Data

While predicting the future is fraught with peril, there seems a fairly clear consensus about where the research community would like to see things go. Our efforts these days are focused on broadening access to the research literature and research results, and toward improving their quality, through better transparency and reproducibility. Academia is a notoriously…

Imagine classrooms outfitted with cameras that run constantly, capturing each child's every facial expression, fidget, and social interaction, every day, all year long. Then imagine on the ceilings of those rooms infrared cameras, documenting the objects that every student touches throughout the day, and microphones, recording every word that each person utters. Picture now the…

Data enables book publishers to connect with their readers in deeper and more meaningful ways — and sometimes, interact for the very first time. As digital exchanges between publishers and readers increase, data insights culled from those interactions continue to emerge and make a significant impact on how book publishers operate. Publishers are using data…

In 2015 many book publishers devoted significant resources to direct-to-consumer marketing and sales. These efforts went beyond social media and email marketing and led to the creation of dedicated platforms that engage and entertain readers as well as sell books. Simon & Schuster launched pop culture site Glommable, which offers book recommendations alongside articles covering…

As 2015 comes to a close, it’s time to identify new business opportunities and technology that will lead to a profitable new year. Will greater data intelligence enable book publishers to grow the book market? Will D2C sales and improved discoverability help publishers connect with their readers and develop loyal fans? Will publishers use digital…

The unwillingness of English-speaking readers to engage with fiction in translation has come in for its fair share of criticism over the years, not least from the director of the Edinburgh book festival, Nick Barley, who described the UK’s parochial reading habits as “something of an embarrassment” this summer. Help, however, might be at hand…

Playster, which announced in October that it would be coming to the U.S. this year, has officially launched its multimedia subscription platform for U.S. users. The service offers unlimited access to content including books, audiobooks, video games, music, movies, and TV shows. Playster is making a big push to enter the U.S. market, offering users…

“We operate in a world where there is an enormous amount of data available, and while this is good for building relationships with customers and for direct sales, there is a risk. We should be aware that there are those who want to access our data. These cyber attacks are sophisticated and we have to…

Trajectory’s mission is two-fold, says co-founder and chief content officer Scott Beatty. “The Trajectory mantra is ‘Be Available -- Everywhere. Be Discoverable.’” The startup is achieving that mission through global distribution partnerships with thousands of book retailers and distributors and through its algorithms, which analyze the semantics of a book and relate it to other…

More than a quarter of Americans have not cracked open a book—either print or digital—in the past year, a figure that has risen to 28% in 2015 compared to 21% in 2011, a new survey found. But Americans overall are still fairly well-read, averaging 12 books per year, or a book per month, a Pew…