New Market Research From Bowker: Who’s Really Reading 50 Shades?

From a Bowker Announcement:

As it turns out, the notion that readers of the 50 Shades Trilogy are moms filling wait time while their kids finish sports or music practice isn’t entirely accurate. A new analysis by Bowker Market Research of buyers of the novels shows that less than 30 percent of purchases are to women with kids at home. A snapshot of buying habits from January-June 2012 showed the appeal of the books has been far more widespread. To wit, 14 percent of purchases were for readers older than 55 and 20 percent of buyers were male.
[Clip]
Compared to the typical adult fiction consumer, buyers of the Fifty Shades books are more likely to be women, live in the Northeast, and have a significantly higher household income. They read fewer paperbacks and more digital books versus last year and are especially likely to use a hand-held device such as a Kindle. Their purchase of a 50 Shades book was more likely to planned — just 11 percent were whims – and oh yeah, nine out of ten times the purchase was for “pleasure/relaxation,” but it’s worth noting that an intriguing one percent were purchased for “work/career” reasons. The analysis of 50 Shades buyers is drawn from Bowker Market Research’s Books & Consumer US monthly tracker survey, which collects data on book purchases from a nationally representative sample of 6, 000 U.S. book buyers per month. The data relate to purchases of books in the Fifty Shades trilogy, by E. L. James in January-June 2012.

Filed under: Data Files, News