Book buying more prevalent in Britain than in the US

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Book buying more prevalent in Britain than in the US - BML/Bowker report

Written by Nicholas Clee

Sunday, 11 October 2009 15:32

A higher percentage of the British than of the US population bought books in 2008, according to a new report, A Special Relationship? A Comparison of Consumer Book Buying Habits and Trends in the United States and Great Britain. The report is a joint venture between BML, which runs the Books & Consumers survey, and Bowker, which runs the US equivalent, PubTrack.

Fifty-seven per cent of British consumers bought one or more books last year, whereas only 50% of Americans did. The report also found that romance and mystery occupied a greater portion of the US fiction market (57%, by comparison with 31% in Britain); that men accounted for only 29% of the US fiction market, but 40% of the British fiction market; and that the internet was the primary channel for book sales in the US, whereas retail bookshop chains were still the primary channel in Britain.

Steve Bohme, Research Director for BML, said: "The comparisons are important, given that many publishers operate in both markets and the data provides an indication of where the UK market could go in the future, assuming it follows in the footsteps of its US counterpart in terms of, for example, the role of the Internet as a source of purchase and influence on book choice."

Kelly Gallagher, Vice President of Publisher Services for Bowker, pointed out: "In addition to the noteworthy differences, there are also interesting similarities, such as the data indicating that both markets are reliant on older buyers, with adults over the age of 42 accounting for two-thirds of all book purchases in both the U.S. and Great Britain."

Further details about the report may be had from Steve Bohme: "steve at bookmarketing dot co dot uk". His feature about the survey will appear in BookBrunch and Publishers Weekly's Frankfurt Fair Dealer on 16 October.

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