The first comprehensive study of the American book buyer in a decade.
In field from September 2026 - results published November 2026.
The Gap
Sales data tells us what sold - but we don't have the answer to who bought those books, how they found them, why they bought them, or if they actually finished the book.
There hasn't been a detailed, comprehensive study of the US book buyer in something like a decade — since before COVID, BookTok, Romantasy, and the rise of audiobooks and AI. It’s a fair guess that plenty has changed.
Consumer Compass is a syndicated study of 5,000 US book buyers, built to close that gap.
What it measures
Who the buyer is — profiled by genre rather than averaged across the market
How they discover books — every channel, ranked, including social media by type content type and AI by tool and prompt
Where and how they buy — retailer and channel choice, full price or discount, planned or impulse, subscription or purchase
Format — the print, ebook and audio mix, and why a buyer chooses one over another
Audio in depth — platforms, subscription behaviour, paid-for extra hours, listening outside the retail ecosystem, and whether podcasts compete for the same time
Children's and teen — 13-17s completing their own survey, alongside the parent view of the same household
AI in books — how readers feel about AI-generated text, and whether they think it should be disclosed
What makes it different
AI discovery, measured directly. An AI-driven sale is currently invisible — ask a chatbot for a recommendation, buy on Amazon, and it looks like any other sale. We ask which tool was involved and what people actually asked it.
Teenagers answering for themselves. Most of the consumer data behind YA comes from the adults who buy for teenagers. Consumer Compass includes 13–17s completing their own survey with parental consent, plus a parallel parent view of the same household.
Genre-level, not an average. 'The US book buyer' is an average of many very different people. This measures them separately.
Methodology
5,000 US book buyers · screened for a purchase in the last three months · industry insiders excluded · quotas benchmarked to a nationally representative survey of 3,179 US adults · fieldwork September–October 2026 · delivered through an interactive reporting tool with cross-tabulation and visualisation
Full methodology on request.
An ongoing measure for the industry
Following our 2026 pilot wave, Consumer Compass aims to launch as a monthly ongoing tracking service in 2027.
Subscribing partners will have the opportunity to shape the future of the project, including the survey questions, plus receive access to the full reporting tool, a briefing session for your team, and a data file on request.
If you'd like to discuss access, or you have a question you'd like the data to answer, get in touch: info@bookinsights.ai