UK Reading Habits

[Paul Whybrow]

This survey, by The Book People with 2,000 respondents surprised me a bit:

The UK's Reading Habits Revealed

That Crime, Thriller and Mystery take the top three positions, with Romance only showing at ninth might be a reflection of many things—the socio-economic status of those surveyed, their gender, their age, their location. Also, how do The Book People distinguish between those top three genres? My crime novels include thrills and mystery (and, I don’t mean “Why the hell am I writing this?” )

I was under the impression that Romance/Erotica ruled, with Crime/Mystery runner-up. Perhaps that’s still the case when it comes to revenue from sales:

Which 5 Book Genres Make The Most Money?

Clicking through the comparison function at the bottom of the Book People’s survey page shows that my reading habits would have put the results off-kilter, as I read about 360 books a year!

What do you make of the survey?

 

[Leonora]

I read about 360 books a year!

Blimey. How on earth do you manage that?

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I have no life, but for reading and writing (and editing )

 

[CageSage]

I read about 360 books a year!

Me, too. Somewhere between 7-10 books a week. And it's not that I have no life, it's a form of study, isn't it? I'm also very happy to have access to every library in the state, eBooks (including from National Library!), and a comfy chair.
Someone has to skew the stats!

 

[Dan Payne]

That Crime, Thriller and Mystery take the top three positions, with Romance only showing at ninth might be a reflection of many things—the socio-economic status of those surveyed, their gender, their age, their location. Also, how do The Book People distinguish between those top three genres? My crime novels include thrills and mystery (and, I don’t mean “Why the hell am I writing this?” )

I was under the impression that Romance/Erotica ruled, with Crime/Mystery runner-up. Perhaps that’s still the case when it comes to revenue from sales:

What do you make of the survey?

I suspect what we're seeing here is a distinction between two different markets. I note that a significant majority of the respondents reported reading physical, printed books. Accordingly, most of the survey results must be interpreted in the light of traditional publishing. "The Book People" is a bookseller, so working exclusively in trad published works, and presumably their survey respondents are customers, buyers of trad published books.

You can support this by personal experience. Walk into any bookstore. Where's the "romance/erotica" section? There'll be a specific set of shelves for crime, some shelves for sci-fi/fantasy, and pretty much all of the rest is in 'general fiction'. The general fiction section is where you will find thrillers, romances, literary fiction. (Australian context - I can't say what you'll find in a US bookshop, but I assume it's not much different.)

Where are the romance novels being sold? Are they sold in bulk to a small number of readers? Are they being self-published? I would suspect that the same survey presented to readers of self-published writing would give very different results. According to Bestselling Publishing Genres | Izzard Ink, "Romance novels made up an astounding 40 percent of Amazon’s e-book sales in 2015." (The other top two genres are crime/mystery, and science-fiction/fantasy.)

Where is science-fiction/fantasy on the list of genres in the Book People survey? Is it really selling fewer works than cookbooks and biographies? If so, why do they keep getting published, to the extent that they get their own shelves in the store? Or are these books absorbed into other genres in the list? Why are "Crime" and "Mystery" listed as separate genres? (Surely most mystery novels are also crime novels?) Without seeing the survey and understanding the demographics of the respondents, I don't think we can take much actionable information from this report.

I note also that the analysis of "genres that make the most money" was collated by the Romance Writers of America Association. I suspect a measure of potential bias there...

 

[Eva Ulian]

I can well believe romance is at the top because the women readership in that genre is mighty strong. I know quite a few women in my circle of family and friends who read them. I'd love to hear @Carol Rose on this.

I was quite surprised to find Inspirational/Religious books placed at the third notch- I thought they would be way down the bottom of the line.

 

[Carol Rose]

I never comment on things like this because (a) it’s one survey in a million and (b) I read what I want regardless of surveys. And you all should too.

As for romance outselling other genres, in the US it does, but I honestly have no clue what the sales figures are for other countries.

The RWA exists to promote and support the genre and it authors. Why was it formed? To promote and support the genre and its authors. Why is that necessary? I’ll let folks figure that one out on their own.

 

[E G Logan]

"The Book People" is a bookseller, so working exclusively in trad published works, and presumably their survey respondents are customers, buyers of trad published books...QUOTE

The Book People (BP) is a company in the UK -- maybe elsewhere. I don't know -- with a very particular business model:
they bring boxloads of mainly hardback bestsellers to commercial premises, like big accounting firms or banks, etc, with a lot of employees. They lay these out attractively on folding tables before lunchtime, then sell discounted books to professional people for 2-3 hours, till about 3pm. The BP employees then pack up the books and tables neatly again and take them away.

It works. I've seen respectable London business people almost coming to blows over reduced books and children's sets (books and colouring pencils-type of thing, sometimes with attached cuddly toys) just before Christmas. I've bought cookery books, history books, biographies, atlases (all illustrated coffee-table-sized hardbacks) + all sorts of excellent children's books.

But, as you can see, for any survey the demographics are seriously skewed.

BP may also have an online presence, or perhaps a few shops -- I don't know about that -- but their main thrust is what I've described above.