With the exception of an annoying issue where the survey completion button didn’t tell the user they were done, the 2019 reader survey was a great success. I’ll present the data in this blog post and then in future posts, I’ll discuss how these results might shape future endeavors.
First, the meta data. The survey was sent to 10,000 email addresses. Of those, 30% opened the email in the first 24 hours and 13% actually participated.
So — here’s the data.
Damn.. those statistics are horrible for ages. If I’m looking at it right 82% of us are 40 or over (Im early 50″s). These are the kind of stories I liked reading as a teen when I was young. Heinlein, asimov, clarke, appleton, tom corbet space cadet series and a thousand others. It blows me away that you don’t have a bigger young reading audience.
Does it mean younger reader’s aren’t reading hard sci-fi? you do have a fantasy series so maybe most of the younger readers read it? Or does it mean that younger people aren’t reading? Aren’t reading Science Fiction? I would love this survey to be replicated by a handful of my other favorite authors.
Stats like this could mean that the science fiction market will crash in about 20+ years as we age out. Are we riding the interests in reading of the baby boomers and the generation behind them? Or has science fiction be an older man/womens game. I have always loved it from age 8 or so and have had a lot of friends my age that read SF.. though to be honest that probably doesn’t count as I’m pretty sure a lot of the were self selected for similar interests.
Just struck me as a really interesting and frightening statistic.
Interesting results. I too am surprised by the low number of respondents from lower age brackets. I’m 37 and I’m essentially recounting the Privateer Tales to my 6 year old in the form of bed time stories: He can’t get enough! Please please please continue the Privateer Tales! Just finished Privateers in Exile and I can’t live without Liam, Nick, Tabby, Marny, and Ada in my life!
Hi Derek – Thank you for sharing the stories with your kiddos. Hopefully when they’re old enough they’ll be interested in reading whatever they find interesting. If you think they’d enjoy fantasy, you might try Lesser Prince. It’s a young adult book about a trio of kids who discover a fantasy realm. Best — Jamie
Thanks for responding Jamie. Didn’t see this until now as we just added another kiddo to the family. I’ll definitely check out Lesser Prince! Keep up the great writing!