Who Buys Books?

I was doing some research the other day about books — specifically, who buys them?  According to a survey released at Book Expo last May, the whole book business would be kaput if it weren’t for middle-aged and older women.  I thought that was true, but this survey confirms it.  There’s a lot of detail in the survey, including a whole section on ebooks, but one statistic I found most interesting is that the majority of avid readers are over 45, and the largest group is over 55.  And of these avid readers, 63% are female.  Lucky for me, this is my target audience.  Hopefully, smart booksellers and publishers will take note.

You can see a slide show of the survey Verso Advertising.