Everyone. Doh!
There are some good studies on U.S. readership. I was surprised to see that similar percentages of women and men read sci fi (28% and 31%), and that 10% of men read romance. More education goes hand in hand with higher likelihood of reading for pleasure, in any genre. The West and Northeast read a lot in general, but the Northeast doesn't read much romance. The South reads the least overall, but reads the most romance.
| Read fiction1 | Read sci fi2 | Read romance3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| All | 47% | 30% | 22% |
| Women | 55% | 28% | 34% |
| Men | 38% | 31% | 10% |
| Education | |||
| Grad school | 74% | 35% | 49% |
| College grads | 63% | 35% | 56% |
| Some college | 53% | 27% | |
| High sch. grads | 38% | 29% | 22% |
| Some high sch. | 23% | 23% | 15% |
| Region | |||
| West | 51% | 27% | |
| Northeast | 50% | 13% | |
| Midwest | 47% | 26% | |
| South | 42% | 29% | |
Less reading, more genre
The number of reading adults is shrinking, particularly in fiction, but romance looks healthy.
Genre crossover
The RWA surveys find that 18% of romance readers like paranormal themes and 14% like futuristic settings. I'm sure many publishers are watching paranormal romance as a gateway drug between genres.
I partly agree with the speculation that romance readers like paranormals for the "alpha hero" vampires, werewolves, etc, that may be harder to find in romance these days. Another explanation is the NSF finding that 41% of Americans believe ESP is "scientific", and 30% believe UFOs have landed :)I'm not a UFO spotter, but sometimes a paranormal romance hits the spot, combining character-driven stories with some extra social or speculative dimension. I also enjoy the edginess and lively plotting. Some of that is the kick-ass heroines, but some is about the writing and the subject matter.
On the other hand, I don't get excited about books too far from "reality" (e.g. full of dragons or crazy-ass technology). I'm with Janet Stemwedel on Ethics and Science: "It makes it easier to get involved in the story if you can imagine yourself in that world -- or if you can see a trajectory by which your world could become that world."
Like Nora Roberts--I don't enjoy her straight-up romances, but her JD Robb futuristic romantic suspense series hooked me. I especially like that her In Death books are in the near future, with only a couple of fundamental societal changes.I've read more sci fi/fantasy/horror in the last few months than since I was a pre-teen. I don't care for all of it. But I did enjoy some of the authors in the Best New Paranormal Romance anthology (mostly NOT romance), and I've liked Kelley Armstrong's werewolf books (quasi-romance) and Kim Harrison's series (not romance), and even Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere (urban fantasy). So far, many of the actual "paranormal romances" aren't hitting the right note for me, but they've got me trying new genres, so I'm happy.
Explosion of fanfic?
The NEA study finds thatContrary to the overall decline in literary reading, the number of people doing creative writing increased by 30 percent, from 11 million in 1982 to more than 14 million in 2002 [especially among 18- to 24-year-olds]. However, the number of people who reported having taken a creative writing class or lesson decreased by 2.2 million during the same time period. (p.18-22)I suspect a lot of this increase is fanfic related to TV watching, but there's also an increase in published authors. Back to last week's post on reading, is enjoyment of writing a good sign for enjoyment of reading? I don't know.
1 Reading at Risk, 2004. National Endowment for the Arts, 2002 Survey on Public Participation in the Arts. ("The 2002 SPPA asked respondents if, during the past 12 months, they had read any novels or short stories, plays, or poetry... including popular genres such as mysteries, as well as contemporary and classic literary fiction. No distinctions were drawn on the quality of literary works.")
2 Science and Engineering Indicators, 2002. National Science Foundation, Survey of Public Attitudes Toward and Understanding of Science. (Includes sci fi books and magazines.)
3 Market Research Study on Romance Readers, 2005. Romance Writers of America. (Publisher's Weekly recently discussed how unusual such detailed info is. Bronwyn Clarke's preliminary survey on romance readership provides additional data. It's a voluntary internet survey, not a random survey, but it's already clear that her data will show similarly high educational levels among romance readers.)
Back to Table
4 Comments:
How do you get those footnotes to work? I've tried and tried, but the code I found somewhere wasn't what I was looking for, so I've had to use * and ** and hope people will bother to scroll up and down the page, but these are really clever.
Oh, and back on topic, I wonder when RWA's going to do another survey, because it would be very interesting to see if the demographics have changed (e.g. fewer or more male readers, ages of readers etc.).
I sort of wonder about RWA's statistics. Not that they're wrong, but are they describing the context fully? Because there are some surprising differences between surveys done just a couple years apart. Men went from 7% of romance readers to 22% in 2 years? That's weird. And 56%/49% of people with college degrees/graduate degrees read romance? That means something like 100% of women with college degrees, or most women and a bunch of men.
You mean the links to the references? Here's what I did:
In the table:
Read fiction <a href="#Ref1">1</a>
In the references:
<span id="Ref1">1 Reading at Risk </span>
BTW, I just saw your post on Puss in Boots. We're in synch :) If I have time today I'll make a post that's partly about the Puss.
I had a quick look at the RWA's readership statistics and I thought what they were saying about educational levels was that 42% of romance readers (not of the general population) have a bachelor's degree or higher, 27% of romance readers have college degrees, 15% of romance readers have post-graduate work or degrees etc. So maybe that makes a bit more sense?
On the other hand, when I added up all the percentages, I got more than 100%, so maybe I'm still confused. Presumably they're allowing people to be in more than one category, rather than just listing them according to their highest qualification.
The sudden increase in male readers is a bit strange, but maybe it's got something to do with how the books are marketed and the rise of romantic suspense?
It would be very interesting to know more, though, and I wish there were comparable figures for the UK, Australia etc.
Thanks very much for the explanation of how to do the footnotes. I've tried it out and it worked!
Looking forward to seeing your post on Puss in Boots.
I thought what they were saying about educational levels was that 42% of romance readers (not of the general population) have a bachelor's degree or higher
That is what RWA said. To make their romance stats comparable with general readership and sci fi stats, I converted to percent of general population. (According to RWA, there were 64.6 million romance readers in 2004. The Census enumerates "educational attainment": how many people had a bachelor's degree, etc.)
I got more than 100%, so maybe I'm still confused. Presumably they're allowing people to be in more than one category
Trust me, it's not your math. Yes, some of their stats are cumulative (the 42% for sure). But they're inconsistent, so it's quite possible I've misconstrued something in converting them. For example, are associate and bachelor's degrees both included in college degrees? Or is the cumulative 42% "bachelor's degree or higher" made up of college degrees+post-graduate (15+27=42)? Here's what RWA says:
Education Level of Romance Readers
• 42% have a bachelor's degree or higher ...
• 27% have college degrees
• 15% have post-graduate work or degrees
• 7% have associate degrees
• 17% have attended a trade school or have some college
• 23% have high school diplomas
It would help if the categories were even in order of "level" of degree. Some of the other stats presented are equally poorly worded. It makes it hard to cite their surveys and be sure what they mean.
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