Hi again, everyone! It’s time for my Smart Bitches Business Update, a monthly feature wherein I throw myself into the nerdy depths of the Smart Bitches behind the scenes mayhem and bring you all with me.
Last month I posted Part II of our SBTB Reader Survey, so this month, I have the results!
But first! Amanda mentioned our new Amazon store in a recent post, and I wanted to make sure to mention it again. You can find it by clicking “SHOP” in the menu bar at the top. We’ve collected recommended and recently reviewed books along with bestsellers in one easy shopping location on the site.
There’s a menu beneath the book covers, and you can shop by genre category or by recent bestsellers.
If you shop through our links, the site receives a 7-8% commission at no extra cost to you, and we appreciate it very much!
SBTB Reader Survey Part II: Results!
Now, let’s talk data! This survey was all about how you acquire your excellent reading material, and I tried to craft questions regarding Where You Get All Your Fine Fine Books that would allow for all the variables in book acquisition locations and options. I wasn’t entirely successful.
For example, a few of you contacted me to say that while you do use a library, it’s not your “local” library as the question stated – y’all have access to libraries all over the place, so “local” was a bit confusing. Oops. Sorry about that!
Let’s take a look at the responses, shall we? Nearly 800 of you answered the survey questions (thank you!) so obviously this is not representative of everyone who visits the site.
The first question asked how often you shopped for books, and “shopped” had as broad a definition as I could reach. Basically, how often do you browse, search, or actively seek material to read?
To my absolute no-shock-at-all, most of you seek new books to read every day, or a few times a week. This is not a surprise to me. I think I fell into the “few times a day” response, but that’s partly occupational hazard (the good kind).
Next, if you are purchasing books, where do you buy them?
Multiple responses were permitted for this question, and I think the breakdown is really interesting! Amazon is on top, but behind them is the used book store. To me, this seems to indicate that convenience and access (e.g. I can find the titles I want and get them quickly/easily) along with price are important factors in where and how you shop for books. Very close to used book stores? Independent bookstores and library book sales, which were nearly tied – very cool!
I also asked what shopping options I forgot, and y’all shared some really interesting shopping locations! Among those mentioned: Book Depository and Audible, Target, eBay, and thrift stores and garage sales. That’s brilliant.
A few of you mentioned places I hadn’t heard of, like ThriftBooks.com, and stores that recently or long ago closed down.
Also: I’m envious of this person:
The town dump has a “swap shop”, basically a trailer full of free stuff, half of which is books. I offer to bring the recycling just so I can raid it. Also some grocery stores have free book bins, and I always browse book departments in other stores.
That’s really cool.
Just over 75% of the respondents use their library:
Again, not surprising. And when you do use your library…
More than half check out between 1 and 5 books at a time, while nearly 10% check out between 10-15 books per trip, with another 10% leaving the library with between 15 and 25+ books in a trip. I bet you’re the people who remember to bring the reusable tote bag into the library and the grocery store. (I really want to be like y’all, you have no idea. They charge for plastic bags here! And yet I still forget!)
Of those who answered, which wasn’t everyone, Kindle Unlimited and Hooplah were the more popular, with Comixology coming in third.
Now for the nosy money questions – which I struggled to ask because it seemed a little intrusive, so thank you for answering.
When it comes to shopping, 80% of you spend up to $50 per month on books. Nearly 10% spend up to $75 per month.
The next question asked about what you’re reading in terms of release date:
Basically, you all read All Of the Things All Of the Time. Yup. Story checks out.
When it came to format, print, digital, audio, or other, multiple options were permitted because, well, y’all read all of the things all of the time, and I presume you read them in all of the ways, too, right? I also had an option for sharing specific other formats in case I forgot some.
Digital was more popular than print, but the two outpaced audio by a large margin.
As for audiobooks, I asked if you consumed audiobooks more, less, or about the same as print/digital – or if you didn’t use audiobooks at all. I added the last option by request, as it should have been an option.
Most of the responses indicated that print and digital are more prevalent in your reading than audio consumption.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the survey! It’s fascinating to look at how similar we are to one another in our reading and shopping habits, and how much or how little we overlap.
Is there anything else you’d be interested in learning about the SBTB community? I’m hesitant to pry too much farther into y’alls business, but as I’ve said, creating surveys is not my greatest strength. Did anything in the results here surprise you – or very closely match your shopping tendencies?
