Who Buys The Most Books?

 

To achieve success, an author needs to understand his or her target audience. While I was immersed in writing, I never once stopped to consider that. Sure, I had an inkling of what people are buying. When my Facebook author page was active, almost all the authors I ran across wrote fantasy. I don't even know what fantasy is (truly), but it has to be popular based on the number of people writing it. I knew from my scant online searches that romance and science fiction are the best-selling genres. My cliched vision of a science fiction reader is a teen or a Gen Z, predominately male. As for romance, a woman anywhere from her thirties to her fifties. I mean, who is the primary viewer of rom-coms?

Rather bad news for me, because my novels and novellas are aimed at females primarily, and primarily females in that demographic. And mine are definitely not rom-coms. 

And as far as my secondary author venture, my (one) book would mainly appeal to an older-skewing demographic, and probably one more male than female. Do older males even buy books?

Let's take a look at the age breakdown (source):

        Age 18 - 31 ~ 37% of book buyers

        Age 32 - 43 ~ 30% of book buyers

        Age 44 - 62 ~ 24%

        Age 63+ ~ 31% 

        Ebook buyers ~ 75% are purchased by 18 - 45 year-olds

 

As for gender, the most recent numbers I could find show that 64.3% of readers are women, while 35.7% are men (source)

This last statistic doesn't surprise me. It's always been true that women read more than men. I think that's partly gender differences and partially cultural expectations. When I was in my thirties and forties, I tended to read while my partner tended to "do" (if you count things like fishing as actually doing). I liked fishing, too, but I didn't care for "tinkering" with things, as men tend to love spending hours on. And men of a certain age are culturally expected to be physically active. It's true whether you believe it or not. Or if not active, they're at least supposed to be parked in front of a giant screen binging on today's game. 

Anecdotally, I believe the genders tend to switch places in their golden years. My partner now reads much more than I do. My patience with a book wanes quickly, even with one I like. Perhaps I simply read too much when I was younger and I maxed out on it. 

So, what do the numbers mean for you? If you're writing for a younger demo, you're in luck. You have a large potential reading community, especially if you write in one of the most purchased genres. On the other hand, if your target audience falls within the sweet spot of Gen X, you're going to have to try harder. But you do have the advantage of more buyers within that demo buying your ebook.

Even my (one) book of essays has a chance with an older audience ~ a 31% chance ~ although only about 36% of those are men.

My sales outlook does not look promising, but I've almost reached that holy grail ~ the acceptance stage. I'm soon to retire my pen name, and as for my other pen name, that was just a one-off anyway. I may write again ~ with zero expectations ~ simply because I love writing. And I'll most likely publish, because what the heck else am I supposed to do with them? At least I'll be able to admire my author page.