Summary of “enough Already, It’s Time We Decriminalize Prostitution”

Rhetorical Analysis: “Your E-Book is Reading You” by Alexandria Alter

        Alexandria Alter’s article published in the New York Times Journal ‘Your E-Book is Reading You’ explains the way publishers and authors are now able to gather data based on the information your E-Reader is collecting (without you even noticing)

        When a consumer purchases a Kindle e-reader he or she signs a digital agreement when they set up their account. The agreement grants Amazon permission to store the information from the device. The stored information can include anything the reader is doing on the e-book; the last page you were on; how fast you read; what sections you bookmark; and where you have highlighted sentences or made notes in the margins. All of this data is stored on Amazon’s servers and saved for future use.

        Authors are finally receiving feedback they were never capable of getting. Until now the only feedback an author or publisher would get would be reviews (both online and offline) and the book sale reports. If you were selling lots of books, you were doing a good job. Now authors are able to see more, they are able to see what age groups are buying their books, even if they immediately purchase the sequel upon fishing the first book. This new way of collecting data is a game changer for authors and publishers in today’s world.

Like TV, publishers now have the ability to “field test” books before printing ten thousand copies and distributing them across the globe to have them sit on the shelves. Publishers have recently started releasing some books as e-books first before releasing they go ahead and release the paperback version. This gives the publisher the opportunity to see who is buying the book and if they are even reading the entire book before moving onto something new.

        The data that has been collects from the e-readers will start to put pressure on the authors from their publishers to produce more streamline books. If they are able to pin point exactly what the audience wants then the publisher is going to expect the author(s) to publish exactly what the numbers are showing.

        Although the data being collected is amazing for publishers, some “privacy watchdogs” believe e-book readers should be protected from having their digital habits recorded. Until now reading has been classified as a private activity. We live in a world where technology tracks our every move and people should have a way to keep reading private. Some experts are concerned that with the lack of privacy consumers will steer away from reading certain genres of book, or even no longer read books that could affect their health out of the fear that what they are reading is being tracked.