier
this year the fifth installment of Digital Book World, held annually in New
York City, revealed the book industry is losing teen readers to other forms of
digital entertainment. The same study -
put out by Nielsen Book – shows only 4% of all book buyers read e-books
only. However, the number of Americans
who own digital reading devices has jumped to 50% as of January 2014.
The Pew
Research Center’s survey of reading habits at the beginning of this year
revealed several interesting insights.
88% of
college graduates read at least one book in 2013, but that means 12% - or 1 in
8.5 college grads, didn’t read a single book in an entire year. What’s wrong with that picture? Overall, 24% of Americans 18 or older didn’t
read a book in 2013. 31% of men, almost
one in three, did not read a single book in one year.
We think
older people love to read but 30% didn’t touch a book last year (those
65+). Based on income, the likeliest
reader come from those earning $50,000 to $75,000, where 85% read at least one
book. Surprisingly, 81% of blacks, 76%
of whites, and 67% of Hispanics read a book last year.
Women
read ebooks more than men, and blacks read ebooks twice as often as
Hispanics. College students read ebooks
at more than three times the rate of those with no more than a high school
diploma. Of those earning below $30,000 in
salary – 14% read an ebook vs. 46% of those earning over $75,000.
So do
those stats change whom you write for – or whom you sell to?
Just
write a great book and market the heck out of it – but know that chunks of
various groups – older, under-educated, white, poor people – are tuning out
books. The marketplace has to find a way
to get books in their hands, into those who didn’t read, let alone buy, a book
in 2013. The nation may have a literary
gap, but it has the tools to narrow the gap.
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