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Helping to Change the World…Word by Word

The Steve Laube Agency

The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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Home » Technology

Technology

The Mystery of Book Data

By Dan Balowon August 25, 2022
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The book-publishing market has an element of mystery to it, and not only in the category of books called mysteries.

Many things are not as scientific as you might think.

Prominent book-bestseller lists are based on data from a sampling of booksellers, rather than comprehensive information outputs from all channels.

Industry-status reports from publishing trade associations use a similar sampling approach and not a comprehensive list of all data. Industry trends are estimates.

Over the last couple of decades, more and more publishers rely on Bookscan data as a source of information to make decisions. Now owned by the global company NPD, headquartered in Port Washington, New York, they provide weekly data updates from a broad spectrum of bookselling channels. Access is by paid subscription only, but many free reports and insights are distributed regularly. Click here.

Still, only the author and their publisher really know how many copies of a book sold. Author purchases are only tracked by the author and publisher. The same applies to sales to organizations and most international exports.

This is why every sales milestone (“100,000 Sold!”) for a book is really based on taking the author or publisher’s word for it. A book that sells 100,000 copies might actually be a combination of physical books, digital copies, export sales, audio downloads, nonretail sales, and author purchases.

Even the number of books published every year across the country and world are educated guesses. The closest estimates are usually gathered by counting ISBNs used from R.R. Bowker, the private company that is the official source of ISBNs for publishing in the US.

Compared to many other businesses or industries, some of the transparent data on books is a relatively new thing. A couple of decades ago, it was far more mysterious than it is today. But still, there are significant areas of publishing that remain hidden from the public. Hence, once again, only a publisher and author know how many copies a book actually sold.

A book published by any type of organization for their constituency will never find itself on a bestseller list but might sell substantial quantities.

Purchases by the author will never be reported to the media or the data-tracking services like Bookscan.

Years ago, a large church that had a bookstore began reporting its sales data to bestseller lists. Since most all of the sales of the pastor’s books were in one store, it was considered ineligible for reporting on national bestseller lists, even though the sales volume would have been sufficient to make a good showing.

National bestseller lists are national bestsellers, meaning sales must be broad and not in one or only a few locales, so the pastor’s books were excluded. It’s one of the many reasons bestseller lists have editors, ensuring the list portrays helpful information, reflecting trends in book buying.

Publishing used to be substantially more intuitive than it is today. These days, the data available to publishers and authors combines with intuition to make more informed and better decisions.

At least that’s the theory!

 

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Category: Book Business, Technology, The Publishing Life

The Pressure Is On

By Dan Balowon July 28, 2021
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For anyone creating material in any media, pressure is high, not only to gain users but to keep users. Just because someone subscribes or buys what you create doesn’t mean they are using it. I’ve seen several studies indicating for an average book only 60% that are purchased are ever opened. Let that statistic sink in. And since dedicated e-book devices and smartphones are two-way communicators, …

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Category: Book Business, Technology, The Publishing Life, The Writing Life

A Prayer of Thanks for Writing Tools

By Bob Hostetleron November 25, 2020
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For fountain pens and India ink, Legal pads and time to think, Olivetti, Underwood, Selectric, Typewriters both manual and electric, Typing paper, carbon paper, Correction ribbon and Liquid Paper, Dictionaries and thesauri, Keyboards, touchpads, countless styli, Strunk and White and Zinsser too, Staples, tape, and Elmer’s Glue, Desktops, laptops, iPads, printers, Modems, faxes, scanners, …

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Category: Personal, Technology, Theology

Check Your Email ID

By Steve Laubeon September 21, 2020
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When you receive an email from someone, the “from” column in your inbox indicates who sent it. In that column is the person’s email ID. Seems simple right? You might not realize is that your email address may not be the ID that is seen by your recipient. The ID you have for your email address can be changed and is handled in the settings within your email program. So What Steve? Let me list a few …

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Category: Technology, The Writing Life

Old School Tools Rule (Sometimes)

By Bob Hostetleron August 5, 2020
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I use modern technology a lot. Some digital tools make the writing life a whole lot easier, from word processing’s track changes to email and Dropbox and voice dictation and more. But I still cling to a few old-school tools that newer technologies haven’t replaced. Here are three I have found irreplaceably beneficial. The Bring-Up File An analog tool that has helped me make the most of my time and …

Read moreOld School Tools Rule (Sometimes)
Category: Technology, The Writing LifeTag: organization, Research

Be a Luddite, Not a Lunkhead

By Bob Hostetleron May 20, 2020
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I recently read a letter to the editor in a writers magazine in which an aspiring writer of advanced years bemoaned those publishers who accept only electronic submissions (via email or website). “Surely I am not the only soul who still works with a typewriter,” the correspondent wrote. “Possibly it’s because I’m eighty-eight, but don’t accuse me of being completely out of touch.” Well, no. Not …

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Category: Book Proposals, Technology, The Writing Life

Do You Have a Backup Plan?

By Steve Laubeon May 11, 2020
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by Steve Laube

The question is not if your hard drive will fail, it is a question of when. At least twice a year I have a client who has lost their hard drive to equipment failure. There was a recent story of an editor at Wired magazine who got hacked via a security hole in his Amazon and Apple accounts. He not only lost data, he lost all the digital pictures of his baby girl. He wrote the …

Read moreDo You Have a Backup Plan?
Category: Book Business, Book Business, TechnologyTag: Backup, Technology

Alternatives to Using Comments As You Write

By Bob Hostetleron November 6, 2019
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In my blog post on this site last week, I shared the practices of a number of my wonderful clients who have found the word-processing comments feature useful, not only during the editorial process but even as they write (see that post here). But others take a different tack, for various reasons, as you’ll see in their comments about comments below: I do not use tracking for notes when I write. …

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Category: Technology, The Writing Life

Making Comments As You Write

By Bob Hostetleron October 30, 2019
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Today’s writers enjoy some advantages that weren’t available to scribes in the past. One of those is the ability in word-processing programs to track changes and add comments to a document. This is especially helpful during the editorial process. But some writers use that functionality as they write. So I asked my clients if they do anything like that. Here’s what some said: I use the Comment …

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Category: Technology, The Writing Life

You Need a Backup Strategy

By Bob Hostetleron August 28, 2019
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Years ago, I was writing on deadline (when am I not?). My work-in-progress was about sixty percent complete when my computer screen went blank. At first, I blamed it on my son. Even when he was in grade school, he was better with computers than I was. He knew it. I knew it. And one day when I fired up my computer for a full day of writing, the startup screen appeared and then disappeared. Shut …

Read moreYou Need a Backup Strategy
Category: Technology, The Writing Life
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