LATEST NEWS...
Bowker releases results of Global eBook research
March 2012
Australia, India, the U.K. and the U.S. are leading the world in ebook adoption rates, according to Bowker Market Research’s Global eBook Monitor, The study tracks consumer attitudes to and purchasing of ebooks in major world markets. Research for Bowker’s Global ebook Monitor was conducted among the online population in 10 countries – Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S. – in early 2012. India, Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. lead in adoption of ebooks, with more than 20 percent of respondents reporting purchasing e-books in the six months prior to the survey. Respondents in France and Japan were the least likely to have purchased an ebook, at five percent and eight percent respectively. While purchase behavior varies by country, awareness is relatively consistent: more than 80 percent of respondents in each country know it is possible to digitally download a book.
Click here to go to the FREE GeM 10 Country Comparison Report
Click here to order the individual country reports
British University Students Still Crave Print, says new BML study
March 2012
While the majority of the U.K.’s undergraduate students are now using e-books, none are yet relying on them as a primary source of information. Print continues its hold as a key resource for at least two-thirds of students. That’s one of the key findings of a major new study that explores student information sources in the digital world from the book research experts at BML, a Bowker business. The study was conducted in December 2011 and shows significant change since 2003 when BML conducted similar research.
For a full press release, click here
Reading the Future: BML & The Bookseller publish a joint reportDecember 2011
The book market is changing rapidly – and book consumers are changing with it. But how much do we understand about these changes and how they will impact on our businesses? Backed up by data on the consumer book market from BML’s Books & Consumers, this new report provides nuanced information about book buyers, including where they browse for books - and where they buy; who is buying ebooks and where; what we could do to encourage book buying on the high street; who is buying digital material for children, and what is influencing this trend, and what book buyers think about piracy.
For a full press release, click here.
HarperCollins & Ebury win latest BMS awards
26 October 2011
Louise Jones and Toby Clarke of Ebury are the winners in the Adult category for the Best Seasonal campaign awards, for their work on Caitlin Moran's How to be a Woman. Meanwhile in the Children's category, HarperCollins' Tom Stabb collected the seasonal award for Darren Shan's Ocean of Blood Facebook marketing campaign.
The awards were announced as part of an Open meeting themed around 'Local Campaigns, Global Platforms. Speakers included Clare Somerville, General Manager, Mills & Boon India / UK, with an update on the emerging Indian market; Claire Round, Marketing Director, Random House with a perspective on the Australian market and Julia Kingsford, CEO, World Book Night, with the latest information on 2012 plans and the role of global partnerships. BML's Steve Bohme also offered fresh insight on how consumers respond in different global markets to a range of book marketing channels.
Click here for the other highly commended titles.
Next BMS meeting will be held on the 8th February 2012.
Bowker launches international ebook monitor
12 October 2011
New Providence, NJ, October 12, 2011 -- Bowker, the leading provider of market research information and business intelligence on book markets in the U.S., through BML Bowker, in the U.K., will launch a major study that will assess and track device adoption, attitudes, and purchasing habits of ebook consumers in Europe, Asia, Australia, and North and South America. The study, commencing in January 2012 and repeating annually, will enable comparisons between ebook markets in countries experiencing different growth patterns and arm the publishing industry with a comprehensive range of qualitative and quantitative data.
For the full press release click here.
Indie booksellers choose titles for 'Christmas Books' Catalogue 2011
10 October 2011
London, Monday 10 October, 2011 – The Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland today announced a full list of titles selected for the Christmas Books Catalogue 2011, produced jointly with BML.
Christmas Books is the premier independent bookshop Christmas catalogue and the only catalogue that has titles chosen by independent booksellers for independent booksellers and their customers. This year, the catalogue features 183 books from 79 publishers/imprints, 12 of whom are new to the catalogue. Strong categories include children’s, adult fiction, cookery and humour – and a new section for 2011, Heroes.
For full details, click here
New Books & Consumers report series
8 September 2011
Genreprofile reports are available covering 60 different fiction, non-fiction and children’s genres, from adventure/thrillers to true stories. Each provides information on the size of the market (people, books and spend) and segments the market by such things as age, sex, social grade and region of buyers; which sources are most important to that genre, whether these books are being bought for study, gift or general reading and the importance of eg cover design, special offers and reviews/recommendation in prompting their purchase.
