thinbluemime
2012-07-02 09:18:54 UTC
Your E-Book Is Reading You
Digital-book publishers and retailers now know more about their readers
than ever before. How that's changing the experience of reading.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230487030457749095005143830=
4.html
By ALEXANDRA ALTER June 29, 2012
It takes the average reader just seven hours to read the final book in
Suzanne Collins's "Hunger Games" trilogy on the Kobo e-reader=E2=80=94ab=
out 57
pages an hour. Nearly 18,000 Kindle readers have highlighted the same li=
ne
from the second book in the series: "Because sometimes things happe=
n
to people and they're not equipped to deal with them." And on Barnes &
Noble's Nook, the first thing that most readers do upon finishing the
first "Hunger Games" book is to download the next one.
In the past, publishers and authors had no way of knowing what happens
when a reader sits down with a book. Does the reader quit after three
pages, or finish it in a single sitting? Do most readers skip over the
introduction, or read it closely, underlining passages and scrawling not=
es
in the margins? Now, e-books are providing a glimpse into the story behi=
nd
the sales figures, revealing not only how many people buy particular
books, but how intensely they read them.
For centuries, reading has largely been a solitary and private act, an
intimate exchange between the reader and the words on the page. But the
rise of digital books has prompted a profound shift in the way we read,
transforming the activity into something measurable and quasi-public.
The major new players in e-book publishing=E2=80=94Amazon, Apple and Goo=
gle=E2=80=94can
easily track how far readers are getting in books, how long they spend
reading them and which search terms they use to find books. Book apps fo=
r
tablets like the iPad, Kindle Fire and Nook record how many times reader=
s
open the app and how much time they spend reading. Retailers and some
publishers are beginning to sift through the data, gaining unprecedented=
insight into how people engage with books.
Publishing has lagged far behind the rest of the entertainment industry
when it comes to measuring consumers' tastes and habits. TV producers
relentlessly test new shows through focus groups; movie studios run film=
s
through a battery of tests and retool them based on viewers' reactions.
But in publishing, reader satisfaction has largely been gauged by sales
data and reviews=E2=80=94metrics that offer a postmortem measure of succ=
ess but
can't shape or predict a hit. That's beginning to change as publishers a=
nd
booksellers start to embrace big data, and more tech companies turn thei=
r
sights on publishing.
Barnes & Noble, which accounts for 25% to 30% of the e-book market throu=
gh
its Nook e-reader, has recently started studying customers' digital
reading behavior. Data collected from Nooks reveals, for example, how fa=
r
readers get in particular books, how quickly they read and how readers o=
f
particular genres engage with books. Jim Hilt, the company's vice
president of e-books, says the company is starting to share their insigh=
ts
with publishers to help them create books that better hold people's
attention.
The stakes are high for the company as it seeks a greater share of the
e-book market. Sales of Nook devices rose 45% this past fiscal year, and=
e-book sales for the Nook rose 119%. Overall, Nook devices and e-books
generated $1.3 billion, compared to $880 million the previous year.
Microsoft recently invested $300 million for a 17.6% stake of the Nook.
Mr. Hilt says that the company is still in "the earliest stages of deep
analytics" and is sifting through "more data than we can use." But the
data=E2=80=94which focuses on groups of readers, not individuals=E2=80=94=
has already
yielded some useful insights into how people read particular genres. Som=
e
of the findings confirm what retailers already know by glancing at the
best-seller lists. For example, Nook users who buy the first book in a
popular series like "Fifty Shades of Grey" or "Divergent," a young-adult=
series by Veronica Roth, tend to tear through all the books in the serie=
s,
almost as if they were reading a single novel.
Barnes & Noble has determined, through analyzing Nook data, that
nonfiction books tend to be read in fits and starts, while novels are
generally read straight through, and that nonfiction books, particularly=
long ones, tend to get dropped earlier. Science-fiction, romance and
crime-fiction fans often read more books more quickly than readers of
literary fiction do, and finish most of the books they start. Readers of=
literary fiction quit books more often and tend skip around between book=
s.
