You are special. Well, at least your mother thinks so. And marketers think so, too. But only in the context of other “special” people who are just like you.

A new book, The Numerati, by Business Week writer Stephen Baker, is based on the idea that we can all be identified by some sort of equation and that online marketers (aka The Numerati) are out there tracking down the variables and plugging them in to figure out exactly what we need and think we need. What you eat, what music you listen to, whether or not you sucked your thumb as a kid. You are quantifiable.

But is there an equation that can determine the books you like? And is it different depending on which books you will buy vs. which books you will actually read? (How many of us don’t have unread books on our shelves at home?)

With yesterday’s news of an expected downturn at Barnes & Noble from head Len Riggio and the drop in consumer spending in general, the pressure to generate book sales is on. But does that mean creating books for specific groups of people? Or finding the people who might read the books we are publishing after we’ve already decided to publish them? Which comes first? The chicken or the egg? The book or the reader?

Sarah

Photo courtesy of nertzy