Interesting Book Buyer Statistics

Some people are purely nonfiction readers. I will often ask people what they read and they will tell me. Other people are purely fiction readers.  Novels and stories are about all they will turn to during their reading time. I’m one of those people who attempt to follow a middle ground in this area. I read both nonfiction and fiction in a wide genre of categories.

From my years of reading, I know there is one dominant genre in the fiction area of the market: romance. In response to this domination, there are some strong writer’s organizations which have supported and fostered these writers like the Romance Writers of America, the American Christian Fiction Writers (originally called the American Christian Romance Writers until a couple of years ago) and other groups.

Several times a year, Publishers Weekly includes a cover story featuring romance writers. Their latest is called Love for Sale in the May 28th issue. While the article is interesting, make sure you scroll to the bottom of this article and notice the statistics. With 31% of romance readers purchasing their books from mass merchandisers, it certainly explains why the grocery stores and bookstores continue to stock their mass merchandiser display. Whether you read the romance genre or not, it’s information worth knowing in my view.