Surprising Results of Last Week's Survey on What Readers Want

Okay,the results are in on what readers want, and it's very fascinating!  There was alarge response, and I've summed up the results. Take a look:

Do you know the difference betweensweet romance and clean?  The majoritysaid yes, but 40% said they didn't know. I didn't know for many years. Sweet romance means there's no bedroom scenes or offensivelanguage.  A clean romance means nobedroom scenes but there is some level of language.Do you only read one genre of romance? 80% percent said no.  The most read genre tended to be romanticsuspense.Do you prefer a romance book with a down-to-earthhero or a hero with money, confidence and no character flaws? Our down-to-earth heroes won byan impressive 98%.  The comments werethat these heroes were more believable, like someone you'd really meet.Does a contemporary book withincorrect facts stop you from finishing the book?  35% ofthe readers said it did.  Add that tothe 46% that said sometimes, and authors better start working harder on theirresearch.Do punctuation or grammatical errorsstop you from finishing a book?  47% ofthe readers said that sometimes it did, but only 23% said it woulddefinitely stop them. That's a little better than the incorrect facts, folks.Are you wary of self-published books? The answer to this was pretty much a tie with yes slightly ahead. The general comment was that you reada lot of bad but often find a gem.Do you read to escape and like happily-ever-afterendings?  A resounding 64% said they did read to escape and preferred HEA because there isso much bad going on in the world. Which do you prefer: ebooks or print books? Both was clearly the winner and from the comments, both obviously have their merits.  But between ebooks and printbooks, readers preferred print 39% toonly 9% ebooks.  Very interesting!What makes you choose a book? I have to admit, I was surprised by the results of this one. Jacket blurb took the lead at 73%.  Word-or-mouth was second at 55%. I expectedcover art to be the clear winner.

Thereyou have it!  I hope this little surveyshed some light on the subject of what readers want.  It sure has for me. 
Letme know if you won the $100 Amazon Gift Card and have a great week!
Cindy A. ChristiansenSweet Romance, Comedy,Suspense…and Dogs!Fly into a good book todayat:  http://www.dragonflyromance.com

Cindy A. Christiansen
Sweet (clean) Romance Author