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Jellybooks

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
Chart near the top pretty much says it all:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/b...ml?utm_source=nextdraft&utm_medium=email&_r=0

While e-books retailers like Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble can collect troves of data on their customers’ reading behavior, publishers and writers are still in the dark about what actually happens when readers pick up a book. Do most people devour it in a single sitting, or do half of readers give up after Chapter 2? Are women over 50 more likely to finish the book than young men? Which passages do they highlight, and which do they skip?

Mr. Rhomberg’s company is offering publishers the tantalizing prospect of peering over readers’ shoulders. Jellybooks tracks reading behavior the same way Netflix knows what shows you binge-watch and Spotify knows what songs you skip.

Here is how it works: the company gives free e-books to a group of readers, often before publication. Rather than asking readers to write a review, it tells them to click on a link embedded in the e-book that will upload all the information that the device has recorded. The information shows Jellybooks when people read and for how long, how far they get in a book and how quickly they read, among other details. It resembles how Amazon and Apple, by looking at data stored in e-reading devices and apps, can see how often books are opened and how far into a book readers get.

Fits in with me, to an extent:

If I think a book is worth buying - or checking out of the library - I will usually read at least the first few chapters. Unless its a very good book that grips my attention, I'll go and do other stuff. If its a 'passable' book, I'll read a few more chapters later. Not so good books...I might make a try, but unless something clicks, that's it.
 
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Geo

Troubadour
I also think that is important to consider that many don't read books in the same way if we have gone to the bookstore choose one and then brought it home (full of intentions and expectations) than if we are browsing around in KU and found something on the free for you that seems it could be interesting.
In the first case we are invested in whatever book we have chosen, in the second case looking around cost us little and it's easier (regret free) not to keep reading.
There are couple of studies that show that we don't have the same habits when reading on a screen than we reading on paper. People tend to abandon difficult passages (boring/hard to read/not essential to the main story) much often when reading on a screen than when reading in paper.
So, it is possible that not all the information collected from e-books readers is directly translatable into the paper-publishing world. Nonetheless, I found the article interesting.
 
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