As always, thank you for being here, and being part of the Smart Bitches community!
I would be curious to know the (sub)genres and titles people are reading, and if there are authors people discovered through the site. Since so many people (like me) are using the library and buying used books, info on “bestsellers” doesn’t fully capture what books folks are really excited about. This is mostly self serving for me as I’ve discovered sooo many of my favorite authors and books in the comments and am always looking for more books with minimal suckage.
I’ve always wondered if one genre readers of romance (only historical etc) or anything goes was more common.
Preferences for different genres, authors? What makes people pick up a book?
I wouldn’t worry about prying, as it is our choice to respond to surveys. Also, if it makes you feel better, always include a “prefer not to answer” option, even though it makes no sense. Also add an extra additional option: Kittens! (Versus Puppies!)
Fascinating info. Thanks for sharing the results.
I was a little uncertain about how to answer the audiobook question. I listen to audiobooks every day, usually for several hours, but, since it takes me longer to get through audiobooks, I said I consumed fewer of them than digital books. TBH, I’m not sure what the breakout would be if I measured the actual hours on each medium. Digital might still come out ahead, but it’s probably closer using that yardstick.
re: Reusable shopping bags
Provided you possess a vehicle in which you embark upon your shopping quests, it helps to get in the habit of keeping the bags in the car. Bring your loot home, unpack the bags, and immediately put them back in the car. That way, even if you’re in the midst of searching for the one head of cauliflower that isn’t covered in mildew when you realize you didn’t bring your bags into the store, you really have to confront how much laziness is involved in not going out to the parking lot to get them.
After one or two shameful “maybe if I didn’t park BFE to avoid getting dinged by idiots” admissions, you’ll be pulling those bags into your lap as soon as you get behind the wheel to make sure you don’t go anywhere without them.
So I’ve heard. I’m not a far-parking sloth speaking from experience or anything…
Ooohhh. I love data! Thank you for sharing.
I had the same uncertainty as @Susan (waves) regarding audiobooks. I listen to them every day but I read faster than they play so it takes longer and I consume fewer.
I was a bit surprised to see they aren’t used more but they are such a sketchy proposition I understand, I think. Not only do you want to select a story that’s interesting but you also have to gamble on the narrator. For example, I recently learned that I do NOT like the cast performance of an audio book. (Good thing that was from the library!) I have a friend who is an avid romance reader who refuses to use audio because finding a narrator she likes was such an issue she gave up.
Couple things: I’m fortunate enough to have Powell’s as my hometown bookstore, so I think I marked “Indie” although they obs sell massive amounts of used books.
And unless I’m reading this wrong bcz my caffeine has not yet kicked in, visits to the library per month are one thing, and number of books taken out per visit are another. Yes? So although I may check out ten books per month, it might actually be five books per visit since I’m there about twice a month..
I’ll add my voice to asking questions about what genres and subgenres we all read.
In addition, is there a way to pin/link the posts about cool things to buy in the shop page? For example, I loved the “I read past my bedtime” pillow from Etsy offered as a giveaway so much I just went ahead and bought it. I’ve tried to remember some of the other gift/purchase ideas you’ve posted – and I’d like to click to buy them through here so you get the % revenue. Or is this just too much? Or can I find these by doing a different search on the site?
Data! I love data! (And Data, too, but that’s another topic.) Thank you for the survey results.
I like the sub-genres idea above. And tropes. What are the best tropes people like, what are the no-no tropes for most of us?
Although it’s not an easy thing to survey, which authors are on the auto-buy list?
And one thing that puzzles me, in particular: in historicals, do you need to know that the characters bathe so that you feel comfortable reading them?
Is that why so many authors insist on telling us so often details about the hygienic ways of the characters? I have a feeling that this is used so that we differentiate between good characters and bad characters: the good ones always take a bath every day.
I’ve been buying from Thriftbooks for years, which is why I have a utility storage cupboard full of books with their stickers on the spines.
Scribed has worked well for me for audiobooks (Audible is too much money), but I’m on a hiatus for now as I try to whittle down the books in that cupboard.
it was really interesting to compare others’ responses to my own.
