"What is the profile of the average poetry book buyer?"
(I'm reposting a question I origially posted on the Wompo list serv.)
A coworker asked me that question and I honestly didn't know the answer. Who is the typical poetry book buyer? We can all guess, but what are the demographics? Male vs female? Young vs old? Poet vs nonpoet? Large booksellers don't share this information, so I'm hoping to get something more than opinion. Maybe a few of our indie publishers/booksellers can shed some light. What do we really know about our readership?
A coworker asked me that question and I honestly didn't know the answer. Who is the typical poetry book buyer? We can all guess, but what are the demographics? Male vs female? Young vs old? Poet vs nonpoet? Large booksellers don't share this information, so I'm hoping to get something more than opinion. Maybe a few of our indie publishers/booksellers can shed some light. What do we really know about our readership?
Comments
Due to the small size of our population, I think the attendees at the book launch are probably a large enough fraction of the total buyers to be fairly representative
I don't know if, in the U.S., women attend more readings. It depends on the poet who's reading and the type of reading. I think more men try performance poetry, but that's only a guess.
Also (as per Catherine's comment) the level of education has always been a factor in poetry that appears in print. How far below the university degree level does the poetry market extend and has that group of consumers (below a university degree) been growing smaller in the last few decades? If so, of course the question is why are fewer of them reading poetry now?
There are lots of things within this question that many of us need to know more about! Thanks for asking about it.
I think I'm going to expand this into another blog post.
Now, most of my undergraduate students will sell those books back at the end of the year, but I also know that some become poetry book buyers/readers, as they'll email me with their suggestions or newest finds.
What's intriguing is that I do get marketing materials from a handful of small presses about their newest releases--Copper Canyon does an especially good job. I think this aspect of the poetry book market is something that more small publishers could easily exploit. I imagine most presses rely on the poets to make these overtures or take advantage of their connections, but the presses that can afford to undertake this way of advertising their books surely get some immediate, impactful sales, with 20-50 books with one good hook.