Publishing forecast firm Simba Information is well known in the last year for releasing survey results focusing on eBooks. It found in its latest report that 17% of U.S. adults have read at least one e-book in 2011, up from the 11% who did so in 2010. In keeping with the report’s tradition of measuring the commitment individual adults have to e-books, the percentage of adults who bought e-books was shown to be 11% of adults — up from 9%.
The report has also found that four times as many adults bought a paperback book compared to an e-book. The children’s and young adult (YA) market continues to lag behind the digital development of adult trade: the report shows about 23% of all adults bought at least one children’s/YA print book in 2011 while just 4% purchased a children’s or YA e-book.
“The whole issue about e-books isn’t about whether customers can access content, but whether they will engage with content,” Norris said. “It’s a tougher problem and we hope this report will go a long way to help solve it by understanding e-book users and e-book buyers.”
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.
