Ed here: We've been told since the seventies that romance novels of various kinds outsell all other types of genre fiction. But this new Harris poll contradicts this.One question I have though is--what constitutes thriller/mystery and what constitutes romance?
For instance Is a paranormal romantic thriller a romance or a thriller? Anyhow here are the results:
Harris Poll Finds Mysteries, Thrillers Edge Out Romance Novels
By Publishers Weekly Staff
Oct 07, 2010
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A new Harris Poll is out, and among its findings are that mysteries, thrillers, and crime novels beat out chick-lit and romance novels by a large margin; and that more women than men read mysteries, thrillers, and crime novels.
The poll, conducted among 2,775 U.S. adults online this past August, found that among those who say they read at least one book in an average year, equal numbers—about eight in 10—said they have read a novel or nonfiction book in the past year. Almost half (48%) of fiction readers said they read mysteries, thrillers and crime novels, while a quarter read science fiction (26%) and another quarter (24%) read “literature.” One in five said they read romance novels (21%) and one in 10 have read graphic novels (11%) in the past year. Chick-lit (8%) and western (5%) books are less popular among respondents.
for the rest go here:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publishing-and-marketing/article/44757-harris-poll-finds-mysteries-thrillers-edge-out-romance-novels.html
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3 comments:
1. Polling is dependent on truth-telling, as well as other variables. Polls aren't facts.
2. Sales really are rather well tracked these days, though Bookscan can't actually be called completely factual, either, even if a hell of a lot more factual than "bestseller" lists.
3. "romantic thrillers" are both romances and suspense novels, though Harris probably didn't bother to sort that.
4. if 5% of the reading public read westerns annually, where the hell are the western sales?
5. what a really dire article.
This is consistent with a Nielsen report some months ago that mysteries were outselling romances for the first time,and by a considerable margin. I recollect that mystery/crime was 17 percent of fiction sales, while women's romances were 11 percent.
Westerns don't even show up on the Nielsen genre data, and the 5 percent ascribed by Harris is dubious at best. More like 1 percent or less.
Does this mean romance is less important in women reader's lives? What percentage of the mystery titles are bought by women, by men? I would like to see numbers on magazine sales. It used to be women's magazines comprised 80 percent of the special interest market (Cosmo, Glamour et cetera) and men's magazines the remaining 20 percent (Popular Mechanics, Yachting.
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