Welcome to the Smart Bitches Business Update, my monthly feature wherein I take a deep dive into the nerdery behind the scenes at the Hot Pink Palace, and bring you all with me because, well, nerdery!
Last month, I posted Part I of our Reader Survey, and this month, I have the results of the survey from November!
Part I of the survey, of course, is still open, so if you’d like to take it, please feel free! Because the results of Part 1 are so interesting, I’m going to post Part 2 in January 2017 so I don’t make this particular entry 57km long (visually speaking).
Results of SBTB Reader Survey, Part 1
This was SO FUN, y’all. Thank you so much for sharing information with me. Over 1300 of you answered the questions, which for the first part focused on gender and how much you read (short answer: A LOT). I am so excited to share the results with all of you.
NB: I am using individual java widgets to post the results in this page. I’m concerned that for those using screen reading software, the widgets may not be accessible. Here is a link to the full page of survey results which I *think* should be accessible. Please let me know if it is not!
Age!
Interesting notes: of the survey respondents, over 80% of us are between the ages of 25 and 44.
And 91% of us are between 25 and 64 years of age. So hello to all of us of all ages! Romance and Bitchery – it’s for everyone.
Gender!
Now, as I said in Part 1, romance reading is very heavily gendered, so I wanted to ask, especially since Google Analytics only offers male/female binary options. I am very thankful for all the responses, especially this one that made me laugh for at least a half hour straight:
HA!
As you can see, over 97% of us identified as female, and we have some men, some trans individuals, and gender fluid, non-binary, and two-spirit folks as well. Short answer: welcome!
The shrug is still making me laugh. Thank you for that. I hope the question wasn’t intrusive or hurtful!
Book consumption!
So, here’s a completely shocking piece of information: Y’ALL READ A LOT OF BOOKS.
And a lot of them are romance!
42.7% of us read 1-2 books per week … and 42.7% of us read between 3 and 5 books per week! (I think this is so interesting. I hope you’re enjoying the deep nerd dive here). So if I’m doing math right (always questionable), over 85% of us read between 1-5 books a week.
In terms of the monthly consumption of books, of the survey respondents, 32% of us read between 8 and 12 books per month. And one very well-read person almost went over 9000!
(To see the full list of results, click “more” and you’ll be taken to the full chart of responses.)
I think it’s fascinating that the top five responses for books per month were 8, 12, 10, 20, and 4. So basically, we read a whole heck of a lot.
And of the books we are reading:
Much of the time, it’s romance. This is not surprising, not in the least.
Hours Per Day Spent Reading:
Over half of us – 55.6% to be precise – spend between 2 and 3 hours per day reading. And 82.1% spend between 1 and 4 hours per day reading. Like I said above, this isn’t surprising, but wow, does it give me the warm fuzzies.
Time of Day Reading:
This is a bit of a weird question because you could check as many as applied to you. For example, I often read in the morning, over lunch, and in the evening before bed. So of course the top three answers are, “Before bed,” “In the evening,” and “When I should be sleeping.”
Here’s your sticker, #BadDecisionsBookClub members:
I also find it interesting that over 32% of us read on our commutes and 43% read over lunch time. That I totally understand. When I used to commute by bus into Manhattan, I’d read at least 2 hours per day just on the trip between my home and where I worked, and another half hour to an hour at lunch.
And most importantly – TYPE OF PIE:
In a pie graph, of course. Apple pie was the clear winner, and chocolate and pumpkin were close as well.
Now I want pie.
I also asked in the last question if there was anything you wanted us to know, the answers to which I said I would keep private – which I will. But I wanted to say thank you to everyone who wrote to tell us how much the site means to you, how it has helped you find books to read, and how reading romance has helped you identify the changes you want to see in your lives, and in the world. Your responses meant the world, and we are all deeply grateful. Thank you.
Thank you to everyone who answered the survey. If you’d like to participate, please feel free! The widgets should update automatically if more answers are provided.
Seriously, y’all, despite knowing already that you’re hanging out with us, and despite seeing the stats of how many visits we have and where you all are in the world, learning that you read around the same amount as I do just makes me feel so warm and fuzzy and much less alone. I wasn’t surprised by the results per se, but I was surprised by how happy they made me. So thank you for that.
Next month, I’ll be posting Part II of the SBTB Reader Survey, which is all about where you acquire books, what you use to read, how much you shop (don’t be afraid – you’re among friends here!), and whether you seek out new titles or backlist. If you have suggestions for questions for Part II, please leave them in the comments, or email me personally.
What do you think of the survey results so far? Any interesting pieces of data grab your attention? (Also, if I’m doing the analysis incorrectly, please feel free to let me know! This is not my field by a long shot.) And again, as always, thank you for being here. Whether or not you fill out the survey, I’m glad you’re hanging out with us.