More detailed Genre Buyer Trend reports are also available, with data trended over the three years 2008-2010 for all the main genres. In addition to the basic variables, these reports profile buyers of each genre by how many books they buy overall, what sorts of books they buy, where they buy them from, and how all these elements are changing.
Also available are Sourceprofile reports, covering both broad channels (chains, supermarkets, internet etc.) as well as individual retailers. These detail the size of consumer purchases through each source and examine how these are segmented by format, category and price point, as well as profiling their customers.
For more information please contact Monica Azalay-Gaspar (information-at-bookmarketing.co.uk / 0207 832 1777) or Jo Henry (jo-at-bookmarketing.co.uk / 0207 832 1782).
New appointments @ BML
11 July 2011
Jon Slack has been appointed part-time Development Manager for the Book Marketing Society, which champions marketing professionalism and represents a broad spectrum of marketers from across the industry. His role will be to develop the Society as a forum for marketing debate and collaboration within the book industry. Jon is also Director of the DSC South Asian Literature Festival and a former Chair of the Society of Young Publishers. He can be contacted at jon-at-bookmarketing.co.uk or on 0207 832 1783.
Monica Azulay-Gaspar will be working one day a week for BML as Sales Executive. This new role will provide a point of contact for both trade and non-trade clients who wish to discover more about the British book market using information from BML’s extensive databases, and in particular Books & Consumers, BML’s continuous survey of book buyers. She is contactable on Monica-at-bookmarketing.co.uk or on 0207 832 1777. Monica also continues in her position as Sales Executive for Bowker (UK) Ltd. three days a week.
e-book market takes giant stride at Christmas25 Feb 2011
At the recent Publishers Association digital conference, Here and Now, held on the 9th February, BML presented the results of a new survey commissioned by the PA to look at Christmas gifting of e-readers and other e-reading devices - and the amount of downloading since then. The results revealed that 7% of British adults received a dedicated e-reader for Christmas, and had on average paid to download 5.9 e-books each - though men were more likely to have done so than women (12% of men, compared to only 6% of women).
Download a copy of the full press release here
Has the eBook tipping point arrived?
BML, on behalf of The Publishers Association, is undertaking research to provide a snapshot of the current e-reading market in the UK and in particular to demonstrate the impact of Christmas on device ownership.
The results will be revealed at the PA’s seminar, ‘Here and Now: the Digital and eBook Market 2011’, and will profile various consumer groups, assess the main uses for e-reading devices and offer projections for the e-reading market over the next 12 months.
‘Here and Now’ will take place on Wednesday 9th February from 9.00am to 12.30pm. The main themes are “what is happening in the US e-book market” and “what are the predictions for UK and international markets”. Speakers include Michael Tamblyn, from Kobo in the US, Peter Balis, John Wiley & Sons, and Theresa Horner, Barnes & Noble. Richard Mollet, CEO of the Publishers Association will give the keynote, followed by an overview of the UK and US markets from BML Bowker research.
Two expert panels led by Sara Lloyd, Digital Director, Pan Macmillan and Fionnuala Duggan, Digital Director of Random House profiling the US ebook market and looking ahead at the international and UK ebook markets complete the line up.
To register (with special discounts for PA members), go to www.publishers.org.uk/events
Consumers confused over eBook prices
The latest results of the large-scale research study BML is now conducting on behalf of a consortium of industry organisations (Understanding the Digital Consumer) reveals that consumers are baffled by the pricing policies on ebooks. Respondents at a series of six focus groups carried out in November 2010 were eager to engage with eReaders and digital content – but concerned about how much they would have to pay for digital books: ‘If it’s the same price it would put me off...I know it’s portable and so on, but I'm getting nothing and with a book I'm getting something physical’
For further details of the study and how to subscribe
contact Jo Henry at BML .
South Asians - An Untapped Book Market?
New research conducted by BML strongly suggests that many South Asian readers feel that the UK book trade under represents books with a South Asian theme, and are therefore missing out on a potential market. The survey, conducted on behalf of the DSC South Asian Literary Festival and sponsored by The Bookseller, revealed that South Asians respondents living in the UK experienced significant barriers in accessing books with a South Asian influence. The survey was conducted both among consumers and the book trade.
> Insufficient books
Whilst three out of the four books on the 2010 Costa First Novel award shortlist have a South Asian theme, this first full-scale survey into the reading and buying habits of the South Asian community in the UK revealed that nearly half of all South Asian respondents (46%) would like more literary fiction with a South Asian influence to be available to them.
