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Asians in Britain are less likely to use chain stores than the white population, partly because they struggle to find books there that relate to them.
This one of the key findings of a major research programme into the South Asian market, conducted by BML on behalf of the DSC South Asian Literary Festival, and sponsored by The Bookseller.
Whereas 71% of the white population will go to Waterstone's to buy books, only 51% of South Asians will; the figures for WH Smith are 42% and 27% respectively. The supermarket gap is the greatest, at 50% v 22%. Both groups are equally happy to use independent book shops, at 43%.
Only 2% of South Asian respondents to the survey (238 out of 1881 in total) felt there was
sufficient provision of books with South Asian themes and influences in stores.
The survey has also uncovered significant differences in the reading tastes of the two groups. Crime, a key mass-market genre, is liked by 75% of whites but only 33% of South Asians; historical fiction showed a similar disparity, liked by 56% of whites compared to 39% of South Asians. South Asians were far more interested in non-fiction, with genre preferences of 52% for
religious/spiritual books and 43% self-help, a level of interest in both cases four times that of their white counterparts.
Waterstone's boss Dominic Myers has asked to see a full copy of the research; he is known to have an interest in the area after he spent time in India researching a possible HMV venture in the country.
Speaking at the unveiling of the research at the Free Word Centre in Farringdon, co-organisers of the SALF Jon Slack and Bhavit Mehta revealed it will return for a second year next October, with three separate weeks of events in central London, outer London and nationally.
A full report on the survey is in today's edition of The Bookseller.