The digital publisher Podium Audio has acquired Bookstat, the data subscription service that tracks online book purchases in physical, e-book, and audiobook formats. Bookstat evolved out of founder and CEO Paul Abbassi’s Authors Earnings Report, which scraped online sales platforms to determine e-book sales. Abbassi, an industry consultant originally known as "Data Guy," then added the capability to track online sales of print titles and digital audiobooks.
Acknowledging that the purchase is a bit of an odd one for a publisher, CEO Scott Dickey explained that Podium is “a data-driven company at its core,” and that it has used Bookstat over the last three years to help it to quickly identify trends, particularly for works by independent authors, which are an area of focus for the publisher. Using Bookstat, Dickey continued, has allowed Podium to find “trending IP (intellectual property) in real time.”
Dickey said Podium will operate Bookstat as a separate business line, and that the company will continue to be led by Abbassi. With the acquisition, Dickey promised to provide new funding take Bookstat “to the next level. Each year we have used Bookstat is has gotten better and better and we want to continue that trend.”
In addition to providing new investment, Podium will hire account managers to help grow the business, Dickey said. He sees the international market as a particular area of growth, both in terms of adding new clients and in developing new markets to expand the service’s data-gathering capabilities.
Dickey said he has been in touch with many of Bookstat’s customers, which include both retailers and publishers, to discuss the deal and to ensure them that all privacy protections will remain in place. “Our goal is to improve the overall quality of the service,” he said.
In a prepared statement, Abbassi said he is “thrilled to be partnering with the entire Podium team for the next exciting chapter in Bookstat’s evolution, which gives us even more room to expand and accelerate the platform for both existing customers and new ones.”
