Sixty-four percent of all purchasers--57% of men and 69% of women--said their purchasing had changed in the first half of the year, said consumer research specialist , vice president of publisher services for R.R. Bowker, in a Consumer Book Trends Webinar hosted by the Association of American Publishers (AAP).

Of those total consumers, 34% had bought fewer books, while 21% had purchased more used books and 14% spent more on sale or deeply discounted titles. "As the economy begins to swing back, one of the things we need to keep our eyes on is are these (long-term) habits that are forming?" Gallagher said.

He also offered food for thought for Christian publishers when looking more closely at two consumer groups, women aged 30-44 and men aged 18-29. The women's average purchase point, $10.14, was notably lower than for all consumers, Gallagher said, but religious titles accounted for 6% of all their buys, showing that the category "still maintains a place in the purchaser's heart."

More than half the women surveyed said they bought titles on impulse, while the reverse was true for the men-pointing to the different marketing and merchandising strategies required to effectively serve the two groups, Gallagher said. Only 5% of women 30-44 reported reading e-books regularly, while three times the number of men 18-29 did.

Additionally, religion sales for that male segment accounted for 8% of its total purchases. "We tend sometimes to think of religion as appealing more to women, but don't count men out in some of these key segments," Gallagher said. "Make sure you are creating titles that will appeal to that segment as well because they certainly have an appetite for it."

AAP Vice President Tina Jordan said that the Bowker research--drawn from its PubTrack Consumer surveys--provided insights into "pockets of opportunity in the light of the evolution of the digital market." Gallagher noted that although still a small portion of the total, e-book sales grew notably during the year.

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