Those insights are already shaping the types of books that Barnes & Nobl=
e
sells on its Nook. Mr. Hilt says that when the data showed that Nook
readers routinely quit long works of nonfiction, the company began looki=
ng
for ways to engage readers in nonfiction and long-form journalism. They
decided to launch "Nook Snaps," short works on topics ranging from weigh=
t
loss and religion to the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Pinpointing the moment when readers get bored could also help publishers=
create splashier digital editions by adding a video, a Web link or other=
multimedia features, Mr. Hilt says. Publishers might be able to determin=
e
when interest in a fiction series is flagging if readers who bought and
finished the first two books quickly suddenly slow down or quit reading
later books in the series.
"The bigger trend we're trying to unearth is where are those drop-offs i=
n
certain kinds of books, and what can we do with publishers to prevent
that?" Mr. Hilt says. "If we can help authors create even better books
than they create today, it's a win for everybody."
Some authors welcome the prospect. Novelist Scott Turow says he's long
been frustrated by the industry's failure to study its customer base. "I=
once had an argument with one of my publishers when I said, 'I've been
publishing with you for a long time and you still don't know who buys my=
books,' and he said, 'Well, nobody in publishing knows that,' " says Mr.=
Turow, president of the Authors Guild. "If you can find out that a book =
is
too long and you've got to be more rigorous in cutting, personally I'd
love to get the information."
Others worry that a data-driven approach could hinder the kinds of
creative risks that produce great literature. "The thing about a book is=
that it can be eccentric, it can be the length it needs to be, and that =
is
something the reader shouldn't have anything to do with," says Jonathan
Galassi, president and publisher of Farrar, Straus & Giroux. "We're not
going to shorten 'War and Peace' because someone didn't finish it."
Publishers are only just beginning to mull over the potential uses for
e-reading data. Many are skeptical that analytics can aid in the
industry's ongoing battle to woo consumers who are increasingly distract=
ed
by games and social media. But at a time when traditional publishers are=
losing ground to tech giants like Amazon and Apple, better analytics see=
m
to offer tantalizing possibilities.
Amazon, in particular, has an advantage in this field=E2=80=94it's both =
a retailer
and a publisher, which puts the company in a unique position to use the
data it gathers on its customers' reading habits. It's no secret that
Amazon and other digital book retailers track and store consumer
information detailing what books are purchased and read. Kindle users si=
gn
an agreement granting the company permission to store information from t=
he
device=E2=80=94including the last page you've read, plus your bookmarks,=
highlights, notes and annotations=E2=80=94in its data servers.
Amazon can identify which passages of digital books are popular with
readers, and shares some of this data publicly on its website through
features such as its "most highlighted passages" list. Readers digitally=
"highlight" selections using a button on the Kindle; they can also opt t=
o
see the lines commonly highlighted by other readers as they read a book.=
Amazon aggregates these selections to see what gets underlined the most.=
Topping the list is the line from the "Hunger Games" trilogy. It is
followed by the opening sentence of "Pride and Prejudice."
"We think of it as the collective intelligence of all the people reading=
on Kindle," says Amazon spokeswoman Kinley Pearsall.
Some privacy watchdogs argue that e-book users should be protected from
having their digital reading habits recorded. "There's a societal ideal
that what you read is nobody else's business," says Cindy Cohn, legal
director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit group that
advocates for consumer rights and privacy. "Right now, there's no way fo=
r
you to tell Amazon, I want to buy your books, but I don't want you to
track what I'm reading."
Amazon declined to comment on how it analyzes and uses the Kindle data i=
t
gathers.
EFF has pressed for legislation to prevent digital book retailers from
handing over information about individuals' reading habits as evidence t=
o
law enforcement agencies without a court's approval. Earlier this year,
California instituted the "reader privacy act," which makes it more
difficult for law-enforcement groups to gain access to consumers' digita=
l
reading records. Under the new law, agencies must get a court order befo=
re
they can require digital booksellers to turn over information revealing
which books their customers have browsed, purchased, read and underlined=
.
