Who is the Educated Lay Reader?

Charles Watkinson, Director, University of Michigan Press

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Jamie Jones, Director, Sales Marketing Outreach,

University of Michigan Press

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March 17, 2026

The Challenge

https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/having-fun-at-book-club-gm1132787678-300443559

• “educated lay reader”
• “academic trade”
• “crossover audience”

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. . . Who are these people in stock photos? What books do they like and why? And how do we reach them more intentionally?

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How we know what we know

• Print
• Sales patterns – when the data is available
• Reviews in “mainstream” media
• Author interviews and invitations to speak
• Anecdotes

• Ebook
• Altmetrics (e.g., Altmetric.com, Overton, Plum Analytics)
• “Turnaways” or other use not associated with educational IP addresses
• Geographical spread of use beyond university centers

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What if we just ask?

• University of Michigan’s Fulcrum book publishing platform (restricted + open access books)
• Used by 34 publishers (including comprehensive services for AUPresses members such as Aberdeen, Amherst, Lever, Vermont, Westminster)
• Responses to survey of people downloading ca. 1,000 open access titles
• ca. 9,000 responses collected May 2020-January 2026
• There were over 6 million Total Item Requests for the OA books during that period.
• So fewer than 1% of users responded to the survey, but their responses were often detailed.

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https://doi.org/10.16997/mpub.14614695

Introducing the Study

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2022/05/05/who-uses-open-access-research-evidence-from-the-use-of-us-national-academies-reports/

Studying UP book use extends our understanding of categories like “serious leisure” and AHSS versus National Academies consensus reports

Method

• Survey question: Why are you interested in this book?
• Responses to other questions also helped
• 1,227 responses were empty
• 7,813 usable responses
• Team coded responses into 39 categories of use
• Team = Diana Hicks, Ameet Doshi, Charles Watkinson. The following slides were created by Diana Hicks.

visualization by Diana Hicks, 03/02/2026

Academic use is the largest category – 44%

academic use – 44%

share of all 7,813 responses

A substantial minority of academic users endure precarity or career gaps, e.g., lack of access to licensed ebooks

But 56% are non-academic users

56% of responses

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Titles of scholarly vs public interest

Academic interest

• Digital Rhetoric: Theory, Method, Practice
• Shaping technology/building society: studies in sociotechnical change
• Oplontis: Villa A ( “of Poppaea”) at Torre Annunziata, Italy
• Developing Writers in Higher Education: A Longitudinal Study

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Public interest

• A Domestic Cook Book: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen
• Assumptions of Physics
• Writing in Time: Emily Dickinson
• Vidding: A History
• Farm Boys: Lives of Gay Men from the Rural Midwest

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In top 10 on both academic & public lists

Public motivation

Why does the public read open access books published by university presses?

Q: “Why are you interested in this book?”�A: “I’m interested in the topic”

Category: about book

A: the topic

Examples:

• "The topic of extractivism and resources”
• "Subject”
• "It's about Vietnam”
• "Archaeology of Iran”

Category: interested

A: I’m interested in the topic

Examples:

• "interested in women and gender in Africa”
• "I have interest in both the subject and the author”
• "It deals with a subject I am interested in”
• "Personal interest”
• "Interested in food and history”

12%

24%

A: “work stuff”

Examples:

• "Interested in cataloging and adding it to an online index of free online books.”
• "I am an international lawyer”
• "I'm doing research for a novel set in Heian Japan”
• "As a journalist, I may quote selected segments in articles”
• "Might use it for text in a graphic design project”

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A: “something to do with other people”

Examples:

• "the author is a friend”
• "The author is giving a guest lecture at my institution”

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• "I want to teach my children about the war in Bosnia und Herzegovina”
• "A friend posted about this book on Facebook”

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• "I have a study group reading on the history of slavery”
• "For discussion in book club”

A: “I want to improve myself”

