Marketing through E-Books

In her newspaper article “Your E-Book is Reading You”, Alexandra Alter uses an informal tone to grab the reader’s attention. Alter informs the reader of the new methods used to improve book sales and customer reading experiences. She demonstrates that major book publishers are capable of tracking reading habits including how much of the book is read, and how long they read for. The data also indicates that readers use methods of reading depending on the genre of the book. Once Alter provides the information regarding what publishers are capable of, she points out the negative aspects of the data collection including the loss of creativity and privacy. While Alter does address the negative aspects of data collection, the primary focus of the article is the positive aspects of having reader data. The research she includes comprises mainly of statistics and quotes from book publishers. Through her use of style, tone and research, Alter successfully convinces the reader that the act of habit analysis by publishers is in the reader’s best interests.

Initially, Alter sets up her article in a style that appeals to the reader. Throughout the essay, she jumps back and forth between expository and persuasive tones. The main purpose of this article is to inform the reader; however, she also includes the use of pathos to get the reader emotionally involved. In her opening paragraph she appeals to the reader’s emotions by stating “Nearly 18,000 Kindle readers have highlighted the same line from the second book in the series” (Alter). At this point, the reader realizes that publishers are observing their reading habits. Immediately following this, she calms the reader down by explaining the background reasoning behind why publishers are following readers’ habits. This leads in to the main body of the article, which reveals the facts. In the body of