New Survey of Book-Buying Trends

How will changing technology affect readers, writers, and the book industry of the future? We can all speculate, but here's some hard data from a recent survey of book-buying behavior. Among other things, the survey addresses the growth of the ebook market. A few highlights:

• People reading 5 or more hours per week are considered "avid readers," and there are an estimated 62.4 million of these avid readers in the United States.
• 52% of respondents said they were “not at all likely” to purchase an e-reader.
• When book buyers were asked their preferred location to buy a book 23% preferred indie stores, 22% preferred chains, and 21% preferred online retailers.
• 42% of respondents said they were at least somewhat likely to buy a bundled package that includes a print book and a digital version. 35% responded “Not sure” to this question.

What do you think will happen with print books and ebooks?

Image: Book People Bookstore, Austin, TX

The magazine r(e)imagined

Will e-magazines be like this? I sure hope so!

Or maybe Blio software and the Mac Tablet will save book design...?

From the Blio website:

Books, the way they were intended.

Unlike other eReaders, Blio preserves your book’s printed format, including layout, fonts, and images true to the book’s original form, and in color. Now, fully enjoy the subtlety of design originally intended by the publisher.

Blio offers a large selection of books that otherwise don’t translate well into eContent: especially cookbooks, travel guides, how-to books, schoolbooks, and children’s stories.

More on the Blio in this NPR article and on their website.

However, most eReaders are still rather ugly. But according to this Wired article that quotes cover designer Henry Sene Yee, the situation is most likely temporary,

The devices’ limitations are mostly because they are in their early stages. For instance, color e-book readers are not likely to be widely available until at least mid-2010. And the current black-and-white displays offer readers no choice beyond increasing or decreasing font size.

As e-book readers get more popular they will get more sophisticated, bringing in a new crop of designers that understand a changing world of digital publishers.

“People want more than just plain text and the technology will have to change and keep up with this need,” says Sene Yee. “It won’t stay ugly forever.”