The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

Joel Rickett

Joel Rickett is deputy editor of The Bookseller, and also writes columns for the Guardian and Screen International.

Reading the Future

14.03.08

If you're accosted by a man with a clipboard this weekend, asking probing questions about your reading habits, please be polite. They may well be working on your behalf. Let me explain.

When The Bookseller team was mulling on ways to mark the magazine's 150th anniversary, we considered all kinds of projects, from parties to sponsorships to television programmes.

Many were ruled out on the grounds they were self-congratulatory, publicity-seeking wheezes (not that that has stopped us before). Instead we wanted a substantial project, something that will help everyone involved in this amazing business to sell even more books. (Have no fear, there will still be a party, and a special anniversary of the magazine in June).

Our readers are constantly calling for more insight into consumers - into their changing tastes, views, and behaviour. So we have boldly decided to commission a major piece of research, anchored on a survey on more than 1000 randomly-chosen people on high streets across the UK. Yes, it's the guy with the clipboard.

We called on contacts from all levels of publishing and bookselling to help drawn up the questions. The idea was to produce some practical responses that really help inform the way we publish and sell books.

I'm not going to give them away here – keep an eye on The Bookseller for teasers. But they cover a wide range: the triggers that prompt people to pick up and buy a book (from cover image to blurbs). Why and how people browse in shops and online. Price perceptions. The paperback vs hardback debate. What makes a celebrity autobiography work. What makes people recommend books. Even why people get frustrated with them.

Luckily we aren't doing this all ourselves. Instead we're working with the renowned future trends and consumer research consultancy Next Big Thing, run by a seriously astute guy called William Higham. He's helped us frame every question to get detailed, useful results. Crucially, the reponses will be sliced every which way – by people's age, sex, family status, social demographic, region, and perhaps most importantly by their current reading habits.

So we'll be able to compare light readers of romance with sci-fi nuts. We'll find out what turns crime fiction fans on, and if they have a secret penchant for DIY manuals. We'll find out what would make them all buy more books.

And that's not all. William Higham will use the survey results as the base for a wide-ranging analytical report, drawing on all his experience of other industries and work for clients such as AOL, the BBC, Budweiser and Universal Music. He'll put books into a much wider social and cultural framework, and give pointers for the future of reading. He'll help us identify new opportunities, reach readers and open up markets. Hence the title: Reading the Future.

The report, sponsored by IBS Bookmaster, will be presented at a special half-day conference in London on Thursday 22nd May. William Higham will give detailed overview of the findings and will be joined by other marketing experts and a panel of industry heavyweights to interpret the findings.

There will be a fee, but it will be a pittance compared to the overall investment we're making in this piece of work. We promise it will be very different to existing consumer panel surveys - more surprising, more inspiring, and more practically useful. To register your interest please email me at joel.rickett@bookseller.co.uk and we'll keep you updated.
 

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