The American Civil Liberties Union and EFF, which partnered with Google
and other organizations to push for the legislation, are now seeking to
enact similar laws in other states.
Bruce Schneier, a cyber-security expert and author, worries that readers=
may steer clear of digital books on sensitive subjects such as health,
sexuality and security=E2=80=94including his own works=E2=80=94out of fe=
ar that their
reading is being tracked. "There are a gazillion things that we read tha=
t
we want to read in private," Mr. Schneier says.
There are some 40 million e-readers and 65 million tablets in use in the=
U.S., according to analysts at Forrester Research. In the first quarter =
of
2012, e-books generated $282 million in sales, compared to $230 million
for print, the Association of American Publishers recently found.
Meanwhile, the shift to digital books has fueled an arms race among
digital start-ups seeking to cash in on the massive pool of data collect=
ed
by e-reading devices and reading apps. New e-reading services, which all=
ow
readers to purchase and store books in a digital library and read them o=
n
different devices, have some of the most sophisticated reader tracking
software. The digital reading platform Copia, which has 50,000
subscribers, collects detailed demographic and reading data=E2=80=94incl=
uding the
age, gender and school affiliation of people who bought particular title=
s,
as well as how many times the books were downloaded, opened and read=E2=80=
=94and
shares its findings with publishers. Copia aggregates the data, so that
individual users aren't identifiable, and shares that information with
publishers that request it.
Kobo, which makes digital reading devices and operates an e-reading
service that stocks 2.5 million books and has more than eight million
users, has recently started looking at how readers as a whole engage wit=
h
particular books and genres. The company tracks how many hours readers
spend on particular titles and how far they get. Kobo recently found, fo=
r
example, that most readers who started George R.R. Martin's fantasy nove=
l
"A Dance With Dragons" finished the book, and spent an average of 20 hou=
rs
reading it, a relatively fast read for a 1,040-page novel.
Digital-book publishers and retailers now know more about their readers
than ever before. How that's changing the experience of reading.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230487030457749095005143830=
4.html
By ALEXANDRA ALTER June 29, 2012
It takes the average reader just seven hours to read the final book in
Suzanne Collins's "Hunger Games" trilogy on the Kobo e-reader=E2=80=94ab=
out 57
pages an hour. Nearly 18,000 Kindle readers have highlighted the same li=
ne
from the second book in the series: "Because sometimes things happe=
n
to people and they're not equipped to deal with them." And on Barnes &
Noble's Nook, the first thing that most readers do upon finishing the
first "Hunger Games" book is to download the next one.
In the past, publishers and authors had no way of knowing what happens
when a reader sits down with a book. Does the reader quit after three
pages, or finish it in a single sitting? Do most readers skip over the
introduction, or read it closely, underlining passages and scrawling not=
es
in the margins? Now, e-books are providing a glimpse into the story behi=
nd
the sales figures, revealing not only how many people buy particular
books, but how intensely they read them.
For centuries, reading has largely been a solitary and private act, an
intimate exchange between the reader and the words on the page. But the
rise of digital books has prompted a profound shift in the way we read,
transforming the activity into something measurable and quasi-public.
The major new players in e-book publishing=E2=80=94Amazon, Apple and Goo=
gle=E2=80=94can
easily track how far readers are getting in books, how long they spend
reading them and which search terms they use to find books. Book apps fo=
r
tablets like the iPad, Kindle Fire and Nook record how many times reader=
s
open the app and how much time they spend reading. Retailers and some
publishers are beginning to sift through the data, gaining unprecedented=
insight into how people engage with books.
Publishing has lagged far behind the rest of the entertainment industry
when it comes to measuring consumers' tastes and habits. TV producers
relentlessly test new shows through focus groups; movie studios run film=
s
through a battery of tests and retool them based on viewers' reactions.
