Good News For Book Lovers

After attending Book Expo America last month in Los Angeles, I continue to sort through the information that I carried home. While people are touting the demise of reading and the printed book, I found this Random House / Zogby Poll encouraging for book lovers. I picked up a news release about it in the press room at BEA. The headline declares, "82% of Readers Prefer Curling Up With a Printed Book To New Reading Technology."

The majority of people head to their bookstore with a specific purpose but they are often tempted into unplanned book purchases. Here's where you can read the full release. Also make sure you check out this link to the final report of the Book Buying Habits of Americans. This survey points to the importance of book covers and titles and how people make decisions about which books they will purchase. Here's a key line in the release: "When they find a book they like, the vast majority (89%) said they make a special effort to look for other books by the same author. Women (92%) are more likely than men (86%) to seek out books by authors they already enjoy."

Also while I'm writing about trends in book buying. Check out this 2008 survey from the Book Industry Study Group. It is loaded with good details about the book buying public.

In addition, the June 16th issue of Publishers Weekly included this article about Kids & Reading. The details from this numbers article came from Scholastic at this link. It's more good news for book lovers.

While some people like to tout the latest electronic tool for reading books, the demise of the printed book is premature. As I've mentioned in the past, the volume of books being produced continues to rise. What are you doing as an author to actively form a relationship with your reader? Every author (or would-be) author needs to continue to explore tools to reach out to their audience and be connected to them in fresh ways.