What Book Publishers Can Glean From Reading Behavior Data

Before the emergence of the ebook, data about in-book reading behavior was not easily available to publishers. With ereaders and reading apps, though, reading habits can be captured and analyzed on a large scale, tracking how quickly readers complete books and where they lose interest. Yet few publishers are using this behavioral data to inform their decision making. "Reading behavior data is probably actionable in some business models, and it might actually be actionable for us," says Jim Hanas director of audience development at HarperCollins, "But we're not there yet." Dan Lubart, SVP of strategy and publishing operations at Hachette, agrees, "I'm interested in that data. I think there are ways that I could use that if I had a better pool of data to work with, but it's not something I'm involved with yet."