The survey defined ‘South Asia’ as the same countries represented in the DSC South Asian Literature Festival - India, Nepal, Bangladesh Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Tellingly, a third of publisher respondents [33%] and over half of agent respondents [54%] said that only 1-2% of authors they represented were South Asian.
> Gift-buying during religious festivals - a missed opportunity?
During the major UK and South Asian religious festivals, respondents who celebrated these occasions tended to think books made good gifts, yet during the last Diwali celebrations there were virtually no book-related promotions.
> South Asian-related Children’s books – 89% want more
South Asians are particularly keen that the supply of children’s books with a South Asian influence is improved, with 89% saying that more should be available.
> Non-fiction a dominant category for South Asians
When it comes to genres, British Whites and British Asians - the two main respondents groups in the survey - share a love of literary fiction [63%]. However, white respondents were far more likely to read fiction genres such as crime [75%] and historical fiction [56%], compared to South Asian respondents, with just 33% and 39% of the latter reading books in these categories respectively. In a striking ethnic divide, British Asian readers appear to enjoy a much wider range of non-fiction genres, with over half of respondents reading religious and spiritual books [52%], compared to only 12% of whites. Political books were also more popular among the South Asian respondents, read by 29% compared to 12% of whites.
> South Asian writing “not easy to find in bookshops”
The ongoing trend towards internet shopping was massively reinforced in this survey, with 83% of the 1881 respondents in the consumer survey using online sources to buy new books. Fewer South Asian respondents bought books from supermarkets and through Waterstones: 71% of white respondents said they bought new books in Waterstones compared to 51% of South Asians respondents , with only 22% of the latter buying books in supermarkets, compared to 50% of whites. However, independent bookshops do seem to be serving this community well, with 18% of South Asian respondents saying they mainly used an independent bookshop to buy their new books, compared to only 5% of white respondents.
South Asian respondents clearly felt that the book trade under-represents books with South Asian themes and influences. Among consumer respondents, a staggering 89% of South Asians, compared to just 13% of white respondents, experienced some sort of barrier when trying to obtain books with a South Asian influence, saying that they are ‘not easy to find in bookshops’ [42% compared to 8%] or ‘bookshops don’t stock them’ [41% compared to 6%].
>The book trade could do more to address this audience
Among trade respondents, only a quarter felt that publishers were good at addressing this audience, whilst less than 1 in five felt that booksellers or librarians were. Agents felt that there was not enough promotion of such books by publishers, publishers tended to feel that bookshops don’t stock the right books, whilst booksellers felt that authors of such books have too low a profile.
As a supplement to the large scale research project Understanding the Digital Consumer, in October BML asked their BookZone book-lovers panel questions about their current device ownership – and what their device aspirations are too, revealing that ownership of Kindles and iPads would increase the most, if respondents’ expectations are fulfilled. The full results of this study will be released to members of the Book Marketing Society at the next meeting.
Of the 1,300 respondents to the BookZone survey, 11% currently had an iPhone, 5% had a Sony e-Reader, 4% had a Kindle and 3% had an iPad. In the next 12 months, ownership of iPhones, the Kindle and the iPad look set to increase by between 7-10%, if expectations became reality.
Whilst older booklovers seem likely to embrace both the iPhone and the iPad, with 9-10% of those aged 35-54 saying they are likely to get one or other of these devices in the next 12 months, the Kindle looks like it will appeal across the board, leaving penetration similar for all age bands.
Understanding the British Digital Consumer: stage one of major new research project reports
PRESS RELEASE****IMMEDIATE RELEASE****PRESS RELEASE 04/10/10
BML’s major new digital research project, supported by major funding partners Hachette, HarperCollins, Pan Macmillan, Random House, Waterstones and Wiley, has now completed its first stage. Understanding the Digital Consumer has been developed to establish the current UK market situation, to monitor changes over time and to investigate attitudes and opinions, including barriers or promoters to participation in the digital market.
The research will be conducted in a number of stages, both quantitative and qualitative. The initial, quantitative, stage was conducted between 18th August and 1st September using a Harris Interactive Omnibus online survey, with a sample of 4085 adults aged 16-64 weighted to be representative of the GB population. The next stage will consist of focus groups, with a further omnibus post Christmas to measure trends.
