The dark lesson of a $24 million Amazon book

This is what happens when algorithms call the shots. I can still recall my surprise when a book by evolutionary biologist Peter Lawrence entitled The Making of a Fly came to be priced on Amazon at $23,698,655.93 (plus $3.99 shipping). While my colleagues around the world must have become rather depressed that an academic book could achieve such a feat, the steep price was actually the result of algorithms feeding off each other and spiraling out of control. It turns out, it wasn’t just sales staff being creative: Algorithms were calling the shots.Read Full Story Continue reading at 'Fast Company'

[ Fast Company | 2019-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #academic book #steep price #sales staff

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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2018-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2018-04-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2018-03-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Engadget | 2018-03-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-03-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Engadget | 2018-02-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2018-02-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2017-10-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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