Anatomy of Book Discovery: A Case Study

It's no secret that discovery—how, when, and where readers "discover" the books they choose to buy and read—remains a top priority for everyone in publishing. 카지노싸이트 is uniquely positioned to provide this information with our deep pool of 317 million books cataloged. In the past six months, we've done a lot of research into how readers find books, and we've presented our findings at several conferences, including and, most recently, the International Digital Publishing Forum.

One of the major takeaways of our research is that book discovery happens in a multitude of ways, and there is no single magic bullet that will work for every book. But that doesn't mean there aren't best practices. Here is a case study of how one book reached the promised land of the New York Times best-seller list: 카지노싸이트 Author 's nonfiction book, .


Stats for The Power of Habit on 카지노싸이트.

Where on 카지노싸이트 did people discover The Power of Habit? The above graph shows what part of the site readers were browsing when they added the book. A few months before publication, most people found The Power of Habit through an advance copy giveaway (note the three spikes corresponding with the giveaway dates). Pre-publication giveaways hope to generate early buzz and seed the book page with a good number of reviews, which are crucial in helping future readers decide to add the book. The orange section of the graph shows people who added the book after seeing one of their friends add it. Notice how this starts to swell as more and more people search for the book. This is the word-of-mouth excitement that publishers and authors covet.

The Power of Habit was published on February 28, and around that time people really began searching for the book in earnest (see the red section of the graph). These people likely saw the book in a bookstore or saw it mentioned in a newspaper review or blog post, and they came to 카지노싸이트 to find out more. The next graph zooms in on what happened after the publication date:


Stats for The Power of Habit from the publication date on.

All of this early activity earned the book some editorial attention: Our newsletter editors featured it as a (the green area shows 카지노싸이트 members who found it in the newsletter). Duhigg was also interviewed on in early March. Notice how the media attention attracted more search and friend traffic as well.

In middle March, The Power of Habit gained enough early reviews to land in our registration path, where we feature a list of all-time favorites and newer popular books. This led to a whole new wave of people discovering the book through 카지노싸이트. Notice how the blue portion helps sustain interest in the book after the initial media attention has faded.

At this point, the 카지노싸이트 advertising team noticed that the book was a top trending title on the site and reached out to the publisher. Random House decided to pour more fuel on the fire in the form of an advertising campaign, including a sponsored poll (the brown portion of the graph). Not only did the ad produce the largest spike of people adding the book to their shelves, but it also bumped the book to a new level of popularity, plateauing at more books added per day than prior to the ad campaign.

Obviously, many things have to fall into place for a book to be a best-seller. The timing must be right, and certainly it helps if the book is thought-provoking and well-written. But several things are abundantly clear:

• Readers discover books in a number of different ways. All these elements of discovery work together and amplify each other over time.


• It pays to start early. Random House ran three different giveaways to generate advance reviews, which resulted in both 카지노싸이트 editorial coverage and a placement in the 카지노싸이트 recommendation engine.


• Well-timed ads are crucial. The ad campaign, while not timed to the publication date, provided a nice boost at just the right moment, feeding the energy the publicity and marketing efforts had created earlier in the book's life.


• Word of mouth is the foundation. The red and orange areas represent people hearing about the book somewhere other than 카지노싸이트 or hearing about it from their friends on 카지노싸이트. Notice how those two areas are present throughout the life of the book. They mirror the bigger moments in the book's promotion, spiking during the media mentions and the advertising campaign, but they are always there providing that "buzz" that gives a book staying power.

For more insights into how books are discovered online, be sure to watch the full presentation from the 2012 International Digital Publishing Forum below.

Happy reading!
Otis, Kyusik, and Patrick