The Eight Reasons Why Consumers Buy Books

In an article published on the Digital Book World blog, blogger Andrew Rhomberg reported on some observations made by Jellybooks about the reasons why people buy books and mentioned the eight reasons:

1. To be entertained - now.  Readers want to escape into imaginary worlds to do things that they would never do except between the pages of their latest guilty pleasure. These books are not read over a few days but over a few hours but unfortunately, are not books that are recommended to but a few within their circle.

2.  To be entertained in the future.  These are books that are stockpiled for future enjoyment using Kindle Countdowns, Bookbub and other price promotions. These treasures, bought or downloaded en masse, are often forgotten (hey, I'm guilty of it too!) and are generally not recommended to anyone.

3.  To be informed. Usually works of non-fiction, these books are purchased for a specific purpose or topic, are rarely completed. Think business books, we read enough to get what we need and move on to the next one.  Good for non-fiction, terrible for fiction.

4.  Obligated to Read.  These books are generally textbooks assigned for class work and/or are books purchased to enhance or build upon a skill. I am thinking that this would be the row upon row of Communication Theory books that I purchased during my days in Grad School!

5.  Social Pressure to Read.  Oh, the dreaded "everybody is reading it" but would you have read the book otherwise?  We may finish the book but not really get into it (no judgment, it just is what it is, right?).  We skip through the talking points in order to "keep up" in conversations about "the book".

6.  Reading the book makes us look smart.  Think Pulitzer Prize winners, books that you would never "hide the title" when reading the book in public. In fact, you want to be seen reading this book.  These are generally big physical books that feel good and look good in our hands as we read them riding mass transit or sitting on park benches. They are also books purchased in large numbers - and are sometimes never read.

7.  Purchased as a gift. Generally purchased around summer reading and Christmas seasons, books are always the perfect gift and this particular purchase is usually physical books rather than ebooks.

8.  Impulse purchases.  Deep discounts, author readings, seminars, whatever is going on at that time gets you all excited and the next thing you know, you're leaving the event with a bag full of whatever the speaker was selling.  Hey, again, no judgment, I've done it too!  And like other impulse buyers, most of my purchases, once the glow has faded, have gone unread.

So, there you have it.  Now, it's time for me to go read some of the books that I've stockpiled.

To read the complete article, go on over to Andrew's article at dbw.

Let's read something good!

Room To Grow!

It's a great big world for indie authors! 

According to Fast Company Magazine (May 2011), Amazon sells more ebooks than paper books.  Since arriving on the scene in November 2007, Kindle book sales have surpassed hardcover books sales, six months later, Kindle books then outsold paperback books. 

As mentioned in an Amazon annoucement, for every 100 print and paper books Amazon has sold, it has also sold 105 ebooks.  As stated by Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, Amazon customers are "choosing Kindle books more often than print books. We had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined that it would happen this quickly".

Amazon buyers are buying Kindle books at a rate three times faster than paper books during the same period, representing a huge change in reading habits. 

Make sure you're putting your works out there, put yourself among the number of authors being read electronically!

Who is reading eBooks? Show me the market!

According to GfK MRI, the country’s leading provider of magazine audience ratings, multimedia research data and penetrating insights into consumers’ behavior and motivations, eReader ownership by adults has tripled in less than two years and women prefer eReaders.

GfK MRI describes eReaders as “a portable, wireless reading device that allows you to download and read electronic books, magazines and newspapers. It is not a laptop, cell phone or PDA.”

Approximately 5.9 million US adults own an eReader, according to the latest data from GfK MRI; this is up from 2.1 million owners in the March-October period of 2009 when GfK MRI first began asking consumers about their usage of devices like the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader.  The most recent data shows that now 49% of eReader owners are male and 51% are women.

According to Anne Marie Kelly, SVP of Marketing and Strategic Planning at GfK MRI, “while electronic tablets have created lots of buzz amid increased competition in the market, eReaders continue to be very popular items.”

What are eReader owners reading on their devices?  Books are still the medium of choice among eReader owners.  An overwhelming majority of the eReader owners interviewed by GfK MRI in the last 12 months of ending October 31 2010 (74.9%) had read a book on their device in the last six months, compared to newspapers (17.6%) and magazines (15.3%).  Women are 23% more likely than men to have read a book on their eReader in the last six months.  Drilling down to the brand level, the Amazon Kindle appears to be the reader favorite as women are 63% more likely than men to own an Amazon Kindle and are twice as likely to own a Barnes and Noble Nook.

What does this mean for the indie author?  In the past, traditional publishing had barred the gates into the market for many new authors.   The invent of eReaders levels the playing field and  increases the possibility of getting your independent works noticed by potentially millions of readers to whom a new writer would have had no exposure to before.  Now, any author can get his or her works published and made available. Publishing independently blows the gates wide open for new indie authors wanting to get their works in front of this ever-increasing reader base.

So what do you have to lose?  Keep writing!  Stay Independent!