Quote:
Originally Posted by Cinisajoy
Fjtorres,
I have a question. I noticed you mentioned print runs. Only one problem with your theory. Most people I know that buy the hardcovers do not buy the e-book so how would knowing how far an ebook is read be any indication of how far a hardcover is read?
Also Amazon has this technology or a similar program because the reader can sync between devices.
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eBook buyers these days aren't all that demographically different from pbook buyers. Not in the US and not in the UK.
Smaller undeveloped markets (dominated by techies and hobbyists) yes but not in those two.
So, what applies to ebooks can be taken as a proxy for the larger market.
The biggest difference is going to be in pbook gifting where people buy trendy books as a gift (usually in the holiday season) but that practice is declining and being replaced by gift cards.
And yes, amazon (and Kobo) track reader behavior.
But they don't pass it on.
They use it for the reader's benefit.
Even in KU, where authors are now paid by rental pages read, they only report the gross total of read pages. Reader data is not a product Amazon sells.
This is.
As Nate Hoffelder of the Digital Reader blog often points out, in the online world if you're not the customer you're the product.
If you're going to be both, you should do it knowingly.
So far, the candy.js script has only been deployed for product testing with full user consent. I have no problem with that. Live and let die and all that.
My interest is knowing which platforms the tech works on because technology is ethically neutral. The same tech that is openly used for product testing can be used for less ethical purposes. And where money is at stake whatever can happen probably *will* happen.
Knowing how it works and where it happens helps me know if I'm being exploited or not and decide if I'll play along or walk away.