According to thecut.com, “Adults—as in, people age 18 or older—now account for nearly 80 percent of sales of young adult titles…” (Dahl, 2014). Due to the rise of book sales within adults, my target audience is young adult females within the ages of 18-29 years old due to rise in social media influencing Generation Z to give reading a chance by diving into an adventure of a highly rated book. Marketingcharts.com states, “eighty-four percent of Echo Boomers 18-33 who have read a book in the past year have read a fiction book, compared to 76% of both Baby Boomers 46-64 and Matures 65 and older” (marketingcharts.com, 2010). Fictional Fling’s target audience is women within this demographic because reading is primarily more popular within females and social media, like TikTok, is promoting reading within this target audience by forming a reading community within genres that are more popular with females.

Thecut.com also states, “overall, 60.5 percent of the young adult books sold were purchased by women, and 39.5 percent were bought by men. That gender disparity mirrors Pew research from January showing that men read fewer books of any genre—an average of four a year, as compared to six for women” (Dahl, 2014). When thinking about books, the genres that are promoted the most on social media and on book store websites, like Barnes and Noble, are fantasy, romance, mystery/thriller, and young adult fiction that often appeals more to female readers. Marketingcharts.com also states, “Female fiction readers have read mystery/thriller/crime books at a much higher rate than male readers (57% compared to 39%), although it is the most popular genre for both genders. The most pronounced difference is in the rate of reading romance books (37% of women compared to 3% of men)…” (marketingcharts.com, 2010). With the rise of technology, the use of social media, and popular trends found online, book consumption is more predominantly found within my demographic of my company (18-29 year olds) due to younger adults growing up with the use of social media where many book promotions are found and trends like Bind Date with a Book and the rise of stickers being used as a way to express younger adults are found to be more popular within my demographic than it is for older adults. Although, it is important to state that people older than the target audience is still welcome and encouraged to purchase this subscription box as the books that are shown in unboxings online can and still would be enjoyed by older audiences.