Could An Overdependence on Data Hurt The Book Industry?
Publishers also recognize that there are limits to what sales or reading behavior data can tell them, and at a certain point, artistic instinct becomes invaluable. In certain sectors data's predictive power holds less pull. "If you are talking about finding the next health guru that sells a million copies, there is a lot of data that can help you back that up," Heather Fain, SVP and director of marketing strategy at Hachette, says. On the other hand, deciding whether or not a certain theme in fiction will resonate with readers or whether readers will identify with a certain author's writing style is one with which data offers significantly less assistance. "Fiction...is one of the places where our role as tastemakers for the industry really comes into play," Fain explains.
- Companies:
- Hachette Book Group
- HarperCollins
- People:
- Caleb Mason