But in publishing, reader satisfaction has largely been gauged by sales
data and reviews=E2=80=94metrics that offer a postmortem measure of succ=
ess but
can't shape or predict a hit. That's beginning to change as publishers a=
nd
booksellers start to embrace big data, and more tech companies turn thei=
r
sights on publishing.
Barnes & Noble, which accounts for 25% to 30% of the e-book market throu=
gh
its Nook e-reader, has recently started studying customers' digital
reading behavior. Data collected from Nooks reveals, for example, how fa=
r
readers get in particular books, how quickly they read and how readers o=
f
particular genres engage with books. Jim Hilt, the company's vice
president of e-books, says the company is starting to share their insigh=
ts
with publishers to help them create books that better hold people's
attention.
The stakes are high for the company as it seeks a greater share of the
e-book market. Sales of Nook devices rose 45% this past fiscal year, and=
e-book sales for the Nook rose 119%. Overall, Nook devices and e-books
generated $1.3 billion, compared to $880 million the previous year.
Microsoft recently invested $300 million for a 17.6% stake of the Nook.
Mr. Hilt says that the company is still in "the earliest stages of deep
analytics" and is sifting through "more data than we can use." But the
data=E2=80=94which focuses on groups of readers, not individuals=E2=80=94=
has already
yielded some useful insights into how people read particular genres. Som=
e
of the findings confirm what retailers already know by glancing at the
best-seller lists. For example, Nook users who buy the first book in a
popular series like "Fifty Shades of Grey" or "Divergent," a young-adult=
series by Veronica Roth, tend to tear through all the books in the serie=
s,
almost as if they were reading a single novel.
Barnes & Noble has determined, through analyzing Nook data, that
nonfiction books tend to be read in fits and starts, while novels are
generally read straight through, and that nonfiction books, particularly=
long ones, tend to get dropped earlier. Science-fiction, romance and
crime-fiction fans often read more books more quickly than readers of
literary fiction do, and finish most of the books they start. Readers of=
literary fiction quit books more often and tend skip around between book=
s.
Those insights are already shaping the types of books that Barnes & Nobl=
e
sells on its Nook. Mr. Hilt says that when the data showed that Nook
readers routinely quit long works of nonfiction, the company began looki=
ng
for ways to engage readers in nonfiction and long-form journalism. They
decided to launch "Nook Snaps," short works on topics ranging from weigh=
t
loss and religion to the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Pinpointing the moment when readers get bored could also help publishers=
create splashier digital editions by adding a video, a Web link or other=
multimedia features, Mr. Hilt says. Publishers might be able to determin=
e
when interest in a fiction series is flagging if readers who bought and
finished the first two books quickly suddenly slow down or quit reading
later books in the series.
"The bigger trend we're trying to unearth is where are those drop-offs i=
n
certain kinds of books, and what can we do with publishers to prevent
that?" Mr. Hilt says. "If we can help authors create even better books
than they create today, it's a win for everybody."
Some authors welcome the prospect. Novelist Scott Turow says he's long
been frustrated by the industry's failure to study its customer base. "I=
once had an argument with one of my publishers when I said, 'I've been
publishing with you for a long time and you still don't know who buys my=
books,' and he said, 'Well, nobody in publishing knows that,' " says Mr.=
Turow, president of the Authors Guild. "If you can find out that a book =
is
too long and you've got to be more rigorous in cutting, personally I'd
love to get the information."
Others worry that a data-driven approach could hinder the kinds of
creative risks that produce great literature. "The thing about a book is=
that it can be eccentric, it can be the length it needs to be, and that =
is
something the reader shouldn't have anything to do with," says Jonathan
Galassi, president and publisher of Farrar, Straus & Giroux. "We're not
going to shorten 'War and Peace' because someone didn't finish it."
Publishers are only just beginning to mull over the potential uses for
e-reading data. Many are skeptical that analytics can aid in the
industry's ongoing battle to woo consumers who are increasingly distract=
ed
by games and social media. But at a time when traditional publishers are=
losing ground to tech giants like Amazon and Apple, better analytics see=
m
to offer tantalizing possibilities.
