Decision-making, market logic and the rating mindset: Negotiating BookScan in the field of US trade publishing

Abstract

How do cultural intermediaries mediate the introduction of new technologies which may challenge the legitimacy of their daily decision-making practices? Using the case of acquisition editors in the US trade publishing industry and the release of BookScan, the first point-of-sale data service for US book publishers, this work highlights the adoption of market-driven data into practices which traditionally have relied on editors’ dispositions, intuitions and aesthetic sensibilities. The findings highlight ways in which acquisition editors integrate BookScan data into their daily work within publishing firms, as well the creative ways in which they use BookScan’s legitimacy to pursue projects of their choosing. Ten years after the introduction of BookScan, while the data service cannot be ignored, acquisition editors navigate its application, protecting both their cultural capital as ‘arbiters of taste’ within publishing firms and their ability to promote works they deem to be of cultural value or import.