Ticonderoga Online Survey

[jack_ryder]

If you are a reader/writer of science fiction,punkrocker1991wants you to do this survey

Frankly I have problems with the phrasing of some of the questions (exactly how does one subscribe to Antipodean SF? Though I've just noticed they have an RSS feed - shows how long it's been since I've looked at the site.) And I think some of the questions demonstrate the parochial nature of the Aus SF scene (questions about do you buy stuff because your friends are in it? Well, yes and no, I'd be broke if I bought and chased down everything.)

And I couldn't model successfully the fact that the last two genre books I bought were solely because they were by writers I liked.

There were also no questions about accessing Australian SF through libraries (which makes sense if the underlying purpose of the survey is commercial.)

But don't listen to me. Do the survey. Win fabulous prizes. Support the Aus SF scene. Give blood generously.

(edited, slightly, because it's not just Russ's survey - see comments)

Comments

[mrteufel.livejournal.com]

Ok, most of what you say is fair comment. I'll rephrase my contention as a prediction: The subset of all readers of Sf in Australia that actually know an Australian SF author will be very small, max maybe 5%, probably smaller.

Yes, this is anecdotal; I probably bought SF books for two decades before I ever met my SF writing friends, and it was another decade of SF buying before they published things I could buy.

The other question I guess you're trying to answer is: Do Australian Sf readers buy Australian SF writers a)specifically because they're Australian; b)because they're good SF writers.

And I didn't mean 'biased' when I said 'twisted'. I meant that the information requested seemed like an unusual set of questions for a commersial survey. But of course if you want to see how strong a driver such things as personal knowledge of the author is, you do have to ask those questions. Conceded.

Of course, I also have doubts about the reliability of the internet to provide an appropriate random sample for the servey, hence reliable results. Especially as your survey is being currently promoted by local authors and those who know them. Isn't that bound to skew results?

Not sure what you could do about that without costing $$$. Maybe Galaxy Bookshop and others could add you to their links page?

[jack-ryder.livejournal.com]

There's a disconnect between what the survey says it's examining (direct quote from the website: "the first ever Australian research survey of readers of SF") and what Russ has indicated as the focus in his comments - [paraphrase] "readers of small-press Aus SF".

The focus of the questions in this respect make more sense, however it's not what the survey itself says it's testing.

Especially as it's now been linked to by Boing Boing so you'll get more readers of Australian SF who may be unfamiliar with the small-press scene.

[mrteufel.livejournal.com]

It's good to hear it will get more punters.

[punkrocker1991.livejournal.com]

The survey has been promoted on a number of sites, including VoyagerOnline and BoingBoing. AM in the process of looking for other sites, and when I get a hard copy version will send copies around to a number of places. Have had approximately 300 responses to date from around the world so am certainly hoping to get results outside of local writer sites. If you like you can help by promoting the survey to people you know to get more reliable results.

I'm also hoping to have hardcopies floating around the Freecon in Sydney later this month.

I'd suspect the numer of readers who know/have met writers is a little larger than 5%, but unfortunately this is not being directly surveyed. Might ask that next year.

And thanks for doing the survey.

[i-ate-my-crusts.livejournal.com]

I'd suspect the numer of readers who know/have met writers is a little larger than 5%, but unfortunately this is not being directly surveyed. Might ask that next year.

Given that the size of the readership is 20,000+ (based on my admittedly secondhand knowledge of Sara Douglass's print runs), 5% would be 1000. Galaxy signings rarely get very large crowds, and mostly for overseas authors, rather than Australian authors, so I'd expect tat 5% to be about right, but it'd be nice to have data. Then again, the data is mostly useful from a small press perspective, rather than wider publishing perspective.