For more results from this survey, check out Book-Giving Etiquette Guide and I Love You, Keith Richards.
“My siblings assume that every book I get is free, so they expect books AND a ‘real present.’”
“Any time I give a book, I fear it will be assumed that I did not pay for it, so I always try to find ways to mention the shopping trip.”
“I include a return receipt in case they want to exchange it (and of course as evidence of its purchase).”
“My stepmother was so accustomed to getting books from me all year round, that whenever I carefully shopped for some special favorites for the holidays, she just returned them to me after reading them—as if they were just like the ones I had loaned her. No matter how many times I’d say, ‘I bought those for you!’, she’d give them back.”
As the results of our Holiday Books: Giving and Getting Survey rolled in, we realized we’d hit a collective nerve: People in publishing around the world (okay, mostly in the U.S.—but 40.3% of our survey respondents were from somewhere other than New York City!) simultaneously enjoy and fret over giving books as holiday gifts. The proof of actual payment! The schnorring! The reluctant readers! All are enough to tempt book publishing folk to wrap up socks, booze, or video games instead. Luckily, they aren’t succumbing: 95% of the two hundred-plus respondents to our survey—a mixture of agents, editors, and many others—are giving books as gifts this holiday season:
(Children could be one’s own or could belong to somebody else.)
Books as gifts are not limited to friends and family: Other responses included coworkers, neighbors, trainers “colleagues, service providers…everyone!”, “son’s teachers,” and “fellow support-group members.”
Our respondents claim they are not swiping all these gift books from the shelves at their workplaces. 54.3% said that none of the books they give as gifts will be obtained for free from their workplace. 31.1% are taking a few; 9.1% are taking some; 2.4% are taking half, and 3% are taking most.
How does price affect our respondents’ buying decisions? Of those buying books to give as gifts, 30.2% say that price is an issue; 32.7% say they don’t worry about price of books at all. 31.5% don’t worry about price if a book is under $30; 5.6% don’t worry about price if the book is under $50. But “price is an issue with everything,” one respondent said. Another “will buy regardless, but will look for the lowest price.”
When we asked about schnorring books to give as gifts, 91.7% of respondents said they don’t worry about price, and 5.8% say the higher the price, the better. A few didn’t know what “schnorring” means (for the record, dictionary definition: “Obtain or seek to obtain by cadging or wheedling”; our definition: “Obtain or seek to obtain by calling up a friend at another publishing house and asking for [X]”). One respondent doesn’t waste all that energy on others: “If I schnorr I do it for myself.” (Which raises another question we should have asked, but didn’t—how many of the books you are giving as gifts will be obtained for free from the publishing houses where your friends work?) One innocent said, “Darn! It hadn’t even occurred to me to ‘schnorr’ for books to give as gifts.” But it’s occurred to plenty of others: Many respondents at publishing houses both large and small noted that friends are hitting them up for large, gifty (read: expensive) books, especially cookbooks (Southern Pies; Salted; The Gourmet Cookie Book; One Big Table; Kansha; Zwilling J. A. Henckels Complete Book of Knife Skills; Essential New York Times Cookbook).
Hitting the Mall…Or Not: Where Gift Books Are Being Bought
Most popular independent bookstores:
- Three Lives, 154 W. 10th St., NYC.
- TIE: McNally Jackson, 52 Prince St., NYC; and Posman Books, Grand Central and Chelsea Market, NYC.
- St. Mark’s Bookshop, 31 Third Ave., NYC.
- TIE: Greenlight Bookstore, 686 Fulton St., Brooklyn, NY; Book People, 603 N. Lamar Blvd., Austin, TX.
Some respondents rely on independent bookstores when possible, but use Amazon as a backup. “Books of Wonder for kids’ books; everything else, Amazon,” wrote one. Another uses Amazon “for long-distance friends,” and a third relies on it “for gifting far away.” Never underestimate the power of the desire to avoid USPS at the holidays.
BOOKS IN OTHER FORMS
49% of respondents will be giving gift cards to bookstores.
If you are giving gift cards, where are you buying them?
Where respondents are buying gift cards
Respondents also aren’t sold on e-readers—either to receive or to give. 50.3% of them already own a standalone e-reader (however, several respondents included an iPad in this category); 49.7% do not. Those without are not necessarily looking to change that this year: While 20% of them hope to find an e-reader under the tree this year, 75% do not. “I wouldn’t mind, but I can’t think of who would give me one,” one respondent wrote, while another said, “I’d be glad to get one but am not sure which I prefer yet.” Of those who do want an e-reader, here are their brand preferences:
Survey respondents' e-reader brand preferences
And only 8.6% of respondents plan to give an e-reader as a gift. They’ll be wrapping up Kindles (43%), iPads (36%), or Nooks (21%).