I would find it difficult to answer the “how many books a month do you check out?” because I exclusively do online librarying and it is a revolving door of books. as soon as I finish something, I throw it back and get something new.
also in regards to audiobooks, I recently started consuming them more (again, from the library). I check out audiobooks that are on my to-be-read list, that I feel I should read or kind of want to read but can’t find the time to read in print: new authors, books that are going to be movies that I might want to read the book first, something else that I want to know how it ends but am not THAT into it. I can listen to audiobooks anywhere (and do) in the car, shopping, at the gym, commuting whatever. and I listen in double time, so it really increases my consumption rate.
@Cerulean: I haven’t been able to build a store of just Etsy links, much as I’d like to, but I can put a link to the “Stuff We Like” post series (and add that label to the anniversary giveaway” to make it easier to find, well, the links to stuff we like. Would that work?
And thank you for wanting to shop through the site – I really appreciate that!!
I would also be interested in genres and sub genres in romance that people read as well as what non-romance books – both fiction and non-fiction – people read. I like the idea of tropes too being on the survey.
I am also drying to know how many books people have in their TBRs. I have a couple of hundred books that I have purchased that I want to read. On my very complicated set of “want to read books that I haven’t purchased yet” I have thousands. I think I calculated at my current reading rate if I read all the books I own and didn’t add any more books to my wish lists but read all of those too, it would take me over 30 years to just get through both of thise. And I add more to my lists almost every day, but I can’t help it – I want to read all the books (except horror – don’t want to read those).
I get so excited every time I see a “Business Update” – I love me some data!
It would be interesting to see how many people get stuck in what I’ll call the “series trap” – you read the first book in a series and it’s so great, you immediately need the second…but it’s only available for purchase and you already OWN tons of books so…what do you do? Does it go on the TBR list high up, or do most people find a way to get the book, or give it and buy it? Or maybe borrow it from someone? I find myself facing this issue many times and it’s always a pull between getting that new book, or continuing up Mt. TBR.
I like @Katie C. ‘s suggestion of how many books are in the TBR. For me, personally, I have a different TBR on my Goodreads (books I don’t necessarily own) and my Kindle (books I’ve purchased, and samples…so many…samples…especially of books with a higher price point). Then there is my requests queue at the local library.
@Diana – I love your suggestion for a question on bathing! It would be fun to break genres down and ask questions about which tropes or common occurrences or plot points drive people insane. Like, I always wonder about people contracting STI’s when there’s no condom action going on. Maybe that’s why PNRs work for me – no HPV for you if the guy’s undead…maybe Rabies…another issue haha.
I wanted to chime in on the subgenres people like to read. I run a site where people can find romance books by tropes (a combination of tropes is also possible). On our site, the most read tropes currently are: erotica, alpha male, contemporary,virgin heroine,historical,possessive hero,cruel hero,shy heroine,pregnancy,super rich hero. I also have data on the tropes which are most often explicitely excluded if people are interested.
Oh mannnnn, I love data and I look forward to these posts!
With regards to what else I’d be interested to learn about the Bitchery, I wanted to know what percentage of the Bitchery comments on the website. I would also be interested to know if people would comment more if the commenting software were different (or if you, SBTB Sarah, have thought about changing the commenting software). The reason I bring it up is thusly: it is really hard to keep track of the threads or conversations happening in the comments section. In particular, because the comments go linearly, in highly commented posts such as HaBO, it’s harder to visually see where the conversations are. I wish the “@[username] function let you thread your comment or something. Has the SBTB Mothership considered this change? I think it would increase the commenting community on the website. Would you rather use Twitter to do this type of back-and-forth talk? I’m curious. For myself (since you asked, lol), I think I would comment MORE on the website if there were slightly a fancier, more threaded comments section.
Hey Sue!
I’m so pleased you’re digging the data, and I do like learning more about the community. As for threaded comments, that’s an easy option to implement, but the response when it was added was SO overwhelmingly negative, we changed it back to linear comments. Threaded comments here seem to really tick the community off – but if that’s changed and more folks want threaded, I’m open to suggestions. I want the comments section to be as useful and usable for everyone as possible.
re: Reusable shopping bags… here’s a blast from the past! 😀 http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2011/06/friday-videos-love-australia-and-canvas-bags/
re: Threaded comments: still firmly against!!!