Personal edification

• “To enlarge my knowledge about indigenous people”
• “I am interested in learning about the plants of Michigan”
• “To understand predatory journals in detail”
• “The concept is interesting and I feel like this would help further educate me about how to approach sensitive subject matter”
• “I'm working in media and I like to think things through”

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Independent research

• “I am an amateur scholar of renaissance drama”
• “I'm an independent researcher, and it might be relevant to my work”

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Hobby

• “I do Latin letter calligraphy as a hobby, so I hoped this book would have nice illustrations of Asian character calligraphy”
• “I myself am a stamp collector and would like to read about the historic culture which surrounds the community”

Q: “Is there anything else you would like to tell us?”�A: “I’m retired”

• The retired code superseded the other codes
• 104 respondents are retired
• Often retired professors
• Often grateful for the lack of paywall

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A: “It speaks to my experience or my identity”

Examples:

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• “I use tumblr”
• "Game poems are what I want to make”
• "I work with teachers in Oaxaca”
• "I am an indegenous Javanese person”
• "I want to start a Food Stop”
• "My father was a Detroit Fire Fighter in 1967. I was 11 that summer. I am always eager to learn above events preceding and during that summer”

A: “I like/am a fan/love”�Emotional engagement

Curiosity

• “puzzling title”
• “Curious about platforms and tumblr as a culture”

Like

• “I Like vidding”
• “I like music”

Fascination

• “Fascinating and valuable find”
• “I'm interested in women's history and find postcard art fascinating”

Fan

• "Dickenson fan”
• "I'm a rule of law enthusiast”
• "I am a fan of the theme, the video game silent hill”

Love

• "I love poetry and Emily Dickinson”
• "I have a love of history of Michigan”

A: “let me just take this opportunity to let you know what I think about . . .”

Examples:

• "Unprecedented times”
• "Improvisation is a regenerative organic force in life”
• "The surge of anti-women legislature passed by right-wing religious authoritarians globally is concerning, and I want to learn about the history of abortion pills and the distortions used to attempt to ban it in the US”
• "Constitutional rights are a wasting asset - must be exercised or they will be lost”
• "I'm Canadian so the Arctic and our sovereignty against poaching states is super important. But Canada is too weak to protect its borders sadly”

<2% of respondents

Examples:

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Activist

• "working on digital inclusion of urban poor”
• "I am an extract-ivist related activist –so am hoping it will help me better understand key trends so my solidarity work can be more effective.”
• "I’m a longstanding Women’s health advocate and activist”

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Wikipedia

• "Because I contribute regularly to Wikipedia”

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Author of book or book chapter

• "I am one of the authors”

https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/

Titles favor particular categories

Taken together, these states trace a progression; a level of “fervency”

visualization by Diana Hicks

Moving from Knowledge to Action

At University of Michigan Press, we’re seeking ways to build on this information:

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• Activating author networks
• Serving dedicated self-improvers
• Improving public library availability

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. . . Looking for other ideas

Activate author networks

• Seasonal author webinar enlisting the cohort of new authors to cross-promote each other’s books and tips and tricks to activate their networks
• Author tools such as easy to share discount codes and visual assets to promote their own books on social media and email lists
• Add book club questions and resources for academic books

Serve dedicated self-improvers

• Launch of the “Voracious Reader Newsletter” focused on dedicated self-improvers
• Not just one free-to-read book a month, but promoting whole OA collection
• Building sign-ups for this as a separate marketing segment

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https://press.umich.edu/Blog/2026/02/Introducing-the-Voracious-Reader-Newsletter

Sign up by checking off

“free ebooks”

Improve public library availability

• Partnership with Lyrasis to add books to The Palace Project marketplace, including open access titles from the 11 UPs in the Big Ten Open Book collection
• Collaboration with the other two university presses in Michigan to make regional ebooks freely accessible to individuals within the boundaries of the State of Michigan, in collaboration with the Library of Michigan.

Now over to you . . .

• jojamie@umich.edu (Jamie)
• watkinc@umich.edu (Charles)

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How do you envisage the “educated lay reader”?

What resonates with you in the data presented?

What other ways can we reach these readers?

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