Establishing Your Audience
Whenever you have a great idea for a book, the first question to be answered is, “Who will read this?” The more specific information you have about your potential readers, the better. For fiction, your research will be mainly for your own use as you craft your tale. You need to know who your reader will be, what elements readers (and therefore agents and editors) look for in a particular story, and where your book will appear on the shelves.
You don't need market statistics for your fiction proposal, but you do have to identify the genre and exact word count of your manuscript in your query and cover letters. New fiction authors are usually compared to published authors in the same genre, so let an agent or editor know that your work is “similar to Toni Morrison” or “in the style of Douglas Adams.” This helps an agent or editor visualize where your book might fit in the market.
For nonfiction, you need to convince an agent or editor that the world needs your book. You want her to look at your proposal and think, “How have we gotten along without this book before now?” To evoke that reaction, you have to do your homework and back up your claims of a wide potential readership with hard numbers whenever possible. You also need to come up with ideas for reaching your targeted readers.
Who Buys Books?
Before you begin looking for those details that are relevant to your project, it's helpful to have a general understanding of the overall reading public. The statistics cited here are from the
In general, people who buy books in the United States tend to be older, wealthier, and more highly educated, according to the BISG study. Women buy more than half of all books sold. About 40 percent of all books are purchased by people fifty-five and older, and more than half are purchased by people fifty and older. More than half of all books are bought by people with household incomes of $50,000 or more, and fully one-third are bought by people with household incomes of more than $75,000. Nearly 40 percent of the people who purchase books have at least some college education.
According to the Authors Guild, a successful fiction book sells 5,000 copies and a successful nonfiction book sells 7,500 copies. You can reasonably expect about 1 percent of your potential readership to actually buy your book. That means, ideally, you should be able to identify a potential readership of at least 500,000 for your fiction and at least 750,000 for your nonfiction.
Obviously, this doesn't mean that all your work should be aimed at a 55-year-old, college-educated woman who has money to burn; remember that half or more of all book buyers don't fit that profile. Besides, people have different interests, concerns, and tastes. That fifty-five-year-old woman might be more interested in a book about protecting her retirement nest egg than in buying a new house, while a thirty-something woman's immediate concern is how to save enough to get out of her apartment and into a house. Likewise, the fifty-five-year-old may have a ravenous appetite for historical romances, while the thirty-something would rather curl up with a good thriller.
What Books Do People Buy?
Books for adults account for seven of every ten book sales, the study reported. Popular adult fiction is the lead category, claiming more than 50 percent of the American book market. About 30 percent of books sold are hard-cover, and about 33 percent are trade paperbacks (softcover books with a larger trim size and, often, more formal look, than mass-market paperbacks). Mass-market paperbacks — the smaller paperbacks you often find on supermarket racks — represent more than 35 percent of all book sales.
Here's how book sales rank by category, with 1 being the most popular:
Popular fiction (mainstream, thriller, fantasy, historical, adventure, mystery, romance, science fiction, etc.)
Nonfiction religious (inspirational, New Age, philosophy, theology, family, history, prayer books, etc.)
Crafts/cooking (collecting, photography, hobbies, home improvement, etc.)
General nonfiction (biography, true crime, true adventure, humor, military, history, etc.)
Psychology/recovery (popular psychology, family/children/relationships, health and exercise, etc.)
Technical/science/education (computers, business and economics, medical, science and math, social sciences, etc.)
Art/literature/poetry (literary fiction, art and architecture, performing arts, etc.)
Reference (study guides, dictionaries, etc.)
Travel/regional (domestic and foreign travel guides, etc.)
Keep in mind that changes in current events and popular culture can alter these rankings. For example, before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the nonfiction religious category ranked third, behind cooking and crafts. After September 11, there was a significant surge in demand for books offering words of wisdom and ways of coping with the shock, grief, and anger felt after the attacks. Conversely, the demand for travel books dropped precipitously after the attacks.
How Do Readers Buy Books?
According to the BISG study, half of all book purchases are impulse buys. That means that 50 percent of people who buy books don't set out to purchase a specific title; instead, they tend to browse the bookstores or book sections of other retailers — or they browse online — and make their decisions based on how the book strikes them at the moment. Other research has shown that the average person spends about eight seconds looking at the front cover of a book and fifteen seconds reading the back cover.
Only a tiny percentage of new books ever get reviewed by the big players like the
Many surveyed readers report that word-of-mouth is one of the top three factors in their decision to buy a book. Word-of-mouth can come from book reviews in newspapers and magazines, or recommendations from friends, relatives, and colleagues.
