Here at Hot Sheet, we’re always a bit skeptical of polls that focus on the health of reading. The latest one from Gallup claims that the average number of books read per year has fallen to 12.6 from 15.6 (in 2016) in the US. What’s responsible for the drop? Apparently, the same number of Americans are reading, but fewer Americans are reading more than 10 books per year.
Given that book buying was up in 2021 and book publishers haven’t seen a better year for sales, take these Gallup results with a big grain of salt. One industry vet we know said that a good headline for this Gallup poll would be “Americans continue to prioritize reading amidst challenging times.” More importantly, such polls may not capture subscription-based and online fiction reading through Kindle Unlimited or Wattpad. One must ask who is captured by this Gallup poll, which was conducted by telephone. The many, many BookTokkers? Young people? We wouldn’t worry about this—yet.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
