A Special Relationship? A comparison of consumer book buying habits and trends in the United States and Great Britain

Countries covered: United Kingdom, United States

BML monitors consumer book purchases in Britain via its Books & Consumers survey. Bowker tracks US consumer book purchases via its PubTrack Consumer survey.

This report compares the results of the two surveys. In 2008, the US consumer market was around ten times the size of its UK equivalent, but a higher proportion of British than US consumers bought books.

Book buyers in each country were similar in terms of gender and age, but slightly more ‘up market’ in the US than Britain. Adult fiction and hardbacks accounted for a higher proportion of book purchases in the US than in Britain, but with variations in the mix of genres bought.

Chain bookshops remained the largest channel for book purchases in Britain, despite losing share in recent years.

The internet overtook the chains in the US in 2008, with Britain around three years behind in terms of internet share.

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