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Romance Literature Statistics
Romance Literature Statistics: Readership Statistics
Romance Writers of America commissioned PubTrack Consumer to perform the creation, implementation, and analysis of the 2011 Romance Book Consumer survey. The 2011 Romance Book Consumer survey was a web-based survey of romance book buyers conducted August through September 2011. Another round of the survey will be conducted in the spring 2012, with the results to be reported in the summer 2012.
A complete report is available to RWA members (myRWA log-in required).
The Romance Book Buyer
(Statistics from PubTrack Consumer, Q2 2011, New Books Purchased)
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- Women make up 91 percent of romance book buyers, and men make up 9 percent.
- The U.S. romance book buyer is most likely to be aged between 30 and 54 years.
- Romance book buyers are highly represented in the South.
- The weighted mean income of the romance print-only buyer is $58,000, compared to $70,000 for the romance e-book buyer.
- According to RWA's 2011 Romance Book Consumer survey, slightly more than half of survey respondents live with a spouse or significant other.
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Geographic Location of Romance Readers
(Statistics from PubTrack Consumer, Q2 2011, New Books Purchased)
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Location of romance readers in the United States (see graph above)
The percentage of people in each geographic area who purchase romance novels:
- Northeast: 17 percent
- Midwest: 26 percent
- South: 38 percent
- West: 19 percent
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The Age of Romance Readers
- Mean age for print romance book buyers: 49
- Mean age for e-book romance buyers: 42
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Purchase and Acquisition Behaviors
- The top overall decision factor in buying a romance is the story (46 percent), with the author following at 23 percent.
- Thirty-one percent of romance buyers report that "most" of their books are newly released titles by an author.
- Half of romance book buyers surveyed purchase a new romance book at least once a month. The remainder purchase every two or three months (22 percent) or less frequently.
- Impulse purchases account for a significant portion of romance book purchases, with 32 percent of purchases being "pure impulse" -- they had no prior intention of buying a book. However, e-book buyers are less likely to be impulsive with their purchases.
- Romance buyers are buying e-books to a greater extent when compared with other major fiction subgenres: 29 percent of romance titles are now purchased in the digital e-book format (according to Bowker Monthly Tracker, Q2 2011).
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Acquisition Habits of Romance Book Buyers
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Various methods
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Most common method
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| Buy them at a store |
54%
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34%
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| Borrow them from a library |
30%
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20%
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| Buy them online |
26%
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14%
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| Borrow them from friends/relatives |
22%
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9%
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| Buy them to download to my e-reader |
12%
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9%
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| Buy them through a book club |
9%
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6%
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| Receive them as gifts from friends/relatives |
7%
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2%
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| Buy them from a mobile app |
1%
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1%
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Retailers Used to Acquire Romance Novels
The most dominant channels that the romance book buyers surveyed reported as having frequented in the last six months (as of August–September 2011).
- Barnes & Noble: 28 percent
- Amazon.com: 24 percent
- Walmart: 21 percent
- Borders: 18 percent
- Used book store: 13 percent
- Discount store, thrift store, sidewalk sale: 13 percent
- Target: 10 percent
- Warehouse club: 8 percent
- Direct download to Kindle: 8 percent
- Don't buy books; borrow them: 6 percent
- Other: 6 percent
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Purchase Influences
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- Top "offline" factors in influencing purchase decisions:
- Enjoying the author's previous books
- Book is part of a series they're reading
- Description on the back cover or flaps
- Recommendation of a friend or relative
- Top "online" factors in influencing purchase decisions:
- Online bookseller websites (Amazon.com, BN.com, etc.)
- Reading about it/seeing it online
- Seeing it on a best-seller list
- Author website
- Top overall decision factors in buying romance:
- The story
- The author
- It's part of a series
- Back cover copy
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Information Sources
Top Information Sources for Discovering New Romance Titles
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Information Source
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#
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| Friends |
1
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| Amazon.com recommendations |
2
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| Bookstore shelf |
3
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| Best-seller lists |
4
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| Family |
5
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| Other, online sources |
6
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| E-mails from author |
7
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| Book club |
8
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| Free promotional chapters on my e-reader |
9
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| Other offline source |
10
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Discovering New Romance Authors
- Friends and/or family are the top source by which romance book buyers discover new romance authors; other important sources include browsing physical bookstores, store displays, and browsing a book retailer website.
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Book Formats Used to Read Romance Novels
- One-third of romance book buyers (31 percent) surveyed currently read e-books, while 69 percent do not.
- Of those e-book readers, 9 out of 10 are actually using an e-reading device to read romance e-books in particular.
- Of those who are not currently reading or buying e-books, a little over half remain quite unlikely to do so any time soon. However, 41 percent are "somewhat likely" and may read e-books in the near future.
- The top reason (51 percent) for not reading e-books is that they "prefer the experience of a printed book," while 26 percent "don't see a need" and 19 percent say the "cost of getting a device is too high." Only 2 percent claimed "too many restrictions on reusing or swapping the content" as a reason not to read e-books.
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Romance Subgenres (E-book vs. Print)
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Romance e-book buyers tend to purchase a similar range of romance subgenres as the print buyer, with two notable exceptions: e-book buyers are more likely to buy erotic and paranormal titles.
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Mystery ranks the highest in other, closely related fiction subgenres that romance book buyers read.
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Romance E-book Pricing
From the data in the survey, PubTrack was able to use a methodology known as the van Westendorp pricing model to establish a bottom price (floor), a top price (ceiling), and a target price for the typical romance e-book. In the survey, they offered two scenarios: the first was assuming that a $9 mass-market paperback was available as well as the digital format; while the second scenario assumed that the e-book was the only available option. The results were as follows:
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If a $9 paperback is available
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Only e-book is available
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| Too expensive |
$10.90
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$11.73
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| High price, but still reasonable |
$8.33
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$8.57
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| Fairest price |
$5.90
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$6.13
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| Floor price (would question quality) |
$2.55
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$2.66
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Other Activities of the Romance Buyer
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Activities That Do or Do Not Interest the Romance Buyer
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Survey Methodology
The sample for the PubTrack Consumer primary research projects, including the romance project for the Romance Writers of America, is derived from a panel of U.S. book buyers created by PubTrack Consumer. A “book buyer” is defined as anyone who responded to a monthly survey that asked a representative sample of Americans whether or not they bought a book in the previous calendar month. If yes, they are asked to complete the survey and are added to the pool of book buyers that are available for follow-up surveys, such as this one asked of romance buyers. This sample is built by monthly recruiting of over 6,000 book buyers per month.
For the Romance Writers of America (RWA) project, PubTrack drew on this sample to recruit people who purchased a romance book in the first 7 months of 2011. The fielding period began in early August 2011 and was completed approximately one month later.
To ensure the highest quality sample, our sampling partner MarketTools, Inc. (MTi) used their patented “TrueSample” methodology to ensure that the people who responded were who they said they were ands were completing the survey thoughtfully and accurately. As incentive to complete the survey, all respondents were rewarded with “ZoomPoints” which they can redeem for various good and services.
A sample size of at least 1,000 respondents was targeted. As part of the process of rebalancing the sample to more closely match the romance market “landscape,” the sample of 1,371 was eventually gathered for the study.
The data from this study can be viewed as a statistically sound representation of the total market, with error margins of +/- 2.65% at a confidence level of 95%. Error margins of sub-segments of the sample will have somewhat higher error margins.
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