Publishers Weekly recently reported on a survey conducted by the advertising firm Spier New York regarding publisher and author Web sites. The survey found that:
18% of readers have been to a publisher's Web site, while 23% of readers polled have visited an author's site. The survey, based on a sample of 813 readers, did not ask if readers bought a book from either site.
Well, I sure wish they asked if readers had bought a book. Also, 23% seems like a significant number. But having visited "an" author's site? Not so much.
More:
Not surprisingly, the younger the reader, the more likely that person visited the Web. The survey found that 35% of readers under age 35 had visited an author's Web site and 21% of respondents in that age bracket had been to a publisher's site.
Now, those are the important numbers because of the unstoppable trend they foretell. More readers will expect some form of peer-to-peer access with their favorite authors.
The survey also included this little tidbit just in time for the Christmas season:
The Spier survey also found that 50% of those asked said they had purchased a book as a gift within the past year. Twenty-eight percent bought a book online as a gift online, while 89% said they bought a book at a retailer. "What these numbers show is that consumers continue to feel that books are one gift that has universal appeal," said Tom McCartin, president of Spier New York. According to the survey, 86% of those who purchased a book as a present bought at least two books.
I suspect that 28% number goes way up for the under-35 crowd. In a world where so many people already have "everything," a book still makes a great gift.
What fun! I couldn't stop!
Posted by: beats by dr dre uk | October 25, 2011 at 03:10 AM