5 ms·

I'm just trying to imagine how a book like Catcher in the Rye, Finnegans Wake, or To Kill a Mockingbird would have been changed if it were subjected to these so

I'm just trying to imagine how a book like Catcher in the Rye, Finnegans Wake, or To Kill a Mockingbird would have been changed if it were subjected to these sort of analytics by its publisher. I can easily see future books being edited and re-written from edition to edition (not that "edition" will continue to have any meaning) in response to analytics on reader behavior. 30% of readers failing to finish a book, and dropping off near the same place? Let's rewrite that chapter to keep people turning the pages. Lots of people highlighting a controversial passage, then not buying any more books from that author? Tone it down, smooth out the "problem areas." A surprising number of young women reading a particular book? Let's "pink it up" and throw in some romantic subplots that tested well in focus groups. How about embedding some multimedia into the book, and some product placement while we're at it? Literature will survive this latest attempt to measure the creativity right out of an industry. Good movies still make it on the indie circuit despite the focus-grouped blockbusters, good games still get made by small shops. I just can't help but feel a tinge of sadness as I watch books and literature get consumed by obsessive measurement and cold-blooded analytics.

jameslevy 14y ago
Jayson, thanks for your feedback. You raise an important issue. A huge proportion of the eBooks downloaded are educational, trade, and reference. Cookbooks, for example, are incredibly popular and these "cold-blood analytics" can be very practical for determining what content is working and what content is not engaging readers. It gets more tricky when it comes to literary fiction. But I think it's safe to say that measurement and creativity aren't mutually exclusive. Measuring something in and of itself doesn't compel you to make changes. But it would be interesting for us to do some research by getting into an edition of a classic text and seeing what types of changes our analytics would suggest making. This would mostly be an exercise in figuring out how to improve our analytics, rather than taking it at face-value that a classic text should be edited based on some data points.
krickle 14y ago
I feel your pain, but look at it this way; there were plenty of crap books before this idea as well, the silver lining is maybe having more enticing crap books will eventually lead people down the path to good literature.

jameslevy 14y ago

Jayson, thanks for your feedback. You raise an important issue. A huge proportion of the eBooks downloaded are educational, trade, and reference. Cookbooks, for example, are incredibly popular and these "cold-blood analytics" can be very practical for determining what content is working and what content is not engaging readers. It gets more tricky when it comes to literary fiction. But I think it's safe to say that measurement and creativity aren't mutually exclusive. Measuring something in and of itself doesn't compel you to make changes. But it would be interesting for us to do some research by getting into an edition of a classic text and seeing what types of changes our analytics would suggest making. This would mostly be an exercise in figuring out how to improve our analytics, rather than taking it at face-value that a classic text should be edited based on some data points.

krickle 14y ago

I feel your pain, but look at it this way; there were plenty of crap books before this idea as well, the silver lining is maybe having more enticing crap books will eventually lead people down the path to good literature.