There has been a noticeable revitalization within the book industry in America and across the globe thanks to the efforts of social media trends and movements like BookTok. A whole new reader base, largely comprised of women, has cemented itself within the industry. Unsurprisingly, this has led to a boom in the romance genre; now more than ever, there is a lengthy catalogue of new works to choose from. However, it isn’t just romance; all genres are seeing a boost of favorability, aided on by the increased popularization of audiobooks.
That said, with all these positives, there has been a large demographic that has been ignored and is only growing smaller by the year; male readers. Male readership used to be a large swath of the book industry; however, in the current year, the National Endowment for the Arts noted only 27.7% of men actually read a work of fiction compared to 40% of women.
Its a fascinating demographic shift, made even more interesting when it was found that current-day men tend to read more non-fiction books than women, likely because the non-fiction genre has more male authorship. Additionally, due to the trend I male readers to lifestyle and self-help content could also be a cause of this change.
That isn’t to say men don’t read fiction anymore, only that the subjects female authors tend to write about don’t speak to a large part of male readers. The Book industry needs to find a balance if it wants to increase the male readership within fiction while not pushing away its female readership.
