I love books and I love reading. I don’t have an e-reader just yet, but it is at the top of my technology to-buy list.
Personally, I figured by now ebooks would be the most popular form of book, but it turns out that paperback books command 45 percent of the market, vs. 22 percent for ebooks. In fact, ebooks even lag behind hard cover books, which pull in 27 percent of the market!
42 percent of books are bought online, however, compared with only 15 percent at book store chains. Adult fiction books are the most highly sold books and also account for the most revenue. 42 percent of all books sold are adult fiction books, and they account for 29 percent of all revenue.
Academic books, on the other hand, account for only 12 percent of books sold, but 20 percent of all revenue! Scientific books, meanwhile, account for only 3 percent of all books sold, but 9 percent of revenues.
The most popular genre is young adult, accounting for 9 percent of all books sold. General fiction brings in 5 percent, while romance brings in 6 percent. Espionage brings in 7 percent.
And 60 percent of book purchases are made by women, vs. only 40 percent by men! Talk about gender disparity. That might be a calling sign for us guys to get out and read more!
Check out the rest of this infographic by Random House! It is filled with charts and flowcharts that are stuffed with interesting data on American reading habits.
