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Reader Analyticsthere is a story behind every book

presented by

Andrew Rhomberg

@arhomberg @jellybooks

©Antonio Roselló

Part I

Why care?©Li Dandan

The Unknown Reader…

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Despite the digital

transformation of the

publishing industry,

authors & publisher

still cannot measure

reader engagement!

Do consumers read

the books they buy?

It doesn‘t really matter, does it?

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If readers buy and pay for

books (revenue) does it

matter if they read them

or not (engagement)?

Ah, but are you as author

selling bit & bytes or

• entertainment,

• inspiration, and

• self-improvement?©Frederic Bordoni

One Killer Reason: why you should care!

Readers who don’t finish

a book are 10x – 100x

less likely to recommend

a book to friends, family,

colleagues or tweet, like

and snapchat it…

@Jellybooks @arhomberg5

Engineering

Virality

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Discover

Sample

BuyRead

Share

Part II

How to Collect Reading Data?

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Amazon, Apple & Google collect

vast amounts of reading app/device data,

but don‘t share this with publishers. @Jellybooks @arhomberg

“Google Analytics for Ebooks”

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1. Modified ebook (ePub3 format) distributed to users,

who read on their existing reading device or app

2. Embedded Javascript software tracks (offline) reading

3. Readers click on button at end of chapter/end of

ebook to upload/sync data to Jellybooks

4. Data Visualisation for Author/Agent/Publisher

Readers use familiar Apps

Participating readers can use reading apps and

devices they are already familiar with:

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iBooks

iOS

ADE

Windows

Ebook Reader

Android

@Jellybooks @arhomberg

Data Collection from 3rd Party Apps

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iBooks Vitalsource Adobe

Digital

Editions

Ebook

Reader

Mantano Azardi Overdrive Bluefire

Cloud-

reader

iOS���� ���� ���� - ���� - ���� ����

Android- ���� ���� ���� ���� ���� ���� -

Kindle Fire- ���� - - - - - -

Windows- ���� ���� - - - ���� -

@Jellybooks @arhomberg

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3

=

HTML 5 + CSS 3 + JSA key feature of ePub 3 is the support for Javascript,

as well as HTML5 support for offline storage of data.

... and the data connection?

Engage readers!

When the reader clicks on a

link at end of chapter/book

(styled as a button), a data

connection with Jellybooks is

established = user opt-in

13@Jellybooks @arhomberg

Part III

Focus Groups

ePub Modification by Jellybooks

• We receive a regular ePub 3

file from author or publisher

• We modify it with candy.js to

record reading data

• We automatically insert sync

buttons to extract data

• We make sure user is aware

of the modification via

identifiers like “candy stripe”

15@Jellybooks @arhomberg

Test Reading Campaign Page

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Survey Follow-up

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not finishedfinished

Part IV

Visualising Data

KPIs of a Book

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1. Completion Rate

how many readers finish?

2. Velocity

fast read or slow read?

3. Recommendation factor

do readers rave or rant?

and more…

KPI – 1

Completion Rate

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0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

F

F

F

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

26

28

B

B

Displayed like Table of Contents

Each horizontal bar = completion

rate for a particular chapter

narrative

front- and back matter

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Completion Rateb

oo

k

cha

pte

rs

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Completion rate – Example0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

F

1

5

9

13

17

21

25

29

33

37

41

45

49

53

57

61

65

69

73

B

A lot of “flipping” (jumping between

chapters), which is typical of book titles

readers find “have to read” but that

don’t hold their attention…

Rapid decline of reader

engagement in first 100

pages

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Completion Rate - Example 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

F

1

3

5

7

9

11

13

15

17

19

21

23

25

27

29

31

33

35

B

B

B

20% drop off

within first 5

chapters - “not

my kind of book”

80% finish book,

straight through

24CR: 80% excellent CR: 62% very good

Completion Rate – Examples0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

F

1

3

5

7

9

11

13

15

17

19

21

23

25

27

29

31

33

35

B

B

B

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

F

1

3

5

7

9

11

13

15

17

19

21

23

25

27

29

31

33

B

25

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

F

F

1

3

5

7

9

11

13

15

17

19

B

B

CR: 30% good CR: 20% poor

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

F

F

F

1

3

5

7

9

11

13

15

17

19

21

23

25

27

B

B

B

Completion Rate – Examples

Completion Rate

• Does the book keep reader’s attention?

• Rate is measured as percentage relative to those who start reading

• Unlike ratings (subjective), this is an observational KPI

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KPI - 2

Velocity

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Example A – Easy & Fast Read

28The majority of users read this ebook on a smartphone

female, 27 female, 25 female, 48

Example B - Slow & Difficult Read

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male, 26

@Jellybooks @arhomberg

Velocity

• Measure of whether

readers glued to the pages

• Are readers coming back

daily/hourly or are they

distracted by other books,

movies, social media etc.?

• Measure of how

“digestible” content is for

readers.30

KPI - 3

Recommendation Factor

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Would you recommend this book

to a friend?

0 = not all likely 5 = neutral 10 = Extremely likely

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Recommendation

Factor=

Promoters (%)(9s and 10s)

Detractors (%)(0 through 6s)

-

@Jellybooks @arhomberg

Book Candy for Readers

Data Candy for Authors

brought to you by @arhomberg from @Jellybooks