Understanding book sales is important for authors and publishers.

All of my books have been fictional. Each based on ideas that interest me at the time.

However, gurus are suggesting authors take a scientific approach to choosing our topics and genres.

With another book published—and starting to write yet another—I set out to garner information on trends among American readers. 

Recents surveys show that nearly half of Americans polled haven’t read any books in more than a year!

So then, let’s focus our attention on the other half—the readers.

I was surprised to learn that PRINT BOOKS continue to be the most popular format. E-books rank next; then audiobooks. 

The number of female readers is only slightly higher than for males.

Americans love HISTORY, MYSTERY, AND BIOGRAPHY.

Fiction sales gave gone up by 45% over the last five years. 

Non-fiction, especially political and self-help, are currently seeing a decline in interest. 

You can draw your own conclusions, but from these statistics, we might want to focus on women readers of history, mysteries, and biographies.

And although Romance has always been a popular genre—and probably will continue to be—perhaps now would be a good time for Romance writers to couple with the genres above…Romantic Suspense… Historical Romance, and so on.

Those are my thoughts based on a little research.