The State of Fiction Reading in America

[Boris]

Would anyone have an idea of the percentage of people in today's US population who are avid fiction readers?

I don't know any exact figures, but it's my understanding that these people upon whom we fiction writers depend on are a small minority in a general population that gives up reading after completing school and gives itself over to film, TV, music, etc.

[Harbreak Challan]

I'm not sure about the statistics, but I can guarantee that there is a very large segment of the population that has stopped reading for amusement altogether.

Until the 1980s or 90s, there was a large market for short, unsophisticated 'pulpish' novels. Mens' action series like The Destroyer, barbarian S&S, adventure-oriented westerns, crime and war novels have all but disappeared. (There's still a good number of the feminine equivalent: the 'Harlequin' type romance.)

The men who were the target audience for this quick and dirty fiction fix have so many other less mentally strenuous pastimes today. Why should Joe Average bother to read, when he can come home and choose from several hundred channels, surf the net, play video games or pop in a DVD?

It's quite a shame, because as a child, I though it would be great fun to be a pulp hack.

Most of what is being published today seems to want to take itself much more seriously. There are no more Lin Carters or Andy Offutts on the fantasy shelves. If you want a fantasy novel, you are generally committing yourself to a years-long tangle with a chain of endless thousand-page doorstops that are pushed as the greatest event since Tolkien. Only die-hard fanatics are going to stay on board through the whole series. Nobody seems to write fantasy just for the fun of it any more. Most of the biggest authors are obsessive-compulsive assembly line workers churning out product to the publishers' specifications.

I had given up on current fantasy and SF until I read China Mieville. I actively avoided the genres of F&SF from the mid-90s until about 2005. From the late 70s to the early 90s, I was a two-book-a-week man.

Go to WalMart's book section and see what is being aimed at the average casual shopper: There will be about ten titles each in the legal thriller, romance, FBI vs. serial killer, and self help genres. Possibly, they'll have a fantasy novel by Goodkind or Jordan or a few gaming-based novels. Maybe they'll have some William Johnstone westerns or a couple of Lamour reprints, a Leisure horror title or two, some true crime, and that is all.

If there's any hope for the future of fiction, especially fantasy fiction, I think it may rest with today's young fans of Harry Potter and other popular kids' fantasy series. Whatever one may think about these books, millions of children are reading them, and soon, they will be growing up and, hopefully, craving something more substantial, yet in the same genre.

I wish someone would launch a new F&SF publishing house similar to DAW Books of the '70s. Remember those skinny paperbacks with the wonderful yellow spines? Quick reads, lots of fun and imagination. Who is to say they wouldn't sell, and perhaps attract many people who don't have the time to commit to ten volumes as thick as The Bible?

[Saanen]

I don't know any kind of statistics either, but I suspect the number of avid readers holds fairly steady from decade to decade.

I agree about all the brick-thick fantasy novels being churned out in the last 10-15 years. I think there's a huge untapped market for novellas out there. I find myself reading a lot of older stuff lately, partly because I don't have time or energy to invest in some 700-page monstrosity that won't conclude for another five or six books, and partly because those slim paperbacks fit so well in a pocket or small purse.

[Boris]

I've come across a link to an article (http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=6240) that talks about the declining circulation of print mags.

[Scott H. Andrews]

I think there's a huge untapped market for novellas out there. I find myself reading a lot of older stuff lately, partly because I don't have time or energy to invest in some 700-page monstrosity that won't conclude for another five or six books....
I totally agree, which was one main reason I started Beneath Ceaseless Skies. I love classic-type fantasy in small packages.

But a divide has evolved over the last 10-20 years between the type of stories in current fantasy short fiction, which has gone very literary, and the type of stories in most current fantasy novels, which are still fun adventure yarns (although 700+ pages long...). Almost all the fantasy short fiction magazines don't publish the same type of stuff that's in the novels, so the classic-type fantasy in small packages is extremely hard to find. That I think is a huge reason that the circulation of fantasy magazines is declining even though fantasy novel sales are higher than ever--the magazines aren't publishing the stuff that the novel readers want to read.

