Winter 2011 Kindle Readers' Survey Reaches 2,000 Respondents for First Time Ever, But There's Still Time for Last-Minute Participants

Editor's Note:  A year ago, "Kindle Nation" numbered people who read ebooks on their Amazon Kindles.  Apps (applications) bringing Kindle Store books to iPads, iPhones, Android Phones and Tablets, Blackberrys and more have changed all that.  If you read ebooks or want to know more about the ebook revolution, please take the survey.  It's historic because it is shaping up as the largest survey of ebook reading to date.--Tom Dulaney, Editor, Planet iPad.)

by Stephen Windwalker

Editor of Kindle Nation &
Publisher of Planet iPad

The late breaking news here at Kindle Nation is that at 9:24 am Eastern time (GMT-5) today we have officially reached 2,000 participants in the Winter 2011 Kindle Nation Citizen Survey for the first time ever. This is our fifth survey since we began conducting them twice each year, and each survey's participation level has surpassed its predecessors, but with this one the citizens of Kindle Nation have blown through the 2,000 mark with almost 48 hours left before the survey closes at midnight Hawaii time on Monday night, January 31.

Special thanks to all of our participants and to our colleagues at Len at The Kindle Chronicles podcast, Bufo at the I Love My Kindle blog, Catherine at the Kindle Lending Club website, and Harvey at KindleBoards for helping to spread the word about the survey.

There's still time to participate by clicking on this link:

Take the Winter 2011 Kindle Nation Citizen Survey 

Among other things, the survey results so far carry plenty of good news for indie authors and publishers. Here are some take-aways from a snapshot we took yesterday after the first 1,900 respondents.

Respondents continue to have strong positive feelings about bestselling authors (56% positive, 3% negative), but they don't think much of the big agency model publishers (10% positive, 41% negative). Indeed, they have much more positive feelings, for instance, about:

• Independent and emerging authors (52% positive, 1% negative)
• Small independent publishers (35.5% positive, 4% negative)
• Kindle Nation Daily (71% positive, 2% negative)

Influences such as electronic and print media reviews, bestseller lists, Oprah, or big bookstore displays in pointing readers to the books that they actually buy are in decline. Instead, respondents ranked the following, in order, as far more likely to influence them to buy books:

• recommended or listed by Amazon.
• recommended, listed, or excerpted on Kindle Nation.
• reading a free excerpt, author interview, or other material on Kindle Nation or another source.
• recommended by a friend, relative, or colleague.

Indie authors and indie publishers cannot survive without indie readers, and increasingly, readers are acting as if they are in charge when it comes to selecting the books they will read or acting as if they, the readers, are the final price-setting authorities:

• 89% of respondents identified with the statement, "I frequently choose to delay purchasing an ebook that I want to read if I believe that the price is too high."
• 76% of respondents identified with the statement, "If publishers keep charging higher bestseller prices, I'll buy more backlist or indie titles."

And here, if you are interested, are links for our previous Kindle Nation Survey Results:

• Spring 2009
• Fall 2009
• Winter 2010  
• Summer 2010