Review: Analytics Book Out of Date but Still Relevant
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 15, 2014
I read Tom Corson-Knowles’ guide to insights on how to use analytics, the science of logical analysis, to sell more books. I was initially disappointed because although his “bible” is just over a year old, it’s already out of date. Disregard everything he suggests in the first few chapters on how to embed third-party links on Amazon to understand your customers. Amazon has since changed its permissions on Kindle Digital Publishing and Author Central to disallow the kind of third-party tracking Corson-Knowles recommends. It’s futile to try (as of February 2014). Do yourself a favor and avoid hours of headaches trying to make it work. For this reason, my initial conclusion was to give the book a one-star rating until the author updates his book or Amazon allows embedded third-party links again.As I read further, I discovered some valuable insights on book analytics that, ironically, could be applied through other sales channels than Amazon. The author offers some good advice on the general use of analytics that may be applicable to other e-bookstores and your own website and e-books. I haven’t tried it yet and don’t have any specific suggestions but am convinced that the author’s recommendations are still applicable beyond Amazon’s ecosystem. The book merits a five-star rating for this alone.Because Corson-Knowles’ guide is out of date but has some general points that are still valid, I split the difference and gave it three stars. There may be other, better books on using analytics to sell books. If this guide is free or less than a dollar, it’s still a worthwhile read as long as you avoid the headache of trying to do what it says to do.