{"id":3629,"date":"2013-08-11T21:56:37","date_gmt":"2013-08-12T01:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/?p=3629"},"modified":"2013-08-11T21:56:37","modified_gmt":"2013-08-12T01:56:37","slug":"force-of-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/11\/force-of-course\/","title":{"rendered":"Force of Course: What Do Marie’s Numbers Mean?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via a piece in Forbes<\/a>, I ran across some fascinating survey numbers<\/a> from bestselling author Marie Force<\/a>. \u00a0 In case you've spent the last few years imprisoned in the Big Brother House and aren't familiar with her work, I can tell you one thing that will tell you that she's a great author. \u00a0Ready? \u00a0Her current book, \"Lethal Attraction: \u00a0Against The Rules\\Fatal Affair<\/a>\" is a collaboration with LINDA HOWARD, no less, put together by Harlequin's HQN. \u00a0If your writing can keep up in that company, then it's pretty danged fabulous. \u00a0Marie's most recent solo effort is \"Time for Love<\/a>\" and since that one's self-pubbed - (all Marie and nothing but Marie\/ like mine are all Mary Anne and nothing but Mary Anne), I bet she'd appreciate your checking it out as well.<\/p>\n

But I digressed - as usual. \u00a0Okay, I'm boogling back to the point now. \u00a0The point is an oh-so-interesting survey that Marie conducted recently via Survey Monkey with about 2,951 people replying to questions put together by Marie and \"about a dozen other authors.\" <\/a>The questions covered a number of areas, including preferred genre, preferred reading format, shopping preferences, and discovery tools. \u00a0 The Forbes article is \u00a0\"Reader Surveys Provide Insight, But How Much?\" <\/a> The title tells us that Forbes is going to disagree with Marie's numbers - and it does. \u00a0It compares and contrasts them with a 2012 survey done by RWA (Romance Writers of America).<\/p>\n

The first thing that caught my eye was the big ole' important place where the two survey numbers agree - although Forbes wishes to quibble. \u00a0Both surveys agree that romance is the \"King of Kings\" - it dominates other genres in terms of sales. \u00a0In Marie's poll, 81% of readers listed romance as their favorite genre with mystery coming in second, with only 5%of reader preferences. \u00a0That jives with the RWA numbers which showed that romance was the best-performing genre on bestseller lists in 2012 and generated $1.438 billion in sales in 2012 alone. \u00a0 To me, those numbers mean that far more people prefer to read about love and desire than fear and pain. \u00a0It also proves that readers want more from a book's ending than a \"resolution\" or a \"solution\" - they want a happy ending.<\/p>\n

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As to format, Marie's survey found that readers prefer ebooks - 77% to 52%, although there was some crossover with some people buying books in both formats. \u00a0 I agree with that result and expect it will climb. \u00a0The availability, the convenience and the portability of ebooks are features paperbacks will never be able to claim. \u00a0About 58% of the readers haven't visited a physical bookstore more than twice in the last year. \u00a0For ebooks and paperbacks, most people buy from Amazon (80%). \u00a0All of that is also true for me - I'll visit a bookstore about twice a year - and then only because my youngest son got assigned to read a book and I heard not word one about the assignment until the night before he needed the book. \u00a0(Love you Sam, but organization isn't your thing...)<\/p>\n

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And yes, Amazon is - to me - more than a shopping venue. \u00a0It's a magical Kingdom where almost any book I want to read is available, whenever I want it. \u00a0If I'm up at 2 am, perched on my couch in my nightgown because I'm worried about something, I can pick up a hot new release to help me wile away the time by one stroke of a button on my Kindle Fire or my PC. \u00a0Then, magical fire faeries will whisk the title right onto my ereader.<\/p>\n

Where my numbers and Marie's disagree is on the subgenre. \u00a0Marie says contemporary beat historical romance 28 to 23%. \u00a0Hands down, across the board, my historicals way outsell my contemporaries. \u00a0I'm always split about that. \u00a0I'm presently writing a historical and a contemporary, but recently I've been working almost exclusively on my historical. \u00a0It'll be the first of a trilogy and all that bodes well for sales, but I'd love to see my contemporaries jump up and give my historicals a run for their money.<\/p>\n

What interested me on a deeper level, and caught the attention of Forbes as well, was Marie's conclusion that Facebook and author web sites are the best ways for writers to connect with readers. \u00a0Her survey also found that readers are more likely to \"like\" an author on Facebook than they are to follow her on Twitter. \u00a0Marie suggests that if an author only has time for 1 social media site, she should choose Facebook over Twitter. \u00a0Marie says as follows:<\/a><\/p>\n

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