Key findings from the initial stage reveal that:
- 19% of adults claim to have downloaded ebooks or book extracts/chapters in the past:
- 18% say they have downloaded free book content
- 7% say they have downloaded paid-for book content
- Men, younger, higher social grades, students and those with the highest qualifications are the most likely to download books
- Heavy book-buyers download most often – on average, downloading a paid-for ebook around 6 times in the last six months
- Laptops/desktops are still the pre-eminent means of reading book downloads, but iPhones/ iPads are becoming more signifcant
- 71% of the GB population have not yet downloaded books, and say that they are unlikely to in the next 6 months
However, the number of people paying to download could almost double over next 6 months if consumer predications become reality
The findings from Understanding the Digital Consumer will be used to inform the programme of the PA’s Conference Creating the Future: the Digital and EBook market in 2011 to be held on Wednesday, 9 February 2011 at Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, London WC1H 9BD. Key findings will also be reported at BML’s Books & Consumer Conference in March, details to be confirmed.
For details on how to subscribe to this survey and have full access to the complete findings, please contact Jo Henry at BML, on jo@bookmarketing.co.uk.
Book lovers and their views on literary festivals
BML recently conducted a survey of their BookZone panelists establishing their views on literary festivals. The results, which were announced at the most recent meeting of the Book Marketing Society, show that 24% of the book lovers surveyed have attended a literary festival, with the Hay and Edinburgh festivals most likely to have been visited.
Events with authors speaking about their books were most attractive to festival goers, with 75% of those who attended festivals listing this as a reason to visit; 42% of attendees were also attracted by the prospect of meeting authors. However older visitors were less inclined to visit a literary festival for an author signing event, with just 23% of attendees over 45 listing this as a reason for visiting, in comparison to 35% of respondents under 45. Younger book lovers are most likely to be found at the Edinburgh festival; 15% of respondents under 35 had attended this festival in comparison to 8% who had visited Hay, although it emerged that visitors at the Hay literary festival were more inclined to buy books during their visit than those who attend the Edinburgh festival.
Members of the BMS have access to more detailed findings from this BookZone panel research – for details contact Steve Bohme on steve@bookmarketing.co.uk
Understanding the Digital Consumer – new BML research in the field
With Amazon’s recent announcement that they are selling 180 e-books to every 100 hardbacks, the need for information on existing and potential digital consumers in the UK becomes even more essential. BML’s new research study – Understanding the Digital Consumer – aims to establish the current market situation, to investigate consumer attitudes and opinions, including what could encourage – or discourage – participation in the digital market, and to monitor changes over time.
The scope and format of the survey has been developed in conjunction with the initial funding partners Hachette, HarperCollins, Pan Macmillan, Random House, Waterstones and Wiley. The first phase of this multi-staged project is a large scale quantitative exercise now being undertaken among a sample of 4,000 adults, representative of the GB population. The results of this, due in early September, will provide participating companies with data that will scope the market, define, profile and size different consumer segments, and explore barriers and promoters to entry. In addition, information will be gained to quantify behaviour and attitudes on such things as timing, DRM and pricing and examine sources of purchase and hardware used.
The second stage of the project will consist of a series of focus groups to look in depth at both early adopters and especially those not yet in the market, but receptive to the idea of reading and using digital book content. The composition of the groups, and the topics to be explored, will be developed using the findings from the first stage and input from participating companies.
Two further quantitative stages pre- and post-Christmas will monitor market developments and changes to the core groups established at stage one. It is hoped that further funding will be available to enable this study to be repeated at regular intervals, monitoring changes to the market through 2011 and beyond. Additional data on actual e-book purchasing from BML’s Books & Consumers survey will also be available to subscribers to that survey.
For further details on survey coverage and how to participate, please contact Jo Henry on jo@bookmarketing.co.uk
Book lovers’ use of social networking
At a recent meeting of the Book Marketing Society, data from a survey conducted by BML using their Bookzone panel of book lovers were revealed, showing their affiliation with various social-networking sites.
Facebook was the most widely used of the sites tested, with Twitter and Friends Reunited in second and third places. Respondents who were users of Facebook were more likely to be younger, and female; those who used Friends Reunited were more evenly split male/female, but were much older than Facebook users. 20% of respondents used a social networking site to find out about books and share information on books – the seventh most important reason for using such sites. But it was those using Twitter and MySpace rather than Facebook who were most likely to use social networking sites for book-related reasons.
