Will Tracking Readers Lead to Better Books?

By Dianna Dilworth 

scribdThe New York Times has a story this week examining the rise of eBook services that track reader behavior. According to the story, one benefit of being able to track readers is that publishers and authors can better understand how these readers respond to stories and, in turn, produce books that are more in tune with what readers want.

Here is more from The Times‘ story:

The move to exploit reading data is one aspect of how consumer analytics is making its way into every corner of the culture. Amazon and Barnes & Noble already collect vast amounts of information from their e-readers but keep it proprietary. Now the start-ups — which also include Entitle, a North Carolina-based company — are hoping to profit by telling all.

“We’re going to be pretty open about sharing this data so people can use it to publish better books,” said Trip Adler, Scribd’s chief executive.

Do you think that tracking readers will lead to better books?