To any who read the article about epublishing and its viability, this is
an important follow up.
"I've been looking at the Author Earnings Excel spreadsheets (the 'raw
data') for the last few days...
"(I) care about how data are collected, analyzed, and reported, and this
report doesn't pass my smell test for reliability and validity. As a
political scientist trained in both political science and sociological
methods, I've conducted qualitative and quantitative studies and I've
hand-built and analyzed a quantitative dataset comprised of over 3000
observations. I've also taught research design and methods at the
university undergraduate and graduate levels.
"My concerns aren't about math or statistics (there is very little of
either being used here). My concerns are about (1) how the data were
selected; (2) inferences from one data point to a trend (you literally
cannot do this); and (3) inferences about author behavior that are drawn
entirely from data about book sales. I would be less concerned if the
authors of the report showed more awareness of the limitations of the
data. Instead they go the other way and make claims that the data cannot
possibly support."
http://dearauthor.com/ebooks/how-not-to-lie-with-statistics/
Peace,
Katherine