Members of the BMS have access to more detailed findings from this BookZone panel research – for details contact Steve Bohme on steve@bookmarketing.co.uk
The consumer book market: an overview of the independent sector 2009
At the recent Book Industry Conference an overview of the independent sector was presented, based on data from BML’s continual survey of British book buying behaviour, Books & Consumers, to a gathering of independent booksellers and publishers held on the Sunday afternoon.
The GB consumer market had struggled in 2009, dropping 5% in value over 2008 to £2.2bn; however, the drop in volume had not been so great, with the number of books purchased by consumers in 2009 down by only 1% to 330m units.
The trend over a longer period has been similar, with the market dropping 11% in value, and 4% in volume, since 2007.
Isolating the performance of independent retailers however shows a contrasting performance to the market as a whole. In 2009, this sector experienced a 4% drop in volume terms over 2008, but a 1% increase in value terms over the previous 12 months.
Analysis of Books & Consumers data reveals that one-third of the market in volume terms is accounted for by purchases of books from smaller publishers (in both 2008 and 2009), although they accounted for 37% in value terms in 2009 (up from 35% in 2008).
The match between the two independent sectors is clear: over half – 57% – of volume purchases in independent retailers are of books from smaller publishers, an increase of 1 percentage point on 2008.
In the market as a whole, two out of the three main categories (adult fiction and adult non-fiction) suffered a decline in volume and value in 2009 over the previous year, with only the children’s sector growing. In contrast, the independent bookshop sector has seen volume and value growth in both the adult categories, but a decline in children’s book sales; a pattern reflected in the sales of small publisher titles too.
Whilst adult non-fiction accounts for just over half of the value of all purchases by British consumers, this category accounted for over 70% of the value of purchases from both independent retailers and smaller publishers in 2009.
Adult non-fiction is the most important category for independent booksellers; in 2009, they accounted for 13% of all purchases in the adult non-fiction category by volume, up 1 percentage point from 2008 (compared to an overall market share of 9%). Independent retailers have, however, seen a significant drop in their share of sales of children’s non-fiction, down from 10% by volume in 2008 to 5% in 2009. Whilst small publishers are also very important to the adult non-fiction category, with their titles accounting for 47% of all purchases in this category, compared to an overall market share of 33%, they are also extremely important to the children’s non-fiction market, accounting for over half – 53% - of all purchases in this category.
So, whilst independent booksellers are doing a good job selling the adult non-fiction that small publishers are so expert at producing, they are not such a productive channel for the children’s non-fiction coming from smaller publishers, and one reason for this is the changing demographics of those choosing to use independent booksellers.
Males aged 55-79 were the most important customers for independent retailers in 2006, accounting for 13% of all purchases through this channel. By 2009, middle aged and older men (35-79) were even more likely to be the audience for books bought through independent retailers, with the share of books bought by females aged 12-54 taken by indie booksellers dropping significantly, from 7% to around 4%.
Whilst the customer profile for smaller publishers’ books is much less polarised, men still account for proportionately larger shares – and there was also a noticeable drop among female purchasers of their books between 2006 and 2009, although not as dramatic as the fall experienced by independent booksellers.
All data Books & Consumers ©BML/TNS 2010
Spotlight on the e-book consumer in the UK and US
Initial figures from BML’s Books & Consumers panel suggest that early adopters of paid for book downloads in Britain are typically younger males, who are relatively light buyers of printed books.
The findings from a survey of over 500 members of the Books & Consumers panel were revealed at a seminar at the London Book Fair on April 12th, in which BML compared its data on UK consumers with equivalent US figures from its parent company, Bowker Publishing Services.
In the US, where e-books account for a higher share of consumer book purchases than in the UK (although still less than 3% of the market), the profile of e-book buyers in 2009 was closer to that of printed book buyers, with a more even split between males and females than in Britain, and a wider spread of age groups (see Table).
The seminar also looked at the potential impact of growth in the e-book market on book categories and channels, with data from a BML survey using its BookZone panel showing that the vast majority of UK book lovers expected to download books via the internet rather than going to a shop to buy them. In the US, Bowker, had found that this shift had also affected sources of printed books, with 44% of e-book buyers’ physical book purchases bought online, compared to 20% of book purchases overall.
For further information on BML’s Books & Consumers and BookZone research tools, contact Steve Bohme (steve@bookmarketing.co.uk, tel: 020 7832 17874). For information on US book/e-book consumers, contact Kelly Gallagher at Bowker Publishing Services (kelly.gallagher@bowker.com<F