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HarperCollins CEO says heavy book buyers avoid bookstores
April 13, 2011 | 10:16 am
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By Paul Biba
The Bookseller, reporting from the London Book Fair, mentions the keynote by Brian Murray, the CEO of HarperCollins. He said:
… the number of US e-readers—grown from 15m a year ago to 40m today—was having a disproportionately large effect on the market because they had reached “core” readers, those buying over 12 books a year. He said: “Some of the heaviest book buyers no longer visit bookstores.” He said some e-books had a 50% share of total sales during the first few months, a “watershed” for the trade.
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Well,, heavy readers probably already have a bunch of favorite writers and a whole pre-existing set of relationships that can tell them what to read. Bookstores are probably better for the person needing advice outside their realm.
The thing I find scary is that they consider someone who buys 12 books a year to be a “heavy” book buyer. I’ve bought (and read) 4 or 5 times that number sometimes, and 1 book per month just doesn’t seem like that much to me.
ditto, try 12 a day sometimes depending on whether series are involved.
Love perusing book stores and normally purchase online because it’s usually cheaper.
12 is a heavy reader? I read 150-200 a year, depending on the length of the books.
I love browsing in bookstores. But now, I use the Amazon app on my smartphone to add them to my wishlist and get them for my Kindle when the price drops. I’ll still buy reference books in physical form, and gifts, but usually get those from the Amazon Marketplace where it’s far cheaper.
Remember when discussing “book buyers” you have to account for the massive number of readers that only buy the latest bestseller at the supermarket. Those people buy a book every year or two, but there sure are a lot of them. So on average, 12 books a year probably is a “heavy reader”, meaning someone who actually bothers to go buy a book AT A BOOK STORE!
I know I’m pedantic (let the flames begin), but can’t the head of a publishing company use an adjective correctly? A heavy book buyer is a book buyer who weighs 300 pounds.
And they wonder why people are disgusted with publishers.
I thought it was referring to people who only buy those big weighty 500 pagers !
Duuuh-uh.
And in other news, it is noted that super heavy users, those who buy more than 12 books a year, avoided buying any of the A6 cartel priced ebooks…
I read 8-14 books a month–depending on the extra time allotted to my eyes–and despite being mailed free books I purchase a good deal. However, like the heavy readers in the piece, those that I purchase are from estate sales, eBay or library sales. My husband and I frequent bookstore only to browse cover trends and observe consumer behavior (as far as which titles actually make it to the register). The last time I purchased a book at a chain bookstore was over seven years ago, when someone gave me a B&N gift-card.