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How much do we know about digital books and digital book reading?
My worry is that we don’t know much - and that Amazon knows almost everything.
This is not a complaint about privacy. I’m not overly worried that Amazon knows everything about my book searching, buying, and reading behaviors. (Should I be?)
Rather, I’m worried that the vast trove of digital book-related data that Amazon is sitting on is doing nothing to advance knowledge.
The shift from a print-only to a shared print/digital ecosystem is the most important development in books since the invention of mechanical movable type.
We know very little, however, about the contours of digital reading - as these data remain closely guarded business assets of Amazon.
The fact that Amazon has a near monopoly on digital books is a reality that deserves our attention. From what I’ve been able to find by Googling, Amazon controls about 75% of the US e-book market. (This percentage seems low to me - do you have better data). Audiobooks, a $1.5 billion business and the fastest segment of the digital book market, is on the consumer side completely dominated by Amazon’s Audible.com subsidiary. (Does anyone know the Audible audiobook market share?)
We don’t know what digital book analytics that Amazon collects, but we can make some guesses:
Book Searching and Buying: I don’t know about you, but I spend hours on Amazon.com and Audible.com searching for books to buy. Amazon has detailed data on how we browse, search, and ultimately choose to buy (or not) the digital books that we read.
Reading Behaviors: I read e-books on a Kindle Oasis and the Kindle iOS app, and listen to audiobooks on either the Kindle app (for Whispersync books) or the iOS Audible app. My assumption is that Amazon has detailed data on what, when, how - and maybe where - that I read.
Reader Data: Since I buy my digital books from Amazon, and read my digital books on Amazon devices and apps, then Amazon can correlate by book behavior with everything else that the company knows about me. And Amazon no doubt knows an awful lot. All of my other purchasing behaviors on Amazon, combined with what the company knows from other info such as address history and credit information, adds up to a rich profile in which to predict (and drive) purchasing choice.
Imagine all the data that Amazon has on my book searching, buying and reading behavior - and then aggregate those data across every single person who has every purchased a digital book from Amazon or read a digital book on an Amazon platform.
Amazon is in position to understand the dynamics of the books and reading in a way that different from any other company, library, bookseller, or any other entity.
My question is - does Amazon have some responsibility to share these data?
Can we make an argument that with the benefits of a digital book monopoly comes some responsibilities?
What would need to happen for Amazon to agree to share what data they collect about books and reading?
Can we push for Amazon creating anonymized datasets around digital books and digital book reading that could be made available for analysis?
Does Amazon employ social scientists who might be willing to engage and collaborate with academic researchers?
Is research into digital books and book reading an issue that is a priority for academic librarians - and are academic librarians making any progress in finding ways to engage with Amazon?
What would incentivize Amazon, if anything, to engage in this conversation?
Should we be asking similar questions - and making similar asks - around print books?
Can we make the case that there is a legitimate (even pressing) scholarly need to understand behaviors around digital books and digital reading - and that to do this research we are dependent on Amazon?
Is there any chance that someone from Amazon will read this post - and get in touch?