Amazon, in particular, has an advantage in this field=E2=80=94it's both =
a retailer
and a publisher, which puts the company in a unique position to use the
data it gathers on its customers' reading habits. It's no secret that
Amazon and other digital book retailers track and store consumer
information detailing what books are purchased and read. Kindle users si=
gn
an agreement granting the company permission to store information from t=
he
device=E2=80=94including the last page you've read, plus your bookmarks,=
highlights, notes and annotations=E2=80=94in its data servers.
Amazon can identify which passages of digital books are popular with
readers, and shares some of this data publicly on its website through
features such as its "most highlighted passages" list. Readers digitally=
"highlight" selections using a button on the Kindle; they can also opt t=
o
see the lines commonly highlighted by other readers as they read a book.=
Amazon aggregates these selections to see what gets underlined the most.=
Topping the list is the line from the "Hunger Games" trilogy. It is
followed by the opening sentence of "Pride and Prejudice."
"We think of it as the collective intelligence of all the people reading=
on Kindle," says Amazon spokeswoman Kinley Pearsall.
Some privacy watchdogs argue that e-book users should be protected from
having their digital reading habits recorded. "There's a societal ideal
that what you read is nobody else's business," says Cindy Cohn, legal
director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit group that
advocates for consumer rights and privacy. "Right now, there's no way fo=
r
you to tell Amazon, I want to buy your books, but I don't want you to
track what I'm reading."
Amazon declined to comment on how it analyzes and uses the Kindle data i=
t
gathers.
EFF has pressed for legislation to prevent digital book retailers from
handing over information about individuals' reading habits as evidence t=
o
law enforcement agencies without a court's approval. Earlier this year,
California instituted the "reader privacy act," which makes it more
difficult for law-enforcement groups to gain access to consumers' digita=
l
reading records. Under the new law, agencies must get a court order befo=
re
they can require digital booksellers to turn over information revealing
which books their customers have browsed, purchased, read and underlined=
.
The American Civil Liberties Union and EFF, which partnered with Google
and other organizations to push for the legislation, are now seeking to
enact similar laws in other states.
Bruce Schneier, a cyber-security expert and author, worries that readers=
may steer clear of digital books on sensitive subjects such as health,
sexuality and security=E2=80=94including his own works=E2=80=94out of fe=
ar that their
reading is being tracked. "There are a gazillion things that we read tha=
t
we want to read in private," Mr. Schneier says.
There are some 40 million e-readers and 65 million tablets in use in the=
U.S., according to analysts at Forrester Research. In the first quarter =
of
2012, e-books generated $282 million in sales, compared to $230 million
for print, the Association of American Publishers recently found.
Meanwhile, the shift to digital books has fueled an arms race among
digital start-ups seeking to cash in on the massive pool of data collect=
ed
by e-reading devices and reading apps. New e-reading services, which all=
ow
readers to purchase and store books in a digital library and read them o=
n
different devices, have some of the most sophisticated reader tracking
software. The digital reading platform Copia, which has 50,000
subscribers, collects detailed demographic and reading data=E2=80=94incl=
uding the
age, gender and school affiliation of people who bought particular title=
s,
as well as how many times the books were downloaded, opened and read=E2=80=
=94and
shares its findings with publishers. Copia aggregates the data, so that
individual users aren't identifiable, and shares that information with
publishers that request it.
Kobo, which makes digital reading devices and operates an e-reading
service that stocks 2.5 million books and has more than eight million
users, has recently started looking at how readers as a whole engage wit=
h
particular books and genres. The company tracks how many hours readers
spend on particular titles and how far they get. Kobo recently found, fo=
r
example, that most readers who started George R.R. Martin's fantasy nove=
l
"A Dance With Dragons" finished the book, and spent an average of 20 hou=
rs
reading it, a relatively fast read for a 1,040-page novel.