Results from Reader’s Survey and Prize Winner – Part 1

The purpose of the survey was to gain a better understanding of why people read and what motivates people to read. I believe love for reading begins when we are children, but it doesn’t happen on its own accord. When parents spend time reading stories to their children and instill a love for books from an early age, then it continues right into adulthood. The frequency of reading may ease as commitments grow but you always find time to pick up a book and read. There is also a correlation between reading and literacy skills. In fact, it has been proven reading helps to improve literacy and understanding, and provides limitless opportunities.

Now to announce the prize winner:

The winner of the eBook Search for the Golden Serpent and $25 Amazon Gift Card is:

Cathleen Townsend

Congratulations, Cathleen. I’ll be in touch via email.

On to the survey results:

Question 1: are you Female or Male?
The majority of respondents were female coming in at 81% and 19% were male. That isn’t unusual as more women tend to complete surveys than men.

Question 2: Country of residence
Most of the responses came from the United States with 38%, followed by Australia with 29% and 10% coming from Canada and Germany.

demographics

Question 3: Why do you read?
This was a question I was interested in and the two most popular answers for reading was entertainment (41%) and relaxation (32%). There were those who read to escape (18%) from the daily grind. I do that too!

why read

Question 4: What type/s of fiction do you like best?
I read a variety of genres and I suspect so do most people but you always have a few favourites that you prefer to read. This is why I gave people the option to choose more than one answer and I am happy to report, Historical Fiction came out on top with 82%, followed by Adventure with 68%, then Fantasy (59%), Mystery (45%), Sci Fi (41%). I was surprised Romance wasn’t the leader in this one with 27% responding they like to read this genre.

types of fiction

Question 5: What motivates you to read a book?
With this question I wanted to know more about what readers look for when choosing a book. The responses certainly will change the strategies I will use when launching my next book. The blurb came out the strongest (89%), followed by the cover (64%), reviews (41%), endorsements (23%) and then awards (18%).

motivation

Question 6: What influences you to choose a book to read?
The responses to this question really surprised me. I was of the opinion word of mouth influenced people’s choices in books but recommendations was only 14%, nothing to sneeze at, though the ranking wasn’t high. 32% said the genre was the reason in reading a book, followed by both the author and browsing a book store with 23%, then searching an online book store at 9%.

influences

Stay tuned for next week’s Part 2. If you have any questions regarding the survey and even if you don’t, please leave a comment below.

Thank you for visiting and reading.

Historical fiction novelist and a secondary teacher, Luciana Cavallaro, likes to meander from contemporary life to the realms of mythology and history. Subscribe to her free short story at http://eepurl.com/bhEOXr