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Survey Shows 18 Percent of Consumers Bought Religion, Spirituality BooksBy MARCIA
Z. NELSON CHICAGO -- A new survey by the trade magazine Publishers Weekly shows that 18 percent of consumers bought books dealing with religion or spirituality in the past year. Preliminary results of the survey, conducted in May, were announced Friday (June 4) at Book Expo America, the major annual publishing industry trade show, in Chicago. Using the Internet, the magazine surveyed 10,000 representative consumers. It broadly defined religious or spiritual books, ncluding not only such traditional texts as Scriptures but also a wide range of nonfiction and fiction with religious or spiritual themes such as Mitch Albom's best-selling novel The Five People You Meet in Heaven. "The subject of religion and spirituality has gotten into many categories," said magazine executive editor Daisy Maryles. She noted that religion and spirituality books consistently show up on best-seller lists and have been among top sellers on an annual basis since 2001, when The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson, a minister, was among the year's top books. Asked why they purchased a religion book, 48 percent said they were interested in the subject. The next most frequently cited reason was to find God's presence in their lives, mentioned by 30 percent of respondents. And 29 percent said they were looking to find their purpose in life. Among buyers, 69 percent of women and 68 percent of men said that religion and spirituality were very important to them. The survey measured some demographic characteristics of religion and spirituality book buyers. A majority - 59 percent - are female, with an average age of 38. Forty percent identified themselves as evangelical Christians, while 10 percent identified themselves as spiritual but not religious. More than one-quarter of religion book buyers were between the ages of 25 and 34, and another quarter were in the next age tier of 35 to 44. Only 11 percent of spiritual-book buyers were older than 55. The survey also measured what kinds of books respondents had purchased. More than two-thirds - 68 percent - said they had purchased fiction. Of types of nonfiction, the largest category - practical life - was purchased by 35 percent. The next largest, purchased by 28 percent, was Bibles. Maryles suggested that the book The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren, a pastor, which has been on best-seller lists for more than a year, helped explain the popularity of practical life books. The average buyer bought six religion or spirituality books within a year's time. Industry professionals at the book show found different aspects of the survey informative. Thomas Ciesielka, a book publicist in Chicago, said there was a "disconnect" between popular perceptions in the media about what people are reading and what they actually are purchasing. "People really care about this stuff," he said, noting that Bibles were the second most common purchase. "It's like there's a secular face and a spiritual subconscious." Calling the survey interesting and useful, Donavin Bennes, a religion book buyer for the Borders chain of bookstores, said the popularity of a wide variety of religion and spirituality books was "consistent with Borders' experience." The survey also found that large chain bookstores such as Borders were the preferred place of purchase, although consumers use many outlets for their book shopping. The survey was sponsored by 10 publishers of religion and spirituality books from across the faith spectrum, from New Age publisher Llewellyn, faith-spanning Harper San Francisco and the Catholic publisher Loyola Press to major evangelical Christian publishers Thomas Nelson and Zondervan. Maryles said the magazine would issue a full report with analysis in August after it had a chance to interpret the numbers. "We only saw the tables a week ago and have had no time at all to hold a dialogue," she said. SIDEBAR: Numbers
From Publishers Weekly Survey CHICAGO -- Here are findings from the Publishers Weekly survey on the religion and spirituality book-buying habits of American consumers: Why Consumers
Purchased Religion, Spirituality Books General Subject
Matter of Nonfiction Purchases Religious
Identification of Buyers
© 2003-2005
Marcia Z. Nelson
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