Us Book Consumer Demographics and Buying Behaviors Annual Review

by Marking Niemann-Ross

I've learned that my esthetics skew heavily to the bizarre.Helpful when writing speculative fiction; not so helpful when marketing that work. Repeated experimentation has convinced me to wait for other opinions on what the ownership public will find bonny. Surveys have become my friend, and have provided me with an respond to a very of import question: who reads science fiction?

On November 21st, 2013, I posted a question through Google consumer surveys. My original intent was to select the all-time cover for my reprint of Humanity by Proxy. (You can see the result on Kindle and Kobo.) A happy accident also provided statistics on who reads scientific discipline fiction.

For the sake of brevity, I'll gloss over methodology and reliability. I'yard happy to provide in-depth data sets and fence survey weaknesses, just permit'southward do that in the forums. For the curious, I had 581 responses from the general population of the U.s.a. with a +/- of 4 percent. It was a blind survey, presented at various news, arts, entertainment and reference websites. The question was simple: "Do you read Science Fiction?"

Twenty-one percent of the US population answered "Yes." Absolutely, information technology's a wide question and "yes" could mean "Yes. I read the opening titles of Star Wars." Conversely, "no" could mean "No. I read fantasy." Information technology's also a single data point and provides no historical context. But even with all that, it's notwithstanding a hopeful number. It ways yous can walk into a vacation party, introduce yourself as a science fiction writer and one out of five people volition still find you lot interesting.

Google provides further demographics on the responses, albeit with decreasing reliability. For example, Google tells us that amongst the respondents who read science fiction, fifty-seven percent are male. Co-ordinate to the 2011 U.S. census, the population of net users is forty-eight percent male, then even later accounting for internet use biases, science fiction readers are always-and then-slightly male. But earlier we go hog-wild creating male person titles, be aware the 2013 U.Southward. Book Consumer Demographics and Buying Behaviors Annual Review tells usa women buy more books and spend more per book. In the end, assume your reader is merely as likely to exist male as female.

Let's plow to the age of our scientific discipline fiction readers. My surveyindicates a common interest at all ages, except from ages forty-5 to sixty-v. Those ages drop their interest in science fiction past almost x percentage. After sixty-five, interest levels ascension dorsum to match the full general population. The Bowker Review mirrors this age-related behavior; they claim sixty percent of eBook buyers are younger than forty-five. So much for the stereotypical old guy reading sci fi!

There's another unusual tendency about science fiction readers. The Bowker Review says about lx-five percent of volume buyers make more than $50,000. My survey indicates science fiction readers are wealthier: seventy-two percent make more $fifty,000. A bulk of Sci Fi readers make more than than $80,000.

My firsthand temptation is to have these numbers and extrapolate. To an extent, that could work. Statistics are wonderful things. They often testify your assumptions wrong, point y'all in unexpected directions and explicate non-intuitive conclusions. The trick is knowing when to ignore them and get with your gut feelings. Write to satisfy your own voice–don't let a agglomeration of numbers tell you what planet your characters should explore.

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Marking Niemann-Ross is a Portland-based writer of hard science-fiction with an emphasis on the impact of technology on society. He is a 2-time winner of Analog Magazine Reader's Choice Award, has appeared in Stupefying Stories, narrated audio books, and is working on his first novel, a murder mystery solved by a fridge. Marking is a co-author with Richard A. Lovett; together they have published Phantom Sense and Other Stories under the Strange Wolf Printing banner. He is also the author of a children's volume, Patches Catches the Sargo County Cattle Rustler. During the twenty-four hours he manages developer content forlynda.com.

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Source: https://www.sfwa.org/2014/01/02/reads-science-fiction/