Survey Results Revealed and Analyzed

About a week ago I decided to make a survey. I've had a lot of marketing questions lately and I always get mixed responses from various people. Authors will tell you to market and giveaway as much as possible. But my question was, do READERS actually enter giveaways? This is huge for me since I'm a college student, I'm broke. If I'm investing in book and swag then I want there to be pay off. Or to at least give the readers something they want.

So, the survey was born. Here are the questions with their answers...

1) Do you use bookmarks?
a. Yes
b. No

2) Do you like receiving book swag?
a. Yes
b. No
c. Sometimes

3) How do you like to read?
a. Paperback
b. Digital
c. Audio
d. I don't read

4) Do you enter giveaways frequently?
a. Yes
b. No

5) Do you review books?
a. Yes
b. No

6) What entices you to enter a giveaway?

7) How much do you typically spend on a ebook?
a. Free
b. .01-.99
c. $1.00-$1.99
d. $2.00-$2.99
e. $3.00-$3.99
f. $4.00-$4.99
g. $5.00 and up

8) In a typical month, how much do you spend on books?
a. 0-$15
b. $16-$30
c. $31-$60
d. $61+

So each person was able to check off one box and for some fill in with comments. Here are the percentages for each answer...Drum roll please...

1) 60% participants use bookmarks. Two people commented.
"Rarely, I use my kindle"
"I love to have them but never remember to use them"

2) 40% answered yes and sometimes, the other 20% said no.

3) 50% answered paperback, 50% answered digitally.

4) 75% said no.

5) 63% of people review books.

6) These were all comments, I'll list a few that stood out.
"The least amount of work with the greatest chance to win"
"Awesome stuff that I don't want to buy elsewhere"
"Free stuff"
"If the book sounds interesting"

7) 30% spend between $2.00 and $2.99. 20% get free books. While the others were all even at around 10%.

8) Almost 50% spend 0-$15 a month on novels. 36% spend $16-$30 and 20% spend $31-$60.

So what do these results mean and how do I interpret them?

One thing that I was very surprised about was question three. I figured most readers have transferred over to their kindles by now and paperback novel reading was going out of style. But the fact that 50% read on each was huge. I have kindle and paperback books and it makes me want to continue using both formats.

Another thing that struck me was the bookmark question. Which goes along with number three. The reason I asked is because I just had bookmarks made up to hand out and was wondering if that was actually smart. The fact that 60% of you said you use bookmarks is HUGE.

The giveaways question is another that struck me as odd. I always see author's do giveaways, heck, I do them too! But truth is, most of you won't enter. I think the quote, "the least amount of work with greatest chance to win" says enough. People are busy and don't have time to like all of our social media networks. A simple button would entice more people to enter. I agree with that because I almost never enter giveaways, I hate liking people's pages and what not, just to get their book. I might as well buy it. So I agree and get that.

I like that the average price a person will pay for an ebook is 2.99. I think that shows that people want to pay a little more for something of better quality. I know a lot of people who refuse to pay more than .99 for an ebook and it irks me! I think 2.99 is a perfect price for ebooks (as long as it's full length).

However, most people put that they only spend about $15 a month on books. For some reason that seems really low to me. I don't know if it's because they're reviewers and get books for free or what but only $15 a month is like me buying coffee at starbucks!

Lastly, I don't know if it correlates to who I'm friends with on my social networks (a lot being reviewers for my books and the like) but 63% review books and I LOVE this. Reviewers are what make author's popular and get the word out.

So what do you think of the results? Agree or disagree? How do you take the results? Will it change the way you price your books or buy books? Are you more willing to enter giveaways or host them? Do you want a bookmark now? Comment!