Thank you for being part of Smart Bitches.
I guess I’m a little surprised by the low number in my age group. I get that we probably use the internet less than our younger counterparts. It wasn’t part of our everyday lives for most of our lives, but the first thing I looked for was a place where people loved books. First GoodReads and then, thankfully, here. I know you’re out there my grey-streaked peeps. I see you in waiting rooms and coffee shops.
Sarah, Sarah, Sarah–you botched the color wedges in the pie chart–sheesh! (shakes head sadly)
The pumpkin pie wedge should be orange, not green; the apple pie wedge should be apple red, the lemon meringue yellow, etc.
However, in all seriousness, this is a fascinating chunk of data. I also see you had a couple of pranksters–650 books a week–really? I guess you can do that when you read 56 hours a day!
@DonnaMarie–hello from one of your grey-streaked peeps.
Hey Barb, I thought I was the only one! Why is the pumpkin green and the key lime orange?
I WISH I could customize which results gets which color, but alas, that it outside my control. I agree, it’s completely wrong!!
And as someone being gifted with increasing numbers of silver highlights in my hair free of charge, I’m waving at both of you. 🙂
“And 91% of us are between 25 and 64 years of age.”
See, this is why I will never understand statistics. My age group, 55-64, clocks in at 10.9%, which doesn’t make me an outlier exactly, but still. And then, SB Sarah, you put that same number in perspective with a larger group and suddenly I don’t feel so alone. Gray, represent!
Huh this is really interesting. Would like to see some more detailed demographics (like race/ethnicity, urban/suburban/rural), whether you read ebooks or paper books (or some percentage thereof), whether you borrow or purchase books, etc.
How many visits does the site get each month? I have been curious about that for a while.
@Heather: it varies month to month, but in November 2016, we had over 450,000 pageviews, and over 180,000 sessions, which is how Google calculates the visits and actions an individual takes on the site within a given time period per day.
I’m curious as to WHERE your readers are from: US, Canada, Mexico, various countries outside North America, etc.
Can you do a deeper dive into what genres within romance people read, such as contemporary, historical, m/m, f/f, BDSM, paranormal, YA, etc?
I am quite surprised by the low number of readers in the 55 to 64 age group. And the 65 to 74 age group. I would think these ages might have more time available to read as we edge into retirement years. Do you suppose it is as Donna Marie mentions, that there is less internet use in these groups and therefore less SBTB participation? Or did many readers lose interest in romance as a result of the dreadful asshat heroes of the 1980s? Are there reader statistics by age group participation at the big romance book conferences? (A little night musing…)
I’m so happy to find such a large fraction of readers in my age group (25-34)! So many of my peers are not romance fans, it is great to know that there are some who are!
I’m curious if a third of readership commutes by public transportation, or if some people are reading by listening to audiobooks while they drive. Personally, while I have been known to read while walking down the hallway to my home office, I don’t really consider it a commute.
I’m a constant reader in the 55 to 64 group, but I confess I didn’t take part in the survey – mostly because I imagined there would be lots of questions on the romance genre and I suspected I’d be unable to answer them (I don’t read a lot of romance – yet). Mostly I read SMTB for the reviews – book AND movie AND television, the podcasts, and of course the wonderful chat and snark ♥
P.S. Canadian and I commute by bicycle!
Kris – I commute by train and I read paper books while doing so 🙂
I’m a retirement-aged, unretired boomer and a minority SBTB reader. Not much gray (thank you, Daddy’s genes), but creaky, creaky joints. I’ve got to say that the survey results did not surprise me terribly. After all, the survey counts SBTB readers not romance readers. There are oodles of readers who still use brick and mortar bookstores and libraries and read physical books. Many of them are more mature readers.
One of the reasons I still follow this blog after nearly 10 years is that it is a fascinating window onto the larger culture. It helps me keep up with my daughters (35 & 40) and also with the high school students I work with. Smart Bitches is thought provoking and extremely informative about so much more than books. I hope I’m still reading y’all, learning from the Bitchery, and laughing at the snark when I’m ninety. Rock on, Bs!
“I think it’s fascinating that the top five responses for books per month were 8, 12, 10, 20, and 4.”
With the exception of 10 (a nice round number, but not a multiple of 4), these look like people taking their average per week and multiplying by (approximately) 4 weeks/month. I know that’s basically what I did!
I may be missing something obvious, but what is SRE?
@Kareni, strong romantic elements. A book wherein the main plot or focus isn’t a romance, but you see one coming just the same. For example Deanna Raybourn’s Lady Julia Grey and Veronica Speedwell books which are primarily mysteries, but see there’s this man….
Thanks so much, DonnaMarie. I am now enlightened!