Reader Privacy vs. Data Collection and Other Thoughts
By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I’m not sure what the grocery shopping is like internationally, but here your data gets tracked if you use loyalty cards. And loyalty cards get you special discounts with the grocer so many of us grudgingly use them.
After checking out, sometimes a small printer at the register prints out coupons that the computer inside thinks you will use. Maybe the coupons are for a similar, competing, item to something you’ve purchased. Maybe it’s for some of the same products you’ve just bought, as a thank-you or to hook you to purchase more the next time you’re there. And then there are puzzling coupons—like the one for an antacid that printed out for me on Saturday. We don’t purchase antacids there. So…was the computer making a judgment regarding the spicy contents of my grocery cart?
This ties into something I’ve been reading a good deal about lately—data collection. Although readers may be dismayed at the idea of any potential data collection by retailers or publishers, it’s definitely already happening. Amazon makes recommendations based on our purchasing histories, for example. If we haven’t unchecked various sharing mechanisms in our Kindles, whenever we highlight a passage, that is public, too.
There was a recent article on Digital Book World by Andrew Rhomberg, “Should Authors and Publishers Spy on Readers?” It mentioned a software application that can be implanted into digital books via EPUB3 to track reader behavior—if the reader reviewed the book, mentioned it on social media, etc. Rhomberg, who is the founder and CEO of startup Jellybooks, calls it “…akin to a Google Analytics for ebooks.”
My husband is in computer security and absolutely loathes the way consumers are being mined for data (obviously, valuable data to these companies and with no compensation to the consumers…and, in my husband’s opinion, at a tremendous cost to personal privacy.) I do see where he is coming from. But—in some ways, data would certainly help. The article mentioned knowing when a reader stopped reading a book. Sure—that could be useful to a writer, moving forward.
Could we get that data, though, just as well in an upfront way? From a reader review? From our beta readers before even publishing the book (surely a more useful, proactive approach)? And isn’t it extremely intrusive to get this information from an unknowing audience…although just as intrusive as data collection from Facebook and other sites? From the computer that decided that I needed an antacid to go with the food in my grocery cart? Although…I know about the data collection at the grocery store–if I choose to, I can avoid shopping there. I gave the store tacit consent to the process by applying for a loyalty card. This other type of data collection is invisible to readers and without their consent. Maybe we wouldn’t be so data-hungry if Amazon would just throw us a sop in regards to purchasing data. What do you think?
Other thoughts, odds and ends:
Wattpad: I’m still enjoying the community here. What’s more, I’ve had readers mention that they’re purchasing my other books (which is the only way I’d know this information). One big thing…it doesn’t pay to be shy on this site. Having our story featured is key to reads on the platform. We don’t have to wait to have Wattpad consider our stories for their featured section. Contact those content specialists if your story fits their requirements (strong plot, minimal spelling/grammatical errors, appealing cover, etc.) For more information on Wattpad’s requirements and for their contact info, visit their help center.
ACX: This audiobook platform for self-publishers remains an excellent, passive income producer for me. I use the royalty share feature so that I sustain no upfront costs. I think it does help get good-quality narrators if we can secure a stipend for the narrators from ACX. The stipends work like advances for the narrators. For this reason, I’ve learned to launch the audiobooks a bit later than the other formats in order to show sales history and reviews to ACX before contacting them about possible narrator stipends. For more information about stipends, visit this help page.
Print copies: Remember to keep some of our self-published books on hand. The author cost to me on CreateSpace is something like $3.50, which is hardly a huge investment. No need for closets-full of books, but maybe at least five of each title if we have a lot of titles. I was caught red-faced at a recent library event when I didn’t have any Myrtle Clover books with me. All I had were lots of Penguin books.
I think these are enough random musings from me this week. :) What are some of yours? Anything you find surprising or interesting that you’ve come across? Anything working for you, promo-wise, lately?
Image: Death to the Stock Photo
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