In publishing, you can either work to create demand for a supply of books you've already published, or you can work to create supply to match a demand that's already there. The latter is always your best option, it's just not always easy to judge what people are demanding. Unless, that is, you have web statistics.

Thanks to web statistics services built into almost every web host (or available for free thanks to Google Analytics) you can not only track what pages people visit on your site and in what quantity, but also what search terms they used to find you. And if you have pages devoted to books that you might publish (like, say, Hol's project book pages) then people searching for those books or topics will find you and by doing so, signal their interest -- their demand.

Since launching whatishol.com last year, two books have consistently and undeniably ranked as the most sought after -- Three Picassos Before Breakfast and Painting as a Pastime.

Three Picassos Before Breakfast is by Anne Marie Stein and it chronicles her life with infamous art forger David Stein. Painting as a Pastime is a short collection of observations on artistic practice by former British Prime Minister and dedicated amateur painter, Winston Churchill. Both books are out of print (though Painting as a Pastime is available as part of a somewhat-available larger volume on Churchill's life and art) and both are listed as possible Hol project books for republication. So, if you want to publish a book that readers already want, I might suggest you look no further.