The African American Book Buyers Research Committee, which operates under the auspices of the Book Industry Study Group Inc., has raised $32,500 of the $50,000 needed to fund a comprehensive national study of African-American book-buying habits. The group is still seeking contributors to complete funding for the study, which will begin when the full $50,000 is raised. So far, contributions have come from Time Warner Trade Publishing, Random House, Simon & Schuster, Black Entertainment Television and John Wiley & Sons.
The research will be carried out by Ken Smikle, president of Target Market News, a Chicago firm that studies marketing, advertising and media directed to African-American consumers. According to the research proposal, the African-American segment of the book-buying market represents $300 million in book expenditures annually, but there are no current studies available that provide publishers, retailers and others with the information they need to better understand African-American book consumers. The most recent examination of African-American book purchases was a survey conducted by the Gallup Organization and published in Bookselling This Week in January 1996.
For information, contact Anita Diggs: (212) 522-2968; e-mail: anita_diggs@timeinc.com.
