BISG Surveys Consumer E-Book Habits
Among the findings of a new Book Industry Study Group survey of consumer attitudes toward e-book reading, the first of three in an ongoing project:
- The majority of print book buyers ranked "affordability" as the #1 reason they would choose to purchase an e-book rather than a print edition of the same title.
- Less important reasons for buying an e-book were the search functions of e-books and their impact on the environment.
- Some 30% of print book buyers would wait up to three months to purchase the e-book edition of a book by their favorite author.
- About 20% of respondents said they've stopped purchasing print books within the past 12 months in favor of acquiring e-books.
- Most respondents said they prefer to share e-books across devices.
- Preferred e-reader devices include computers (47%), Amazon's Kindle (32%) and other e-reader devices at roughly 10% apiece.
- Only 28% of respondents said they would "definitely" purchase an e-book with digital rights management, and men were more likely than women to say they would not buy an e-book with DRM.
- Although e-book sales are growing, 81% of survey respondents said they currently purchase an e-book only "rarely" or "occasionally."
BISG will present findings from the first part of the study at Digital Book World January 26-27 in New York.
