Publishers' Dilemma: Judge A Book By Its Data Or Trust The Editor's Gut

  

Publishers' Dilemma: Judge A Book By Its Data Or Trust The Editor's Gut?                  

  

            

 

Sophisticated ways of tracking reading habits give publishers hard data that reveals the kinds of books people want to read. But a veteran editor says numbers only go so far in telling the story. Kathy Willens/AP                                                 

           

Sophisticated ways of tracking reading habits give publishers hard data that reveals the kinds of books people want to read. But a veteran editor says numbers only go so far in telling the story.

Kathy Willens/AP 

                   

Publishing is a notoriously risky business.

A publishing house might give a first-time author a six-figure deal, only to see the book flop. It's always been hard to predict what will sell. Now publishers are getting some help from data that tells them how readers read — and that makes some people nervous.

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