Article: "Reader Analytics from Jellybooks: Crunching the Numbers to Improve Book Marketing and Sales"

[Quantum]

Who is Jellybooks?

They research consumer reading behavior, and that research is typically paid for by publishers. While companies like Amazon and Apple can track reader usage and data, that data isn’t typically shared with publishers. So Jellybooks gathers willing readers and secures their permission to collect and report on their anonymized reading data to publishers.

Note: The following are only excerpts; the article (the link to it is at the bottom of this post) contains much more worthwhile reading.

Earlier this month, Jellybooks announced they would focus exclusively on reader analytics... Andrew Rhomberg, founder of Jellybooks, says they can answer questions such as:

* Does the book have a high word-of-mouth potential?
* What are the optimal cover, title, and description for a book?
* Is the audience a narrow, loyal niche—or a broad, less-committed mass-market audience?

It's interesting that the aforementioned are the top 3 questions.

The article is a short Q&A that is well worth reading. An example of one such Q&A item is:

Can you share a story from any recent projects that resulted in a key marketing takeaway or insight?

Well, I stated that reader analytics is not an editorial tool, but there is one thing we have noticed when using reader analytics: a lousy ending that is too abrupt and leaves people hanging or wondering, “Why is this ending now?” This has a very negative effect on the recommendation factor for a book. Readers want some level of closure. Authors should avoid being too clever with cliff hangers. The last 10 or 20 pages really need to seal the deal.

(https://janefriedman.com/reader-analy...)

Thoughts?

[Marie Silk]

Well...the customer is always right :D. However, I think when you reduce reader enjoyment to a science, you might lose some of the magic that could have been.

Some readers have complained that my book ends abruptly. I have to look at overall enjoyment to decide whether that is a an issue that should be changed, or a legitimate way to lead into the next book. I try to provide a decent level of closure in the ending of my series books. They do tend to end abruptly. I see it as more of a strategy to keep interest in what happens next. The final installment to my series is the only one that has an epilogue. I enjoyed the extra closure on that one and I hope readers do too.

[Ian]

I think the three questions are spot on, with one reservation - the word of mouth potential has to be for the people likely to purchase. The big problem I see for me anyway is my potential readers might be numerous (I hope so) but they may not talk to others about this sort of thing. I guess that relates to the third question - not only what is mentioned, but also do they aggregate or are they dispersed? If the latter, word of mouth may be more difficult.

I agree completely about endings. Even series such as trilogies should have an ending in each book that suggests closure of something.

[Quantum]

Ian wrote: "I think the three questions are spot on, with one reservation - the word of mouth potential has to be for the people likely to purchase. The big problem I see for me anyway is my potential readers ..."

Agreed. and how do you measure word-of-mouth marketing potential? The article didn't provide any description of that oh-so very important metric. i mean what are the components of word-of-mouth. i think you, Ian, took one step in that direction: "word of mouth potential has to be for the people likely to purchase" and "do they aggregate," which leads to the question where do they aggregate? well, i can say with some certainty: not in GR author groups.

other than here, i hang out mainly in Horror Aficionados, Girls, Guns, and Grimoires--and some Japanese Literature, Japanese Novel and Light Novel. I recently found some quite small groups that might be interesting: Books & Boba (Asian American Lit) and Yokai Library (Japanese supernatural).

[Ian]

The problem with GR is we tend to be talking to other authors. (If there are a lot of readers somewhere, please identify yourselves 😀)

[Quantum]

Ian wrote: "The problem with GR is we tend to be talking to other authors. (If there are a lot of readers somewhere, please identify yourselves 😀)"

those other groups that I noted are full of readers not authors. Also, the Sword and Laser and Scifi and Fantasy Book Club, which might be more applicable to you.

[Ian]

Might try that out, Alex. Thanks.