More men read e-books, and other fun facts from the BISG study
In a presentation on Wednesday at the O’Reilly Tools of Change conference, Angela Bole and Kelly Gallagher presented the results and a bit of analysis of the Book Industry Study Group’s most recent consumer survey of ebook users. Much of the data was discussed in the lead up to the TOC conference (including in an earlier MobyLives post), but the presentation leaked a few more bullet points into the discussion. There were some social notes: that buyers of ebooks lean male (51 to 49), an interesting fact when compared to buyers of print books lean female (58 to 42). And that ebook users are, on average, in a higher income bracket than print book buyers, a peculiar fact only insofar as users declared price to be one of the most important factors in switching to ebooks. (According to the presentation, ebooks are on average $6.25 cheaper than print books). It also turns out that about half of ebook users go exclusive and stop buying printed books altogether.
But the presenters also warned of some ominous trends. Kelly Gallagher from RR Bowker predicted a “tipping point transformation” of the book market, but he described that trend lines currently indicate a gradual rise of this new marketplace. As a result, Gallagher predicted that publishers would very soon be forced to print fewer books, since a large portion of readers will start buying ebooks. He therefore emphasized that print runs will be affected (and thus become more costly) before serious profits can be made from the mass sales of cheap-to-produce e-books.
Why is it peculiar that users of ebooks are primarily in a higher wage bracket? Individual ebooks may cost less, but the barrier to entry (a dedicated reader, a computer, or a smartphone) is substantial–so substantial, in fact, that an avid reader like myself, who buys probably 50 or 60 books a year, can’t afford two out of those three things (and I wouldn’t read a novel on my iMac if you paid me). Buying a reader or smartphone would probably cost more than my book budget for six months, or even the entire year, depending on the device. (If I had no choice but to purchase all my books brand new, my annual purchasing would probably go down to about one a month.)
The digital divide is still very substantial. Until ebook readers and smartphones become accessible to people other than the upper middle class, you’ll find ebook adoption will stay up in those high wage brackets.