Thursday, January 13, 2011

Solving the Secrets of Mystery Buyers

Even as brick-and-mortar stores continue to be the largest sales channel for mystery books the percentage of mysteries sold as e-books rose from 1.7% in 2009 to 7% in the second quarter of 2010. Those were some of the findings of a research study on the mystery/crime fiction book-buying market sponsored by Sister In Crime and conducted by Bowker’s PubTrack service. According to the study, 39% of mysteries were bought in stores in 2009, while library borrowing accounted for 17% of the way readers obtained books. Online retailers represented 17% of unit purchases. And as e-book sales increases between the first quarter of 2010 to the second, the percentage of hardcovers fell.
 
Women bought the most mysteries in 2009, accounting for 68% of purchases and 66% of mystery buyers were over 45 years old. Buyers 18 to 44 bought 31% of mysteries. Mysteries are bought the most by readers in the suburbs, 48%, with readers in rural areas accounting for 27% of purchases and urban buyers 25%.
 
Knowing or liking an author was the top reason cited by readers for buying a particular mystery, a finding Sisters In Crime says makes author branding even more important.
 
*From an article on PW Daily 

1 comment:

Teresa said...

I thought that was a very interesting article. I think that its pretty well known that women tend to purchase more books than men in general. I'm curious as to age range. I'm curious as to why younger women aren't as interested in mysteries and where their interests are.