I too also hope that all the kids who grew up on Harry Potter will keep reading fantasy into their adulthood.

[Donna Royston]

The 2002 SPPA (Survey of Public Participation in the Arts) did not distinguish between nonfiction and fiction reading, but it found that 1 in 6 people were frequent to avid readers (12 or more books per year). That is 35 million people. If you look at the 2 recent NEA reports, it seems that fiction readers are about 10 percent less than nonfiction readers. So perhaps avid fiction readers are about 7% of the total US population.

Reading was the 5th most popular leisure activity. The more popular activities were:

1. Watching at least 1 hour of TV/day (of course)
2. Going to movies
3. Exercising
4. Gardening

Other interesting statistics about reading:

The NEA report, Reading at Risk, which was about literary reading, asked what else people did that was related to literary reading, such as going to author readings, listening to recorded books, taking creative writing classes, etc., and one item, "Used internet to learn about, read or discuss topics related to literature" came to 9% of the population. I would guess this activity to correlate somewhat to being an avid fiction reader, so it's nice to see it close to the 7% above.

Readers of novels and short stories (not avid readers here, just people who read any at all): 45%
Readers of poetry: 12%
Age group that reads the most: 45-52 years old
Women readers: 63%
Men readers: 48%

Donna

[Sarah Avery]

The novella's a hard sell in print media. The book publishers have a sweet-spot range for word count, and if you go longer or shorter, they get itchy about printing and binding costs and whether the chain bookstores will be happy about the ratio of profit to inches of shelf space. The magazine publishers can't afford to give such a large proportion of their page count to just one name, especially if it's not a name they already know. Barring YA titles, I don't think we're likely to see a resurgence of the short fantasy novel anytime soon. If it weren't for the big awards having novella and novelette categories, those forms would probably be extinct in our genre.

Publishers of e-books are more open to short novels, novellas, novelettes, etc. They don't have to worry about printing and binding costs or chain bookstores. Besides, reading on a screen is hard enough on the eyes, a shorter text can be just right. Weirdly, I've found they're more likely to consider those intermediate lengths than e-zine publishers are, though I don't know why.

[Aliette de Bodard]

Readers of novels and short stories (not avid readers here, just people who read any at all): 45%
That's a very scary statistic. (I'm not surprised, but I'm still scared).

[Boris]

Would anyone have an idea how avid reading is in other countries, like, say England?

[Boris]

Scott,

Thanks for starting up a market that'll give voice to character-centered adventure tales and offer an alternative to the literary magazines.

Boris

I totally agree, which was one main reason I started Beneath Ceaseless Skies. I love classic-type fantasy in small packages.

But a divide has evolved over the last 10-20 years between the type of stories in current fantasy short fiction, which has gone very literary, and the type of stories in most current fantasy novels, which are still fun adventure yarns (although 700+ pages long...). Almost all the fantasy short fiction magazines don't publish the same type of stuff that's in the novels, so the classic-type fantasy in small packages is extremely hard to find. That I think is a huge reason that the circulation of fantasy magazines is declining even though fantasy novel sales are higher than ever--the magazines aren't publishing the stuff that the novel readers want to read.

I too also hope that all the kids who grew up on Harry Potter will keep reading fantasy into their adulthood.

[John Hocking]

Back in the 1980's there was a survey passed around by publishers and booksellers that indicated the average American read one book a year.
And it seems unlikely that things have improved much since then.
The book chain I used to work for figured that 80% (yes, eighty) of books sold out of their stores were sold to women.
So get out there, find a book so thrilling it can't be set aside, and thrust it into the hands of the nearest young man. He's not going to read anything at all if you don't.

John

[Kenneth Mark Hoover]

Richard Parks once told me, "Throughout history reading has always been an eclectic activity." I suspect he's right. Especially when you're talking about reading for nothing other than the simple pleasure of reading.

You're talking about a very small percentage of the population when you narrow it down like that, imo.