The eBook adoption rate in Canada is one of the highest in the world, as 41% of parents and 27% of teens have already adopted digital reading. BookNet Canada is predicting this number will dramatically increase.
Digital book adoption rate is dependent on purchasing e-Readers and tablets. On average, parents report having 6.4 devices per household, whereas teens report regularly using 4.8 devices. Among the 27% of teens who read ebooks, the study did not find a strong preference for print or electronic format: 37% prefer print books, 29% prefer ebooks, and 34% have no format preference. In addition, parents who currently read ebooks are significantly more likely to predict that their children will be reading ‘slightly’ to ‘significantly’ more ebooks in the near future. “Even parents who don’t currently read ebooks predicted that they would be e-reading in the future,” says Pamela Millar, BookNet Canada’s Director of Customer Relations, “so we can conclude that this trend is likely to pick up steam.” As ebooks become less novel and more widely accepted and available, publishers, authors, and booksellers alike may wish to focus on the book rather than its format in their marketing efforts.
The study also investigated eBook discoverability, which is the big buzz word of 2013. While word of mouth is still the most common factor in discovering a new book, online discovery is growing. 43% of parents currently read a sample chapter online before purchasing a book, and a further 18% report that they are interested in doing so in the future.
The data from the survey was collected from 1,044 respondents: 823 parents (responding for 1,420 children) and 221 young adults.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.